Why Looking After Your Signs Matters More Than You Think

We were happy to replace this one!

A Customer Enquiry About Replacing a Safety Sign

A customer recently got in touch about replacing a safety sign. On the face of it, that’s fairly routine, signs don’t last forever. But when they sent over a photo, it really made me stop and look.

The sign was still there, still technically doing its job, but it was completely covered in tree sap and algae. It honestly looked like it had been left behind by a previous tenant about 15 years ago, the kind of sign you walk past without even registering anymore.

What Happens When Signs Aren’t Maintained

And that’s what got me thinking about a conversation I had with a customer a couple of years ago. She’d ordered a sign for her business, we supplied it, she was happy, all good.

Around three years later, she came back to us asking for a complete replacement. The sign didn’t look too dissimilar to the one above, but it had also started to deteriorate. The surface had gone very brown, the graphics were no longer particularly legible, and it was exactly the sort of damage you see when signs are exposed to chemicals.

She showed me photos of the sign in situ, it was on a road at the end of a muddy lane, with regular farm vehicle traffic passing it every day.

I asked her if she’d ever cleaned it.

The answer was no.

I explained that regular cleaning makes a huge difference, especially in rural environments. Removing spray residue, washing off mud, and clearing algae from nearby trees and hedges will massively extend the life of a sign.

That’s when I realised I was fighting a losing battle.

“I shouldn’t have to clean it,” she said. “It shouldn’t look like that after only three years.”

We went round in circles for a while, until I asked her what her car might look like if she didn’t clean that for three years, worse still, if it was parked at the end of that same muddy lane, unwashed, for three years.

That’s when it started to sink in.

Unloved signs are seen as unused signs

The problem is that when a sign looks neglected, people stop trusting the message on it. An unloved sign is often read as an unused sign, as if the information doesn’t count anymore.

Take this Fire Assembly Point sign. The information on it is massively important, and I can’t overstate that enough. It’s about protecting lives and making sure people know exactly where to go in the event of an emergency. And yet, this sign looks like it’s been quietly ignored for years.

And while we’re here…

I think I’ll expand on this further, because it still amazes me what’s out there. We regularly see safety signs being sold online using Comic Sans or other “creative” fonts because they look a bit more friendly than standard BS safety signage.

Trust me, they’re out there!

But safety signage isn’t the place to get creative, it’s about clarity, legibility and instant understanding. There’s a reason British Standards exist, and it’s not to stifle creativity, it’s to make sure people can read and understand critical information quickly, especially in stressful situations.

Regular Sign Maintenance Extends Sign Lifespan

To summarise then... looking after your signs:

• Keeps important information clear and credible

• Ensures safety messages are taken seriously

• Extends the lifespan of the sign

• Saves the cost of unnecessary replacements

If nothing else, looking after your signage saves money. But more importantly, it makes sure that the information you’ve chosen to display is actually seen, read and trusted.

If a sign matters enough to put it up in the first place, it matters enough to look after... as my old boss used to say "The sign of a good business is a good sign"

Jack Cleaning a Sign Outside Mobad