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Focus Graphics

Measuring a shop board

The board size is what the layout gets built on, so the measurement comes before anything is drawn.

  1. 01

    Start with the frontage

    Take the width and the height of the area the board will actually sit on. A name set comfortably across a wide frontage has to be arranged differently on a narrow one, and that is a drawing decision rather than a matter of scaling something up or down.

  2. 02

    Photograph the frontage

    A photograph settles the size faster than a measurement on its own, because it shows the board in the place it has to work. Bring it on your phone. It is worth more at this stage than a design idea is.

  3. 03

    Bring whatever the shop already uses

    An old board, a visiting card, a bill head. Anything the business is already putting its name on tells the studio what has to carry across, and the design can be drawn from there rather than started from nothing.

  4. 04

    Decide it once, with the rest of the name

    If the shop is opening or changing its name, the board is one piece of a set that includes the logo, the cards and the letterhead. Drawn in one sitting, the colours and the weight of the name are settled a single time instead of five separate times.

  5. 05

    Then the quote

    The board is quoted in writing once the size is known. For new clients and for large orders, the quote shows a 50% advance. Boards are made in the same building they are drawn in, and collected from the studio.

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Ready when you are

Send what you have and the studio will tell you what is still missing before quoting.

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