Creating Content - "A Good Looking Sign"

Even to the untrained eye, one can walk or drive and see an LED digital display with content that actually hurts to look at.  It's unfortunate, because not only is the message not getting communicated; it is actually doing subliminal damage to the company or brand associated. In short, for larger indoor or outdoor displays that use graphics and animation, allocate a content creation budget to be spent over the lifetime of your display.

Tips

1. Consider the background as the key when it comes to a display that uses bright light. For the image, you want to stay away from a white background. This is opposite to print advertising where one relies on reflective light. Use darker backgrounds and the lighter colors should be used for the focal points, text, and outlines. Also know that constantly using white color (highest/hotest) also increases the degradation of the LEDs as well as the power consumption.



2. There is no need for white space since you are not using a white background. Try to use the entire surface and increase the size of your images and text as much as possible.



3. Try to limit the words in your content. Use text with a stroke or a beveled edge to make it stand out even more. Offset the color of the text with the stroke to really make it stand out. When trying to capture people from a distance remember the rule of thumb that 1" of text height is needed for every 30' of viewing distance. So if people will be reading it from 300' away it will require 10" text to be seen.