RESTAURANTS & BARS

LARGE-FORMAT PRINTING FOR RESTAURANTS AND BARS

Bring in customers with high-impact, customized restaurant and bar signage from the print experts at SpeedPro.

Make the prints on your walls, windows and floors standout as much as what you serve on your plates. Custom restaurant and bar signage from SpeedPro serves up the next chapter in your business’ branding and gives customers’ eyes something to feast on every time they step foot through your doors.

WHY USE CUSTOM SIGNAGE IN MY BAR OR RESTAURANT?

Custom Signage Allows Food Industry Establishments To Spice Up Their Aesthetics

Custom signage allows food industry establishments to spice up their aesthetics just as they spice up their dishes. Successfully doing so means establishing a brand identity, or what customers think and feel when they hear your restaurant’s name. Brand identity quickly becomes synonymous with customer expectations. When you support an end-to-end dining experience filled with great food, great visuals and a great experiential atmosphere, you exceed every guest’s expectations, meal after meal.

In short, restaurants and bars need custom signage to:

  • Design a memorable space.
  • Hone a distinct brand identity.
  • Complement the food, beverages and atmosphere inside.
  • Draw in new patrons.
  • Keep people coming back for more.

SIGNAGE FOR RESTAURANTS AND BARS

SpeedPro’s nationwide network of large-format printing studios can assist restaurants and bars in creating more than a dozen types of custom signs.

1. RESTAURANT AND BAR WALL MURALS

Custom murals take plain, conventional walls and turn them into a bold canvas. You get the benefit of using every inch available in your restaurant for improved branding, while patrons get the benefit of an immersive space that enhances their dining experience. These wall murals can be used indoors or outdoors to craft a particular aesthetic for your establishment. Additionally, exterior wall murals can be great advertising material, drawing in foot traffic and those driving by.

SpeedPro wall murals are printed on easily-installable vinyl panels, minimizing creases and seams. Mural images are high-resolution, allowing restaurants to blow up actual photographs as well as use custom-created icons, pictures or images. SpeedPro can provide mural lamination treatments to walls as well, protecting your custom image from scratches, stains and wear.

2. BAR AND RESTAURANT NAME SIGNS

Feature your restaurant’s name in big, bold graphics custom-made for the food industry. SpeedPro works with restaurants, coffee shops, bars, bakeries and more to create mounted, hanging or street-adjacent name signage that’ll attract and engage passing customers. We use a range of durable base media, from cast vinyl, foam-core and gatorboard to plexiglass, PVC and more to craft your custom restaurant building sign.

3. BAR AND RESTAURANT LIGHTED SIGNS

Backlit graphics utilize LED lights, frames and easily exchangeable overlays to create eye-catching displays for any business. You can also use backlighting to make any fabric displays throughout your office more vibrant. For example, you might have standing banners in your reception area that could be lit to attract more attention.

4. FOOD TRUCK AND DELIVERY CAR WRAPS

Food Truck Revenue Has Increased By Over 300 percent since 2016 commercial van wrap for Cinnabon

Restaurants and bars can join the mobile food revolution with customized vehicle wraps for their own food trucks or delivery cars. By spinning off smaller craft menus featuring specialty items, food trucks can expand your restaurant’s reach while doubling as a 24/7, on-the-road, mobile marketing magnet.

5. CUSTOM SIGNAGE FOR BAR AND RESTAURANT INTERIORS

Indoor signage should complement the signs on your storefront. Together, they create the custom restaurant signage that becomes your establishment’s fingerprints. Custom indoor signage can be humorous or refined, ornate or minimalist. They can tell stories, hint at recipes or relay interesting information about the cuisine and foodie culture.

As a full-service printer, SpeedPro can provide custom signage graphics for bar and restaurant interiors. Select from dozens of customizable templates and features to make restaurant graphics immersive, experiential and ultimately on-brand.

6. ADA-COMPLIANT RESTAURANT BUILDING SIGNS

Restaurants and bars must adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act’s building accessibility ordinances. Minimizing the patron frustrations and even inclusivity issues that stem from inaccessible public buildings, ADA signage requirements span food industry establishments like cafes, bars and coffee shops

Bars and restaurants can show effort and attention to detail with ADA signage printed by the experts at SpeedPro. Our studios are fluent in ADA signage laws and how they translate into sign design, plus which sign types must be installed in and around your restaurant to remain compliant. This includes directional signage and restroom identifiers down to “Employees Only” signs mounted in standard written English and Braille.

Take the worry of full ADA regulation off your shoulders. SpeedPro can help.

7. CUSTOM RESTAURANT TABLE TOPPERS

The furniture selected for your restaurant is essential to its overall ambiance. It’s no surprise, then, that what goes on that furniture should carry brand impact, too. Custom restaurant tabletoppers are fabric materials and decorations adorning your dining room surfaces. Lightweight and portable, style your table-toppers to complement other restaurant decorations, lending your space a thoughtful final touch.

SpeedPro creates personalized table runners, stretch and fitted coverings and printed placement displays. You can also employ tabletoppers for functional purposes too, listing specialty menu items, a cocktail or craft beer of the month, bar special events like trivia or karaoke nights, and much, much more.

8. RESTAURANT AND BAR WINDOW DECALS

Select from individual stickers bearing on-brand foodie images and cafe logos to full-windowpane covering decals altering the look and feel of your space. Restaurant window decals can be one or two-sided, showcasing pictures of food and drinks to those passing by on the street as well as filtering outside lighting. What’s more, full and partial panel decals add privacy to restaurants or bars adjacent to busy sidewalks. Patrons sitting near windows will no longer feel like fish in a glass bowl.

9. SANDWICH BOARD/A-FRAME SIDEWALK MENUS

A-frame sandwich boards are classic marketing material for restaurants and bars. Promote happy hours, recommend soups and sandwich du jours, showcase chef’s specials and advertise specialty events happening at your establishment — all by crafting creative messages on this flexible outdoor sign.

Sandwich boards work great in any outdoor menu display applications. SpeedPro studios can fabricate a-frames that are waterproof and weatherable, using UV-resistant inks for text and images. When properly cared for, sandwich board menus can last years and be placed precisely when and where you need them, attracting continual restaurant traffic.

10. RESTAURANT AND BAR DIGITAL SIGNAGE

Digital signage brings classic sign surfaces to the modern age. Most commonly, you’ll see restaurants and cafes install digital signs above registers to showcase menu items right where customers order. Yet they work just as well outdoors as in. Specialty fabric iPad displays can include menu touchscreens for patrons to peruse at their own pace as well as show scrolling messages about the food and drinks waiting inside.

SpeedPro can assist in creating digital food industry signage with proper lighting, multiple display modes and even customized text effects.

11. WE’RE OPEN SIGNAGE

Had to shut down for a little while? Opening up a new restaurant? You’ll need to let people know that you’re open for business and ready to serve. “We’re open” signage is all about making your community aware of your presence and drumming up interest in your restaurant.

Large-format corporate sign graphics mounted on the side of your building or on top of it to attract attention. Banners and flags are also popular options since they’re very eye-catching and can be removed easily once you’ve drummed up enough attention for your business.

12. DIRECTIONAL SIGNAGE

Interior directional signs help diners navigate their way to the bar, restroom or dining area. They can also designate specialty areas by blocking off rooms for VIP parties or other special events.

These signs come in several forms, such as a-frame signs that rest outside of the restaurant with graphics pointing people towards the entrance or restaurant window signs that contain important information about your hours.

13. PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNAGE

To keep your staff and customers safe, use signage to keep seating at an appropriate distance and reduce the chances that diners have to come in contact with anyone else. Other popular types of signage designed for public health crises include curbside pick up signstemperature check signsacrylic shields and delivery graphics.

Design-Tips-for-Restaurant-and-Bar-Signs

DESIGN TIPS FOR RESTAURANT AND BAR SIGNS

Make yourself the most memorable restaurant and bar in the neighborhood by following these food industry signage tips and tricks:

1. BIGGER IS BETTER

Bigger Is Better with window graphic example of flowers

Stand-out signs are ones people see. From a wall-to-wall custom mural to an awning-installed backlit graphic to a towering, pole-mounted street side name sign, you want your restaurant graphics to catch eyes and turn heads.

  • Install signs above eye levels: This ensures the greatest possible sign radius for walking or driving customers to spot.
  • Avoid visual obstacles: Trees, nearby buildings and even cars parked tightly on the street can impede restaurant sign visibility. Signage might be stationed high enough, but if their views are obstructed, they won’t do anyone any good.
  • Add creative embellishments: Bright backlighting, branded color schemes, high background-to-text contrast and digital components can make signs appear even bigger and bolder.

2. WORK YOUR ANGLES

Running your neighborhood’s corner bar? Coffee shop perched on the second floor of a shared building? No problem! Irregular building angles and placements are your friends when it comes to large-format graphics placements — just so long as they remain unobstructed. Use corners, awnings, edges and walls to your advantage, finding creative ways for signage to work with, not fight against, your actual structure. The results will be more natural and more standout visuals tied to your business.

3. LIGHT IT UP

Custom illuminated graphics are trending for a reason. Signs with LED bulbs or neon fixtures pop in direct sunlight, behind protective glass windows and even out in the elements. Plus, few sign customizations will transform a sign at night as much as LED installations.

Backlit signs don’t have the high operating costs many assume, either. In fact, the average LED bulb uses 75 percent less energy and lasts 25 times longer than their incandescent cousins. Your restaurant’s electricity bills — and your sales — will thank you.

4. KNOW YOUR COMPETITION

Before finalizing custom signage for your bar or restaurant, consider surveying the competitions’ signs. What color schemes or graphics stand out best? Where do other restaurants install their name signs — awning mounted, wall mounted or atop tall, attention-grabbing signage poles right next to the road? Do signs contain images or graphics? What about their choice in sign wording?

When you know what food industry competitors are doing, you can craft truly one-of-a-kind yet professionally relevant large-format signage. In other words, you can zig while they zag — then watch as customers respond.

5. DON’T NEGLECT THE ENTIRE STOREFRONT

Signage for bars and restaurants lets patrons know more than your name. Exterior signs convey personality, call attention to your food and drinks and set the pace for the atmosphere inside. Yet high-quality signs can only do so much if the rest of your storefront looks bland, miskept or unprofessional.

Large-format printing lets you spruce up the entirety of your building’s appearance:

6. BE SUCCINCT

Yes, bigger and bolder signs capture more attention. Overly wordy signage will lose it.

The average viewer spends only a few seconds reviewing outdoor advertisements. For large-format graphics placed near roads to attract drivers, viewing times are further complicated.

As an industry rule of thumb, graphics designers advise sticking to four to eight words on outdoor signage and visual graphics. Indoor restaurant murals, decals and messages can, however, run longer if they remain consistent with the overall atmosphere.

7. STAY ON BRAND

All the large-format graphics and images will be part of your establishment’s overall visual communication strategy. That means each piece — from table coverings with your restaurant’s stitched logo to a full-blown mural adorning the back wall of your bar — adds to your business’ personality and how customers perceive you.

You can strategize the most cohesive, on-brand printed materials for your bar or restaurant through the following:

  • Compatible color schemes: On-brand color palettes include three to five shades you use consistently in restaurant signs, artwork, furniture, menus and more. Compatible color schemes are especially important if you’re part of a franchise or looking to expand.
  • Consistent animations and photography: Similar to selecting a core color scheme for your bar or restaurant, opt to pick a feature photography or animation style. Use that style across your print and digital large-format graphics, furthering your unmistakable brand visuals.
  • Consistent fonts: Restaurants and bars should have one to two signature fonts used across all text materials, from menus to vehicle wraps down to restaurant logos.

8. ELICIT A RESPONSE

Finally, large-format printing should be action-oriented and experiential. Use window graphics, signage and even tabletop materials to ask questions, provide suggestions or lend patrons reassurance — that is, create two-way moments between your graphics and your patrons. The food industry’s options to elicit a direct consumer response are limitless but include:

  • A window graphics with a delicious looking plate of food with large lettering beneath asking, “Hungry?”
  • A wall mural of friends clinking together drinks with the accompanying text, “Who’s getting the next round?”
  • A business person stepping out, briefcase in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other: “Your morning commute just got better.”

Use the spirit of your restaurant or bar as well as the knowledge of your target patrons to craft these actionable messages. Your large-format print materials will carry more creativity — and more impact — because of it.

BAR AND RESTAURANT SIGN PRINTING PARTNERS NEAR YOU

SpeedPro’s nation-wide network of large-format visual communications studios means a print partner for your bar or restaurant is likely right in your neighborhood.

Find your closest SpeedPro studio to get started on branding your restaurant or bar today.

 Contact SpeedPro for bar and restaurant signage.

SpeedPro Akron North

Studio Owner

Gerald Stout

Hours

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