Easy ways to improve your LED sign animations.
You’ve heard the expression, garbage in and garbage out, right? It applies to most everything in life. When it comes to LED sign animation, it certainly applies. An LED display is an amazing marketing tool. However, it can only be as good as the content it displays. Businesses often do their homework when buying a new sign. Having a quality LED sign that can render great color, maintain high brightness, with great contrast is important. Those are technical requirements that any savvy sign buyer would be wise to pay attention to when purchasing a sign.
LED signs today are capable of amazing graphics.
Having a sign with exceptional hardware is just the start. A cutting edge LED sign with poorly designed content or animations can only appear to the viewer as, well, a poor looking display. Getting the most out of your sign requires the use of effectively designed content. That involves using sign content designed specifically for your screen type.
Case in point, the following comparison illustrates how typical sign content creators fall short in their content design. You can also check out this short video to see the difference professional led sign animation can make.
Use well-designed sign graphics to communicate more than words ever could.
People make lasting judgments about the content they see. And it happens within the first couple seconds. When dealing with outdoor media you are competing with a myriad of other distractions vying for your viewer’s attention. Within seconds you need to do your best to tell your story. This means, communicate your brand, illustrate the value of what you have to offer, and get them to act. The motion, color choice, and graphics are your tools to achieve this. When executed in the right manner you greatly increase the odds that message is received.
If you are going to tackle the task of designing your own sign content, I recommend the following tips. This advice will help you get more out of your sign. You can be a better communicator by designing better-looking content.
3 keys to improving your sign content design.
- View time. Consider the actual amount of time your viewer has to view your display. Messages designed for outdoor content should be short and to the point. Many content designers make the mistake of making their sign messages too long. Sitting undistracted at a computer desk designing an ad for a sign gives you a false sense of how much time you actually have to view it. When displayed in the real environment, the time allowed to take it in is much shorter. With this in mind, I also suggest that you limit your word count on your messages.
- Graphics. You know the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words? Well not only is it true but I like to add that a picture is worth a thousand bucks. Graphics not only get more attention than text, but they have the ability to communicate much more than words can. And graphics can do it in a much shorter time. Using graphics in place of or along with words will increase the attention you get. It will also increase your sign’s ability to communicate more information a fraction of the of the time reading requires.
- Animation. Motion is one of the most effective tools for drawing attention. As humans, we are naturally drawn to motion. When designing ads, the use of motion is extremely effective. Motion and animation allow us to serve up our message and keep that information moving at a speed that allows more it to be received by a viewer than can be shown in a static ad. Here are some great examples.
Review these three tips when designing your next sign ad. You can’t help but get better results.