Blade Signs
Blade signs are perfect for attracting pedestrian traffic with their perpendicular placement to your building. These eye-catching signs are designed to grab attention and can be customized in various shapes, colors, and lighting options to reflect your brand's personality. Ideal for urban settings and high-traffic areas, blade signs ensure your business stands out and draws in customers with ease.
Why Choose Blade Signs
Blade signs offer high visibility and customizable options, perfect for attracting pedestrian traffic. However, they may not be suitable for buildings with strict signage regulations or limited façade space. In inline shopping centers, we provide under-canopy signs instead.
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Types of Blade Signs
Explore various types of blade signs, from illuminated and non-illuminated to custom-shaped and digital, each designed to enhance your brand's visibility and appeal.
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Designing Blade Signs
Our comprehensive design process ensures your blade sign perfectly aligns with your brand, from initial consultation and concept development to material selection and professional installation.
See the processWhy Should You Choose a Blade Sign?
Choosing a blade sign enhances your business's visibility and attracts pedestrian traffic with its perpendicular placement. These signs stand out from various angles, catching the eye of passersby. Customizable in shapes, colors, and lighting, blade signs reflect your brand's unique personality. They are especially effective in busy urban areas, helping your business to be noticed and remembered.
High Visibility
Blade signs are installed perpendicular to the building, making them visible from a distance and from various angles.
Customizable Design
These signs can be tailored to match your brand's aesthetics with different shapes, colors, and lighting options.
Pedestrian Attraction
Perfect for areas with heavy foot traffic, blade signs naturally draw the attention of passersby.
Brand Presence Boost
Enhances the street-level presence of your business, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
Durability
Made with high-quality materials, blade signs are designed to withstand various weather conditions, ensuring long-lasting performance and minimal maintenance.
Versatility
Suitable for a wide range of businesses and locations, blade signs can be used for retail stores, restaurants, offices, and more, providing a flexible signage solution for different environments.
Types of Blade Signs
Non-Illuminated Blade Signs
Non-illuminated blade signs are a classic and straightforward option for businesses that thrive on natural daylight. These signs are crafted without built-in lighting, making them an economical choice for establishments that operate primarily during daylight hours. Their simplicity doesn't compromise on effectiveness; the clean, bold designs can be customized to reflect your brand's identity, ensuring that your business stands out during the day. These signs are perfect for quaint boutiques, cafes, and shops in well-lit areas where nighttime visibility isn't a priority.
Illuminated Blade Signs
Illuminated blade signs take visibility to the next level with built-in lighting, ensuring your business is noticed even after the sun sets. These signs can feature internal lighting, where the sign itself glows, or external lighting, where spotlights shine on the sign. This type of blade sign is ideal for businesses that operate during evening hours or in areas with high foot traffic at night. The illumination not only enhances visibility but also adds a touch of elegance and professionalism to your storefront. Whether you choose LED lights for energy efficiency or neon for a retro vibe, illuminated blade signs are a brilliant way to light up your brand.
Custom-Shaped Blade Signs
If your brand has a distinctive logo or shape that you want to highlight, custom-shaped blade signs are the way to go. These signs are tailored to match the unique contours and designs that represent your business, adding a personal touch to your storefront. Custom-shaped blade signs are perfect for businesses looking to make a memorable impression. Whether it's a stylized coffee cup for a café or a bespoke emblem for a boutique, these signs provide a creative canvas to showcase your brand's individuality. They can be crafted from a variety of materials and can include lighting to further enhance their impact.
Double-Sided Blade Signs
Double-sided blade signs maximize visibility by displaying your message on both sides of the sign, making it readable from multiple directions. This is particularly beneficial for businesses located on busy streets where pedestrians and vehicles approach from various angles. Double-sided signs ensure that your brand is always in view, no matter which direction potential customers are coming from. These signs can be illuminated or non-illuminated, and can be customized in terms of shape, size, and design to match your brand's aesthetics. They are a versatile option that provides extensive exposure and ensures your business never goes unnoticed.
Designing Blade Signs
Designing a blade sign with National Sign Team involves a comprehensive process to ensure the final product perfectly aligns with your brand's vision. Here's what goes into creating your custom blade sign:
Consultation
At National Sign Team, we begin with a comprehensive consultation to understand your brand, goals, and specific requirements. This phase is crucial for ensuring that your blade sign aligns perfectly with your business identity and marketing objectives. Our team will work closely with you to gather all necessary details, including your brand's aesthetics, target audience, and the message you want to convey.
Concept Development
Once we have a clear understanding of your needs, we move on to concept development. This stage involves creating initial design concepts and detailed drawings that bring your vision to life. Our designers will collaborate with you to discuss various options and refine the designs until they meet your expectations. These drawings serve as the foundation for the final product, ensuring that every detail is meticulously planned and executed.
Material and Lighting Selection
With the design in place, the next step is selecting the right materials and lighting options to match your desired aesthetics and durability needs. We offer a range of high-quality materials that can withstand various weather conditions, ensuring your blade sign remains vibrant and functional for years. Additionally, we help you decide on the best lighting options, whether internal, external, or no lighting, based on your visibility requirements and brand image.
Approval to Installation
After finalizing the design and materials, we proceed to the approval phase, where you review and approve the final design before production begins. Our skilled craftsmen then fabricate your sign with precision and attention to detail. Once the sign is ready, our professional installation team ensures it is safely and securely mounted for optimal visibility. Throughout the process, we maintain clear communication to ensure your complete satisfaction with the final product.
Indoor and Under-Canopy Blade Signs
Blade signs work just as hard inside. In malls, office corridors and medical buildings, a blade sign hung from the ceiling or mounted on a wall bracket tells people which door is yours long before they reach it.
Inline shopping centers are where under-canopy signs earn their place. Your wall sign faces the parking lot, and the covered walkway hides it from everyone already on foot. A blade sign hung under the canopy catches those shoppers as they walk past each storefront.
What changes indoors:
- Flat or dimensional faces, depending on how close people read them
- Ceiling hangers, wall brackets or canopy mounts
- Lit or unlit, matched to the light around it
- Landlord or mall sign criteria, plus electrical permits where the sign is lit
Blade Sign Permits and Clearance
Most cities treat a blade sign as a projecting sign, and projecting signs get more scrutiny than anything flat on a wall. The sign hangs over a sidewalk people walk under, so the rules focus on height, reach and how it's held up.
Here's what the code usually covers:
- Clearance: a minimum height from the sidewalk to the bottom of the sign, often 8 feet or more
- Projection: how far the sign can extend from the building and how close it can get to the curb
- Size: a cap on square footage, sometimes tied to the width of your storefront
- Lighting: whether the sign can be lit, and how
- Right-of-way: a sign over a public sidewalk can need an encroachment permit and proof of insurance
- Structure: the wall and bracket have to carry the sign's weight and wind load, which can mean engineered drawings
Historic districts and shopping centers add their own layer, with design review boards, landlord sign criteria or both. We check the code for every address before the design is final, so the sign you approve is one the city will approve too.
Blade Signs we have installed
Blade Signs Across Every Location
A blade sign that works on one storefront rarely moves to the next one unchanged. One city caps projection, another wants more clearance, a landlord wants a different bracket, and an old brick facade can't take the same anchors as new construction.
We start from one approved design and adapt it site by site, so every location gets a sign that's permitted for its street and still looks like the same brand. One named project manager runs the whole rollout. See how our multi-site signage programs work, or how we handle signage project management from survey to completion photos.
For a quote, send us:
- The address of each location
- Photos of each storefront, straight on and from the sidewalk
- Your logo files and any brand standards
- Whether you want it lit
- Landlord sign criteria, if you have them
We'll come back with a design, a per-site cost breakdown and the permitting picture for each address.
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Blade Sign FAQs
What is a blade sign?
A blade sign mounts perpendicular to your building and projects out over the sidewalk, so people walking toward your door can read it from either direction. You'll also hear them called projecting signs.
Do blade signs need a permit?
Almost always. Most cities regulate them as projecting signs, with rules on clearance above the sidewalk, how far the sign extends, its size and its lighting. A sign over a public sidewalk can also need an encroachment permit. We check the code for each address before the design is final.
Can blade signs be illuminated?
Yes. They can be lit from inside, with LEDs behind the face or in the letters, or from outside with fixtures aimed at the sign. Non-illuminated blade signs suit daytime businesses and districts that limit lighting.
Can blade signs be used indoors?
Yes. Indoor blade signs are common in malls, office corridors and medical buildings, hung from the ceiling or mounted on a wall bracket. Under-canopy blade signs do the same job in inline shopping centers, where a covered walkway hides the wall sign from people on foot.
How big should a blade sign be?
It depends on what your city allows, what your facade can support and how far away people need to read it. Code usually sets the limit, and the storefront and sight lines decide the rest. We size it during design, using the site survey.
How much does a blade sign cost?
Size, lighting, materials, mounting and permitting all move the price, and permitting can vary a lot from one address to the next. Send us your locations and storefront photos and we'll come back with a per-site cost breakdown.
How long does a blade sign take?
Permitting usually decides it. Design and production run on a predictable schedule, while permit review can take a couple of weeks in one city and much longer in another. Once we know which jurisdictions we're working in, we'll give you a timeline for each location.
Do you install blade signs nationwide?
Yes. National Sign Team works in all 50 states, on single storefronts and multi-location programs, from the site survey and permitting through installation and completion photos.