What Information Actually Needs to Go on Trade Signage

Most trade signage tries to say too much. The result is a ute door or a corflute board that no one can read from more than two metres away. Here's what to include, what to leave off, and how to prioritise the information that actually matters.

The Three-Second Rule

Someone driving past your vehicle or walking past your job site has about three seconds to take in your signage. In that window, they need to understand three things: who you are, what you do, and how to contact you. If your signage answers all three in three seconds, it's working. If it doesn't, nothing else on there matters.

What Must Be There

Your business name. Obvious, but it needs to be the biggest, most legible element. If people can't read your name from across the road, the rest is irrelevant.

What you do. Not a tagline. Not a slogan. A plain description. "Electrical" or "Plumbing" or "Concreting" or "Residential Painting." One or two words that a stranger can understand immediately. If your business name already communicates this (like "Smith Plumbing"), you can get away with less here.

Phone number. Large enough to read from a moving car. This is the primary action item. Make it big.

What's Worth Including (If Space Allows)

Website or email. Useful but secondary to the phone number. Keep it short - a domain name is better than a full URL. If your email is just info@ your domain, the website covers both.

Licence number. Required by law for some trades (builders, electricians, plumbers) and a trust signal for all others. If you have one, include it - small is fine, as long as it's there.

A short service list. Three to five items maximum, kept to two or three words each. "New Builds / Renovations / Repairs" works. "Comprehensive residential and commercial electrical installations, maintenance, and emergency callout services" does not. Nobody reads a paragraph on the side of a ute.

What to Leave Off

Long service descriptions. If it takes more than a few words, it doesn't belong on signage. Save the detail for your website.

Lengthy taglines. "Your trusted partner in quality electrical solutions for the greater Bendigo region" - no one is reading this at 60km/h. Cut it.

Social media handles (usually). Unless your Instagram is genuinely active and a key business channel, an @handle on your ute is wasted space. A phone number does more work.

Multiple phone numbers. Pick one. An office line and a mobile creates confusion. If you want calls going to different places, set up a redirect.

Layout Priorities

On vehicle signage: business name and logo biggest, trade description below or beside, phone number large at the bottom. The sides tell the story, the rear gives the action (phone number, website).

On corflute site signs: business name at the top, trade at the middle, phone number at the bottom. All text large enough to read from the footpath opposite. That's roughly 6 to 8 metres depending on the street width.

Keep it clean. Keep it big. Let the work speak for itself.

Get in touch and we'll design signage that works at the distances that matter.