A Complete Guide to School Signage: Exterior, Interior, ADA & Wayfinding

Building Identification and Entrances

How can we make our school's main entrance easier to identify?

Visible building signage can help guide students, staff, and visitors throughout your school's property. Adding clear signage for different areas of the school helps direct people to the right location.

For example, a Main Entrance sign can help guide visitors during morning bus and student drop-off, while signs identifying the Pool Area or Performing Arts Center can direct parents and guests during weekend meets, performances, and competitions.

What type of exterior signage is best for a school building?

Non-illuminated dimensional lettering is a popular choice for exterior school building signage. Individual letters are available in a variety of colors, materials, and font styles, allowing the signage to complement your school's branding and visual identity.

Monument Signs & Electronic Message Centers

How much does a new school monument sign cost?

The cost of a new school monument sign can vary depending on its size, materials, design, and added features. Signarama Novi & Flint is a fully custom sign shop that has fabricators with years of experience who build our monument signs in-house.

A standard monument sign is a great way to identify your school property, while features such as illumination, dimensional elements, masonry-style bases, or custom shapes can create a more memorable entrance.

Another helpful addition is an EMC (Electronic Message Center), also known as a digital message center. An EMC allows your school to display and update text, announcements, and graphics whenever needed. Our team can work with your school to develop a monument sign that fits your budget, property, and communication needs.

Can an electronic school sign display announcements, events, and emergency messages?

Yes. An electronic message center can display digital images and text through an easy-to-use web-based platform. School staff can quickly update announcements, highlight upcoming events, recognize achievements, or communicate important and emergency messages to students, parents, and the community.

Campus Wayfinding

How can we improve wayfinding across our school campus?

Combining multiple signage options is the key to a successful wayfinding plan. Directional signs that include key location names and arrows will help the flow of traffic throughout that area. Setting these on intersections and cross streets is a great way to mitigate confusion into unauthorized areas by students or visitors.

Parking signs can ensure nobody is parking in the staff lot when they aren't supposed to, and additional Visitor Parking signs will direct them to the spaces that are open for them. With a cohesive wayfinding package design, this visual story helps any visitors know they are still within the district property and on the right track.

Exterior door number signs are also an important part of your school's signage. These numbers entrance and exit points can help emergency services like the Fire Department and Police access the school accurately if needed. Utilizing material like reflective vinyl helps in the visibility of these signs.

ADA & Room Identification

What ADA signs are required in a school?

School's must have ADA-Compliant signs for all permanent rooms, exits, restrooms, stairwells, and accessibility facility features. Some room signs that may be needed would be placed outside of classrooms, main offices, gymnasiums, storage rooms, or kitchens.

Restroom signage must include matching symbols or pictures that coordinate with that room's text, like Men's, Women's, or Unisex. These signs must feature raised characters or tactile text, and braille in order to be compliant.

Can ADA signs incorporate our school colors and branding?

Since our ADA signs are made in our facility, Signarama is able to offer custom colors and branding to match your school's visual identity. This is accomplished through using a sign material that matches a school color and printing the tactile elements on it. Looking for something unique like a wood texture? We can print any background image so your final product looks like a compliant wood panel instead of a standard black and white sign.

Athletics

What types of signage can we add to our football field, gym or athletic complex?

A Gym is the perfect place to showcase student accomplishments; consider adding a record board or showcasing your mascot in an illuminated capsule that will shine and add school spirit. Scoreboards can be wrapped in vinyl to make them match your school colors and branding, and design motifs can be incorporated in large wall vinyl, like wall wraps in the weight room.

What materials work best for outdoor athletic signage?

One sign material often used for outdoor purposes is ACM (Aluminum Composite Material). This material has an aluminum face, comes in multiple thicknesses depending on the structure needed, while being more cost effective and lightweight than thick solid aluminum signs. We can digitally print any artwork on this material and mount other signs to it, like dimensional letters, to make compelling stadium signage.

Wall Graphics & Recognition Displays

Can you create custom wall graphics using our school mascot and branding?

Yes! Custom wall wraps, including the school mascot or sports team, is a fun and easy option to incorporate more school spirit into high traffic spaces. We utilize different wall vinyl materials, including block vinyl, which gives a painted on effect to the block walls usually seen in the structure of schools.

These branding walls can also include dimensional letters and illuminated elements to take them to the next level. Designing a base wall that can be repeated throughout multiple schools on campus is a great way to connect the school's branding while creating a photo opportunity for the students and staff.

How can we create a school history wall?

One of our project managers can come to the location of your planned history wall to survey the area. Having the school collect any photos, important dates, and descriptions they want featured on the wall to provide to our team will ensure this complex design process goes a lot smoother.

Our design team will create some visual concepts to make sure we're in the right direction, then add the school's collateral into the design for a final proof. The history wall elements will be produced in our shop and installed by our team, all in a timely manner so the staff and students can enjoy the final history wall for years to come!

Multiple Buildings / District-Wide Planning

Can a sign company manage signage across an entire school district?

Yes, and we can be that sign company! We have experience creating and installing multiple sign types across the entire district. This isn't just limited to what has been mentioned in this guide; we can also help with facility vehicle wraps and graphics, donor recognition signage, safety film for windows, perforated vinyl, secured entrance coverings, even backdrops and table throws.

Can installations be scheduled around the school calendar or summer break?

Our project managers can coordinate and plan installations to coincide with the school calendar, focusing installations during times when the campus is free of students. Early planning in the Spring (March-May) gives enough time for design approvals and production to take place. Larger projects can be broken up into phases if needed to plan signage roll outs successfully.

Can you survey our campuses and develop a complete signage plan?

Yes, our project managers will be there on site to survey your campus and plan what signage solutions your school needs. If the scope of the signage plan is quite large, check-in meetings can be scheduled to make sure requested materials are being sent in, and deadlines are being met.