Sign design · Dallas Fort Worth
Custom Sign Design, From First Concept to Buildable Drawings
We turn your logo and brand colors into a sign that fits your wall, satisfies your landlord and reads from the road, then show it on a photo of your actual building before anything is built. Every design is drawn to be engineered, permitted and fabricated, not just admired.
What does a sign design service include?
Sign design turns your brand into a sign that can actually be built. It covers sizing and layout for your wall or site, material and lighting choices, day and night views, fit within landlord criteria and the local sign code, and renderings placed on a photo of your building. The result is an approved drawing that engineering, permitting and fabrication all work from.
What the service includes
Sign Design, handled end to end.
Brand translation to sign scale
Logos are drawn for screens and business cards. At sign scale, hairline strokes vanish, tight spacing blurs and small taglines become unreadable from the parking lot. We adjust spacing, stroke and lockup within your brand standards so the mark stays unmistakably yours and still reads at a distance.
Sizing for distance and approach
Letter height and overall size follow from how far away and how fast people see the sign: across a parking field, from a frontage road or from the highway. We size to the view first, then check the result against what the fascia, the landlord and the code allow.
Renderings on your actual building
The design is placed on a photograph of your building, scaled from real measurements, so you judge it against your own brick, windows and neighbors. It is the quickest way to catch a sign that looks right on a white page and wrong on the wall.
Day and night studies
An illuminated sign has two identities. We show both: the daytime view, where color and depth carry the design, and the lit view, where brightness, halo and face color take over. Colors that agree in daylight can drift apart after dark, so we check them in both states.
Material and lighting choices
Aluminum or acrylic, painted or brushed finishes, front-lit, halo-lit or non-lit. We recommend the combination that suits your brand, your building and your budget, and explain what each choice changes in price, upkeep and approval.
Landlord criteria and code limits
Tenant sign criteria can fix letter height, color, lighting style and mounting. The city sign code sets its own limits by zoning. We read both before sketching, so the design you fall for is one that can be approved.
Buildable design drawings
The approved design is drawn to scale with dimensions, colors, materials and mounting noted. It is the drawing your landlord reviews, the base of the permit package and the reference the shop works from.
Why it matters
The design decides the cost, the approval and the view from the road.
Most of what a sign costs, and most of what can go wrong with it, is settled on the drawing. A letter set slightly too large for the landlord's criteria goes back for redesign. A color that looks rich on screen turns muddy in lit acrylic. A layout that ignores where power reaches the wall adds electrical work nobody priced.
Designing with engineering, permitting and fabrication in view avoids those detours. Signs Express designs and manufactures under one roof in Carrollton, and the same company that draws your sign builds and installs it. Designs are made knowing how the shop will fabricate them and how the letters will meet the wall.
The payoff is simple: on the night it is switched on, the sign looks the way you approved it.
How it works
Our sign design process.
- 01
Brief and brand files
You send your logo, brand colors, photos of the building and any landlord criteria. We ask how customers arrive, what the sign has to say and where the budget sits.
- 02
Site and rules review
We work from site survey measurements, not estimates, and read the tenant criteria and the city sign code for the address before the first sketch.
- 03
Concepts on your building
Design directions are placed on a photo of your building at true scale, shown lit and unlit when illumination is part of the plan.
- 04
Materials, color and lighting
Once a direction is chosen, we specify materials, finishes, color references and the lighting method, and flag anything that affects price or approval.
- 05
Refine and approve
You review, we revise, and the final design is issued as a dimensioned drawing for your sign-off.
- 06
Hand off to engineering and permits
The approved drawing moves to engineering for attachment and electrical details and becomes the base of the landlord and city submittals.
Deliverables
What you receive.
- Concept renderings placed on a photo of your building
- Day and night views for illuminated designs
- A scaled elevation drawing with overall and letter dimensions
- Color, material and finish specifications
- Lighting method and mounting approach noted on the drawing
- Vector artwork prepared for fabrication
- Landlord submittal drawings where the property has sign criteria
Before you start
What slows a design down, and how to avoid it.
Design rounds stretch out for predictable reasons. Most of them can be solved in the first conversation.
Logo files that cannot scale
A logo saved from a website or social profile is usually a small image made of pixels. Signs are cut and built from vector artwork. Send the original AI, EPS, PDF or SVG files if you have them. If not, the mark can be redrawn.
Criteria that arrive late
Landlord sign criteria can rule out a lighting style or a color entirely. Sharing them at the start saves a redesign later.
Brand colors without references
A color defined only on screen has to be interpreted. Printed brand standards or specified color codes let paint, vinyl and acrylic be matched with far less guesswork.
Approvers who join at the end
If an owner, franchisor or board has to sign off, bring them into the concept review rather than the final one.
From the portfolio
Work this service made possible.
Project examples
See it on real projects.
Keep exploring
Sign types this service supports
Channel Letters
Individually built, LED-lit letters that turn a fascia into a nighttime landmark.
Storefront Signs
The sign over the door and the graphics on the glass, working together to turn passing traffic into walk-ins.
Building Signs
Wall-mounted letters, logos and cabinets, scaled to identify a building from the road and engineered for the wall they hang on.
Illuminated Exterior Signs
LED-lit letters, cabinets, monuments and pole signs that keep your name readable after sunset.
Related services
Part of the same project.
Site Surveys
Measurements, photos, power and access checked on site, so every drawing starts from facts.
Engineering
Attachment, foundation and electrical details that let a sign be permitted, built and trusted in North Texas weather.
Permitting
Code research, landlord approval and city submissions handled in the right order, so installation is not left waiting.
Fabrication
Channel letters, cabinets, monuments and dimensional letters made in Carrollton by the company that installs them.
Industries
Where this matters most.
Retail
Fascia letters, road-sign panels, window graphics and in-store signs that help a shop win the glance from the parking lot.
Corporate Offices
Lobby logos, halo-lit letters, office graphics and building identification that present the company the way it presents itself.
Hospitality
Lit monuments, highway signs, entrance lighting and lobby signs that help guests find hotels and venues, especially after dark.
Free project review
Start with a photo of your building.
Send your logo, a few photos and any landlord criteria. We will come back with how we would approach the design and what it takes to get it approved and built.
- A photo of the building or site, even from a phone
- Your logo or brand files, if you have them
- The city where the sign will be installed
- Landlord sign criteria, if the space is leased
Straight answers
Sign Design: common questions.
Something else on your mind? Call (469) 901-3108 or send the details through the quote form.
What do I need to send to start a sign design?
Your logo in its original vector format, your brand colors, a few photos of the building taken from where customers approach it and any sign criteria from your landlord or property owner. Rough measurements help. If you do not have them, the site survey fills that gap.
My logo is only a small image file. Can you still use it?
Yes. A low-resolution logo can be redrawn as clean vector artwork, which is what sign fabrication requires. We match the original as closely as possible and send the redrawn file for your approval before it goes into the design.
How will I know what the sign looks like before it is built?
You see it on a photograph of your building, scaled from measurements, so the sign appears at its true size next to your doors, windows and neighbors. Illuminated designs also get a night view. What you approve is what goes to engineering and the shop.
Our architect or brand agency already designed the sign. Can you work from their drawings?
Yes. We review the design against the wall, the landlord criteria and the sign code, flag anything that will not build or permit as drawn, and prepare the drawings needed for engineering, approval and fabrication. Any changes are proposed back to you and your designer rather than made quietly.
Does landlord sign criteria limit what you can design?
It sets the boundaries, not the result. Criteria commonly fix maximum size, lighting type or mounting, and some centers control color. Inside those limits there is still real room for typography, layout and finish, and a design that clearly follows the criteria tends to draw fewer landlord comments.
Is sign design the same as logo design?
No. Sign design starts from the brand you already have and turns it into a physical object: sized, lit, mounted and approved for a specific building. If your logo needs a variation to work as a sign, such as a stacked version for a narrow wall, we can adapt it within your brand standards.
Do you design interior and lobby signs as well?
Yes. Lobby and reception signs follow the same process with more attention to finish, because they are seen up close and at eye level. Halo-lit letters, dimensional logos and brushed or painted metal panels are common choices indoors.
What happens after I approve the design?
The approved drawing becomes the working document for everything that follows. Engineering adds attachment and electrical details, the permit package is built from it, and fabrication drawings are produced from the same dimensions and specifications.
Start with the space. End with a landmark.
Your next landmark starts here.
Tell us what you are building and where. One team takes it from survey to switch-on.