What We Learned From Our Survey
Earlier this year, we conducted a survey of architectural sign companies as part of an ongoing effort to compile information about the workings of our industry. Our survey focused on the process by which architects design and specify sign programs. Before we share the results, I think it would be helpful to layout some background information.
Everyone in the industry is familiar with sign programs that are designed by EGD firms and architectural signage specialists. While you may quibble with the design of a given program, these sign programs are normally well documented, and they almost always are the result of a serious design effort. We put these projects into Bucket 1.
Those of us who work for architectural sign companies are also familiar with a very different kind of sign program: one which is specified by an architect and incorporated into the general construction documents of a building project, but one which lacks the basic information that is necessary for pricing and fabrication. Sign drawings, message schedules, and location plans are all missing, and the only available information is typically found in a vague and confusing section 10-14-00 specification. This kind of sign program is not the result of a serious design process, and we put jobs of this type into Bucket 2.
The primary purpose of our survey was to try and figure out how often architectural sign companies encounter projects that belong in Bucket 2, and to understand how they handle them.
Here is a quick summary of the survey results:
- There were a total of 140 respondents.
- There were 109 respondents who do mostly architectural work, interact with architects, prepare bids, and receive deficient specs.
- Of these, 55% receive deficient specs more than 50% of the time. 12% reported that they received deficient specs on almost every project that they bid.
- 86% reported that for the poor specs, that the sign company was responsible for untangling the signage requirements and extracting the necessary information for fabrication and installation.
- The biggest negative consequence of the poor signage specifications is that comparing bids was made very difficult.
Why Is This Important?
We found an overwhelming number (96%) of architectural sign companies have had experience with sign specifications that are vague, contradictory, or incomplete. We have also discovered this is not an isolated or unusual event: 57% of the survey respondents say that they encounter this type of documentation on more than 50% of the projects they try to bid.
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