Pricing sign work

[drodda]

I am donating a sign to a local Library. I was wanting to know how to price a sign to get fair market value so that I can get a value of my donation for tax purposes. The Library is owned by a charitable trust.

Is their a standard pricing that people use or is it dependent on how complex the sign is? Since this is my first sign I have done I am not really sure of how to describe the sign I am doing. The sign is 93" x 36" tall and it has v-carved letters along with raised letters insert into pockets similar to signs I have seen done By Joe Crumley on here. The sign will be a monument sign attached to two posts and single sided.

Mr. Crumley has been helping me on this off forum but I thought I would try and get a sense for pricing from the community.


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[joewino]

Just as a starting point - we normally charge about $100 a square foot for plain, dimensional signs and go up from there. They probably average about $110 to $130 a square foot depending on the complexity of the design, gold leaf, or prismatic lettering.

We use outide measurements and go from there. That price does not include installation.

Durable, well designed signage should have some instrinsic value over just what labor and material cost.

Before we purchased our ShopBot I had a pretty good idea of what it cost us to produce a sandblasted, dimensional sign. The ShopBot allows us to do more detailed work and do it more effeciently, but we did not reduce our prices because it took less time.

You didn't ask for any design critique, but my eye is drawn to the negative space in the middle of the layout. I think I would put some type of scroll work there - very low key.

[drodda]

Raymond,

Thanks that is exactly what I was looking for on pricing.

Any design critique is very welcome, however remember you are talking to a rookie here. We are giving this away so I am trying to make it easy to build and finish for my first sign. With that said it will also be the first example of our work here in my small town so we want it to dazzle also. Kind of caught between going all out and going as simple as possible since we are not in the sign business. We are still very much busy with our main business of custom furniture. So we are not looking to make sales to pay the mortgage.

We are looking at doing a texture to the background also. I will look into your suggestion of scroll work.

Suggestions on material used for this sign in Iowa weather and finishing would also be very welcome. What is the best budget minded material to use and what is the cost is no object materials to use?

[wayne_webb]

Ray,
That $100/sq.ft. is for a one sided sign, right?

[joewino]

Correct Wayne.

I would use HDU (15# or higher) and back it with DiBond or aluminum. Paint with 100% acrylic latex.

Since it is a donation you might as well pull out all the stops and do a fantastic job. Better to be remembered for outstanding work than mediocre.

[wayne_webb]

Thanks Ray,

Dave, just a suggestion.....
You might try 'kerning' the main copy a little closer. This will make it read much better and will allow them to be sized slightly larger. Also, I would shorten that bottom panel so that it doesn;t extend wider than the main copy. And like Ray says, some scroll work in the center would help.

[drodda]

I would like to make it as nice as possible without ending up looking like Joe Crumley with only one sign under my belt. Not many people know that Joe is acutally 25 years young. The stress of the sign business has gotten to him and aged him prematurely.

Here is another sample critique wanted.

39547.jpg

I placed broken lines to simulate text on the pages of the book.

[drodda]

When I change the kerning on the main text the bottom of the H_A_D tends to run together and it does not leave enough room to get a tool through there and paint on the edges of those letters. As I am new to this maybe it is supposed to run together at the bottom on a curve?

[khaos]

What about

39550.jpg

[drodda]

Where would I find HDU in the midwest?