Some creators of customized real estate signs or open house signs equate a sign’s readability with its conspicuity. While these two factors seem to be related, they’re not. In fact, they’re quite different. And you should know the difference.

Why—because both are critical factors in an effective sign design. Not building them into your sign can be the difference between communicating your message and not communicating your message. And that in turn can be the difference between selling a listing and not selling one.

Readability:

Readability is the character of a real estate for sale sign or similar sign that leads to understanding its message. It depends on key factors affecting content and time restraints. Put simply, readability measures how well and how easily a text conveys its intend meaning.

Factors affecting readability include typeface, font size, spacing, legibility, and layout. Other factors affecting readability include text structure, text coherence and cohesion and syntax. But these latter factors have more to do with reading text on a page than viewing things like a custom made yard sign or an open house sign.

Conspicuity

Conspicuity is the capacity of your sign to stand out. Put another way, it’s the capacity of your sign to be discovered by the eye. For a sign to be conspicuous, your viewers must be able to differentiate it from the surrounding background. Conspicuity is why some people notice your sign immediately and others walk by it without ever seeing it.

The factors affecting conspicuity are more subjective than those affecting readability. For example, motorists passing by your real estate signage might not notice it if they’re not looking for it. Put another way, motorists who are hungry are more likely to notice a sign for a restaurant than motorists that are not hungry.

The point is your customized real estate sign needs readability and conspicuity to make an impact. So make sure the sign you create has both. If you’re not sure how to build both into a custom real estate sign, don’t be afraid to ask an expert how to do it. It can only help your sign impact your audience.