Why are Interior and Exterior Signs Important for Schools?

While you may think about stores and businesses when you consider the importance of architectural signage, schools and other institutions also benefit from clear, high-quality signs. Both interior and exterior signs help make schools feel welcoming and safe. Great signs can also allow a school to promote its core values and enhance communication with students, faculty, and visitors. While education takes priority in any school or learning institution, educational signage used both inside and around school buildings should not be overlooked.

Benefits of School Signage

1. Navigational Help

Most likely, the first school sign that any student, parent, or visitor sees will be the exterior sign giving the school's name. This architectural sign is similar to a monument sign, marking the school as a local landmark in the community. Most schools have done away with basic school name signs and instead use changeable letter signs or LED screens. Frequently changing the sign's messaging is handy when giving out announcements to students and parents.

Once guests have located the exterior sign and made their way to the school buildings, additional directional and wayfinding signs will help them to find their way around. School campuses can be large, sprawling, and very confusing for new students. Clear signage may prevent them from getting overwhelmed. Both exterior and interior architectural signs are essential to help staff, students, and visitors navigate all the different areas of a school or institution. Wayfinding signs include directional arrows, room labels and numbers, and directional boards listing out essential spots.

2. School Spirit

Custom signs installed around school buildings can help to promote school spirit. Signage can add a lot to a space's interior and exterior design. Signs that include the school's colors, mascot, or logo can make a school building feel more like home and spark pride in students and staff. Many schools have signs and banners made to commemorate big athletic, dramatic, or academic wins. Event signs can announce games, dances, or fundraisers.

3. Welcoming Students and Visitors

High-quality and well-thought-out signage can provide school visitors with a warm welcome. Welcoming signage starts with an attractive school name sign to mark the location, clear directional signs to assist in building navigation, safety signs to point out important things such as emergency exits and fire extinguishers, and school color and mascot signage to enhance school pride and spirit. A great introduction can go a long way in building reputation and trust in a school or institution.

4. Student Safety

Safety should be a top priority in any school. Permanent architectural signage in and around a school building is vital to keep students, staff, and visitors safe. While schools hold emergency drills to stay prepared for a crisis, these drills would be less effective without clear safety signs.

Safety signage can provide cautionary messages, alert people to danger, point out safety equipment, and identify emergency exits. Safety signs must also adhere to ADA compliance laws that require signs that indicate handicap accessibility, including tactile braille lettering, legible fonts, and more.

5. Enhancing Communication

Interior and exterior signage at a school can improve communication between teachers, staff, students, and parents. A great communication tool is the exterior school name sign. Including changeable letters, or even better, an LED screen, can allow the school to send messages to students and parents daily. Sign messages may inform the community of an upcoming school play, remind students to get their tickets to prom, celebrate academic achievements, or help fill seats in the stands at the next big game.

Other beneficial locations to install LED messaging signs include the gymnasium, cafeteria, or inside next to the main office. An LED in the gym can double us as a scoreboard and game-time jumbotron.

6. Providing Inspiration

Students spend a large portion of their time in and around school facilities. Messaging on school signs can inspire students and staff to study hard, enjoy their time at school, and stay motivated. Signage can enhance the design of classrooms, study spaces, and hallways. Being surrounded by images of nature has been found to reduce stress in students. This fact is something to consider when designing school banners and murals.

7. Promoting School Values

Many schools have core values and messages they would like to share with the school body and staff. Thoughtful interior and exterior signs allow for that messaging to get across. School slogans, values, codes of conduct, and other messages can be posted in the main entrance, down school hallways, made into flags or banners, or typed into LED screens.

Clear school signage, including permanent architectural signs as well as less permanent signs like those celebrating milestones or promoting events, are all crucial to creating a welcoming and safe environment for students and staff. Whether an elementary school, high school, college, university, or other educational institution, quality signage enhances trust in a school and improves its reputation.