Outdoor Sign Lighting Ideas for Home & Commercial

We can all agree that the lighting around it enhances the beauty of any architecture or landscape. Outdoor wall lights brighten the space in the dark and enhance the sign above which they are placed. For homeowners, exterior lightings provide a calming, beautiful welcome to visitors while brightening the space at night. In this article, we’ll identify great outdoor sign lighting ideas for your business.

For businesses or commercial buildings, you cannot do without a brightened sign. If you already have your signs in place, you do not have to replace them with lighted neon or LED signage. By simply placing a beautiful light fixture in the perfect position, your entrance or signposts would call out just beautifully.

Before Choosing an Outdoor Sign Lighting

There are numerous choices to make while picking the right outdoor sign lighting for businesses. These decisions often revolve around several factors such as the amount of illumination, mounting framework, shade of the installation, and any accessible embellishments.

For many businesses, the ultimate decision would be hinged around the kind of show, service, or product you are rendering, promoting, or selling. Take as much time as necessary while thinking about choices, and don’t be reluctant to seek advice from experts when the need arises. Also, make sure that you don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of outdoor sign lighting ideas around.

There are commonly four significant aspects of outdoor lighting fixtures one needs to consider before settling for a particular outdoor divider and sign lighting. They include picking the light source, the amount and side to be shaded, and how you want it to be mounted. If you are also keen on the finishing, you should also consider what you would use to mount it and the embellishments that would be added.

Outdoor lights come in different designs and are perfect for several designs. Selecting the perfect lighting to accentuate the beauty of your sign can be daunting. However, this should not push you away. So here are easy outdoor sign lighting ideas you can use.

Easy Outdoor Sign Lighting Ideas

Depending on your taste, the design you wish to accomplish, and your building and landscape design, there are several ideas to try out. Still unsure how it would look or seeking inspiration, here are some outdoor sign lighting ideas you could try out.

Make a Bold Impression With Bright Lights Overhead Your Signs

Your overhead sign is what clients use to distinguish your store. For example, to make a concealed store stick out, you could choose a sign that projects from the side of our customer-facing façade or hang it directly overhead. Whichever you choose, utilizing dim lettering on a light foundation can speak brightly.

With good size, font and style, you are already close to getting the attention you need. But adding a bright floodlight overhead, the sign lights up the whole area differently. You could also achieve the same feat using a simple gooseneck lamp. This style works best if your store or business already projects a minimalist design.

The Corner Shop Magic

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The corner shop is a magical spot, especially if it offers a sweet tooth. You could increase the magic around this place by hanging a beautiful gooseneck lamp hung over your sign. Think of the light you would bring to that corner.

Sign lights do not discriminate whether it is a cut 3D lettering, a cursive style, or bold font over the shop. With the lamp hanging overhead, it illuminates the board even if the writings are done. For hand-carved signs, an overhanging lamp would easily accentuate the intricate details of the prints.

Sign Lights and Canopy Combos Work Well

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You can pair sign lights with the door canopy if you have one. This creates a dreamy light for the activity areas at night. A gooseneck sign light would complement the sign pretty well. By choosing how much light you want, the position of your sign, and the area you need to be brightened, you could place the light anywhere around the canopy.

You could decide to place the sign either above or under the canopy. A kichler lighting would work nicely for signs that are under the canopy. You could also place the lights on the wall by the sides of the canopy, ensuring it is directed towards the sign. It is ideally up to you to decide where you want to place the light.

Good to Read: Modern Backyard Light Ideas – Make Your Garden Magical

Sign Lights and Greenery

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Decorating even for the holidays involves lights and lots of lights. For a small office with green plants, you can bring the holiday charm to the outdoor areas or the front door by adding lights. This can be done either by using direct overhanging, string, or gooseneck lamps from the wall.

Besides holidays, outdoor sign lights and plants could also be incorporated for small corporate offices and businesses. To achieve an atmosphere of professionalism and simplicity, you can use a crafted sign with a well-lit lamp. This works well, even if all or part of your wall is covered with crawling plants or not.

You could also try this if you run a garden. By studying the architectural details of the garden, you would be able to know how well to place the lights.

Consider Placing Lights Underneath the Sign

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Placing lights underneath the sign is a more prudent and inconspicuous means of drawing attention than floodlights. Depending on the theme or font, you might use just one bright light or several. To pull this off well, you might need to consider separately how to point your light, how far back to set your light, and how far separated to space your lights.

This sign brightened from underneath gives elegance to your sign. It is especially effective if your sign is in one color, you could use bright white light. However, for signs with several colors, a simple white-colored light would work perfectly.

Brighten Exterior Walls With Lights

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Some buildings do not have simple overhanging signage as many but a very bold sign on the wall. These wall signs could be either bold signs that occupy a relatively empty wall or be part of the wall directly above the door.

If your building is like this, do not get discouraged and leave that part of the building in the dark. You cannot go wrong by selecting outdoor sign lights either in a contrasting color to your wall paint or in a color that blends. You could place spotlights above the sign and focus directly on it. Or you could place them on opposite sides of the sign.

This simple sign is brightened at night, making the whole wall look like a large billboard of its own. More than highlighting your sign, this combo beautifies the building.

Playing With Light and Color Schemes

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Since the objective of lighting is to draw the viewer’s eye toward the sign, why not play around with the color schemes. For example, you could decide to get lights that contrast the colors on your signs or choose similar colors. By keeping coordination color and style together, you can incorporate light as part of the design.

Feel free to select lights that blend in quickly; you can ensure that your sign lights will not stand out like a sore thumb on your sign. This can be used mainly for big storefronts, snack stores, or even furniture stores. You might want to consider energy saving in this scenario since you might have several of them lined up.

Try Placing the Lights on the Ground

Who said sign lights have to be placed above the sign? For large concrete signs, rock signs, monuments, or outdoor locations, floodlights work best. The bold brightness they offer can cover large areas.

Floodlights are not often considered for indoor lighting but are the right fixture when considering placing the lamps on the ground. The fantastic thing about these styles is that they are often solar-powered with integrated controls.

Use Lighted Signs, Letters or Figures Instead

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Sometimes, you might need a letter of direction. For example, try using exterior lights in specific shapes to draw the client’s attention to notice special discounts or news.

A caged pipe or placing the lights on already carved shapes often do the trick just well. One perk about this is you could easily use low-voltage lamps and still achieve beauty. Making sure that it is well illuminated can be wonderful, especially at a coffee shop.

Good Old Neon Signs and Led Lights Work Well Too

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Outdoor sign lights often bring in the idea of just illuminated signs. Those are pretty much beautiful and have evolved from the conventional neon-lighted ones to LED lighting in recent times.

Neon lights are the most popular alternative for outdoor signages mainly because they require less maintenance. Many of these come as string lights you can easily use to draw up any sign.

But whichever you choose. Illuminated signage always brings its charm to the party.

In Conclusion

Finally, deciding on the most appropriate outdoor lighting system to employ largely depends on the size of your sign or display as well as your lighting needs. Assuming you need to enlighten your sign or show adequately, you first need to think about its size.

For your outdoor sign lighting needs, decide on what you’re attempting to achieve. For example, would you like to strongly feature your sign or show with direct lighting or make an all the more low-profile impact with complement lighting? Do you have loads of outside space, or is the space where you need to introduce lights restricted?

When still up in the air, your lighting alternatives can be limited to those that best emphasize the region you anticipate enlightening. For instance, a bigger sign or show might require different lights dispersed at the proper stretches and distance from it to cover it totally and accomplish the most significant impact.