Reade Blog

When we write about our signage work at Reade Signs, we like to throw in an example of a challenge overcome to get the job done. But one job we’ve recently finished in Derbyshire, seemed to have one challenge piled on top of another. The fact that we’ve delivered a high quality product on time and saved a lot of money for our client says much about the dedication our teams of designers, manufacturers and installers put into every job. Our client, Audley Retirement, runs retirement villages around the UK. They called us in because they needed a fresh new look for St Elphin’s Park in Matlock. Audley had earmarked the site for an update of its hoarding and gantry graphics along with some new permanent internal and directional signage.   Challenges The first challenge we had was time; we had a very tight deadline to get the new signage in place. The timescale was made harder by our second challenge – distance. Fortunately our extensive network of approved subcontractors across the country meant getting details from the Derbyshire site to our Aldershot factory and sending large pieces of equipment back up to the Midlands was a challenge easily overcome. At the same time, Audley wanted to change the look of their signage to give their sales material a fresh new look, which kept our design team busy. And if that wasn’t enough, we wanted to use as much of the original signage infrastructure as possible to save our client money. This had been erected by another company so none of our standard signage fitted and we had to survey everything to make sure it was safe before we took on responsibility for the original structures. Solutions The first thing we had to do was carry out a survey of the existing hoarding and gantries to check their suitability for the new brand and to take stock of what useable signage remained from the previous supplier. Fortunately, we could rely on our installation team to visit the site and do a thorough survey of existing signs and new positions. They were able to send all the information and measurements back to our graphic designers at Reade HQ for assimilation into a design. As Audley was in the process of changing the look of their marketing signage, our design team came up with something fresh and new which remained consistent with the overall brand design. This detail from the survey was then art-worked to our client’s brief for them to sign off before being produced in our factory. Timing was important, so we used a specialist courier to get some large sections of signage up to Leeds and then to St Elphin’s Park for installation, so lots of coordination was required to meet the deadline. The signage was installed and updated over a couple of days, transforming an old look into a fresh, attractive and eye-catching display. A good result Our account manager for Audley, Mark Terrett was delighted with the result: “We’ve given them a really high quality, fresh look in a cost effective way and with a quick turn-around to aid their current sales drive.” Find out more about retirement home signage: At Reade Signs we don’t let problems stand in our way. If you would like to find out how we can help you communicate your project to stakeholders and to the public, then please contact us, email us at enquiry@readesigns.com or ring 01252 336000.