Just realized my store's signage was invisible after sunset

I painted my shop's new banner in a deep navy blue with dark grey lettering. Didn't think twice about it until a customer told me she drove past three times last week. Had to repaint the whole thing with high contrast colors, cost me $180 in materials plus a weekend I didn't have. Anyone else learn the hard way about lighting conditions ruining a color scheme?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.hannah23d ago

And then the thing with dark colors is they look totally fine under fluorescent lights in your shop, but outside at dusk they just turn into a black void. My buddy did something similar with dark green lettering on a forest green truck, thought it looked great until he realized it was basically camouflage at night. Lighting changes everything about colors, learned that one the hard way too.

felix47823d ago

Yeah the fluorescent vs natural light thing is brutal. I messed around with a navy blue wrap on a white van years ago and under the shop lights it looked clean and sharp. But once it hit actual sunlight it looked almost black and the white van underneath just disappeared at certain angles. My rule of thumb now is to always test colors at three different times of day before I commit. Dusk is the killer for sure, that's when all the contrast just falls apart.