What do your commercial awnings say about your business? Does your place even have an awning? If not, you should know that commercial awnings can be one of the smartest business investments you’ll ever make. That’s because they serve so many different purposes. They’re practical. And they’re decorative. They sell your name and location like nothing else can, whether you’re an individual business or an entire shopping center.
So how can you make your commercial awnings really great?
Taking full advantage of their benefits, for one thing. Consider that, properly designed, your commercial awnings can:
- Make it easier for people to spot your business and entrance – especially important if you’re located in a visually busy area. A shopping center, for instance.
- Provide shade for your storefront windows as well as pedestrians on the sidewalk. Shade isn’t just refreshing outdoors, it can help keep your interior cooler, too. And commercial awnings that cover your walkway also protect pedestrians from rain and snow.
- Decorate your façade. Your business gets extra style points when you use commercial awnings to upgrade a boring building exterior or highlight an already-interesting one.
And that’s just the beginning. Savvy business owners use their commercial awnings to do more than merely identify themselves. They know an awning can be an unparalleled branding and marketing tool.
Let’s see how you measure up compared to one example of truly great commercial awnings: Plainview Shopping Center.
For a shopping center, commercial awnings address two critical goals. They help promote the entire complex, making it visually appealing and welcoming for shoppers to visit. And they reflect the individual needs of tenants, ensuring each store can make effective use of their own logo and design motifs, so they, too, are quickly recognizable.
Plainview Shopping Center demonstrates the height of good-looking consistency, making it easy for shoppers to find stores and visually drawing them down walkways to window-shop. Handsome navy awnings with a narrow valance and a simple white stripe near each end provide a comfortable, welcoming look that nicely complements the brick exterior and pavers. Each of the commercial awnings is sized to match the frontage of the store it covers.
While these commercial awnings provide center-wide consistency, each store’s sign provides important differentiation. You never wonder which store is which, or where stores are located within the shopping center, because signage clearly identifies each one.
Signs are placed high atop the façades, for easy visibility across the parking lot or down the walkway. And although all signage meets size and materials parameters, each one features the logo and official colors of the store beneath.
A few businesses sit on free-standing pads around the perimeter of the shopping center. They sport commercial awnings of similar style, but in colors that match each store’s own thematic artwork.
Many of the store brands within the Plainview Shopping Center have widespread locations, not always in mall-type environments. But whatever the setting and physical configuration, creative professional design of commercial awnings assures the store’s commercial awnings remain consistent. Some details may change – the size or shape of the awning, the exact materials of which it’s constructed, where it’s placed – but the store’s brand is never compromised.
Great commercial awnings are the result of great collaboration.
Whether you have an entire team of in-house designers or need from-scratch help creating your commercial awnings, working with a recognized, experienced awning company will ensure you get exactly what you want, on time and on budget. You’ll get state-of-the-art production and installation, so you’ll know your job was done right from start to finish. And you’ll get personalized attention and communication throughout the process.
It’s officially spring, now. The time for renewal. The perfect time to give your exterior a makeover, with great new commercial awnings that give your place a fresh look. What can you learn from Plainview Shopping Center?
Photo Credit: .reid. via Flickr
