Design-Build Sig­nage: The Expert Guide to On-Bud­get Branding

An effec­tive sig­nage pro­gram moves peo­ple effi­cient­ly, min­i­mizes con­fu­sion, improves per­cep­tions of your facil­i­ty and your brand, and ulti­mate­ly makes everyone’s life eas­i­er — includ­ing yours.

But what kind of signs do you need? And how many? What should they say? How should they look? What mate­ri­als can you use to cre­ate eye-catch­ing signs with­out break­ing your budget?

That’s where Design-Build comes in. Design-Build is Latitude’s inte­grat­ed process for cre­at­ing unique and on-brand sig­nage pro­grams in the most effec­tive and eco­nom­i­cal way pos­si­ble. With this process, our team works close­ly with you to ana­lyze, plan, design, doc­u­ment, imple­ment, and install sig­nage solu­tions. The final deliv­er­able is detailed designs and con­struc­tion spec­i­fi­ca­tions for every sign type need­ed in your facility.

In oth­er words, we serve as your sin­gle point of con­tact for the entire life­cy­cle of a sig­nage project. Here’s how it works:

Unlike the tra­di­tion­al ​“Design-Bid-Build” mod­el — where a design­er cre­ates a con­cept and a sep­a­rate fab­ri­ca­tor bids to build it — the Design-Build approach elim­i­nates the inter­pre­ta­tion gap, ensur­ing that what is designed is phys­i­cal­ly and finan­cial­ly feasible.

Pro­duc­tion design­ers work hand-in-hand with fab­ri­ca­tors at our man­u­fac­tur­ing plant. We design signs to be built, not ​“con­cep­tu­al­ly” for a com­plete­ly sep­a­rate com­pa­ny to have to fig­ure out how to build it lat­er. By design­ing signs to be built (rather than ​“con­cept-only” art), we mitigate:

• Project delays caused by unbuild­able designs.
• Cost­ly change orders dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase.
• Mate­r­i­al waste through pre­ci­sion planning.

When you part­ner with a sig­nage expert to han­dle both the cre­ative and tech­ni­cal phas­es, you min­i­mize the risk of cost­ly errors, delays, and pro­duc­tion chal­lenges. And that typ­i­cal­ly leads to cost sav­ings in time and mate­ri­als. Here is how the Lat­i­tude Design-Build process pro­tects your bot­tom line:

1. Cus­tom man­u­fac­tur­ing capa­bil­i­ties. Because we own our man­u­fac­tur­ing plant, we don’t just design; we val­ue engi­neer. We select mate­ri­als and fab­ri­ca­tion meth­ods specif­i­cal­ly to fit your bud­get with­out sac­ri­fic­ing qual­i­ty or cre­ativ­i­ty. This allows for high-end aes­thet­ics with­out the exor­bi­tant price tag. 

2. Years of sign expe­ri­ence. Our expe­ri­en­tial graph­ic design­ers work on a wide range of projects, from hos­pi­tals to muse­ums to pick­le­ball courts. This exper­tise allows us to devel­op cre­ative solu­tions for unique chal­lenges. Our design­ers are active mem­bers of the Soci­ety of Expe­ri­en­tial Graph­ic Design (SEGD), so they’re always on top of psy­cho­log­i­cal wayfind­ing prin­ci­ples, mod­ern trends, and changes in the indus­try. You’ll work with a team armed with the knowl­edge to deliv­er cre­ative and effec­tive sig­nage that fits with­in your budget.

3. Built-in ADA com­pli­ance and acces­si­bil­i­ty. We cre­ate with acces­si­bil­i­ty and func­tion­al­i­ty in mind. ADA reg­u­la­tion stan­dards are at the fore­front of every­thing we design and build from day one. We pri­or­i­tize func­tion­al options that include mod­u­lar sign prod­ucts, mak­ing for easy updates that will save you time and money.

Com­mu­ni­ty State Bank

“From the start, Latitude’s team was engaged, col­lab­o­ra­tive, and gen­uine­ly invest­ed in the suc­cess of our new head­quar­ters. They brought ideas, lis­tened close­ly to our goals, and trans­lat­ed our vision into clear con­cepts, draw­ings, and mate­r­i­al sam­ples — help­ing us bring the CSB brand to life and cre­ate the pro­fes­sion­al, wel­com­ing expe­ri­ence we want employ­ees, clients, and the com­mu­ni­ty to have when they vis­it our space.”

–Cheryl Big­gins Miller, SVP Direc­tor of Mar­ket­ing & Pub­lic Rela­tions, Com­mu­ni­ty State Bank

Kreg Tool Company 

“Lat­i­tude was hands-on through­out. They were agile as we made adjust­ments to design ele­ments that we knew as a project team would impact the spaces sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Addi­tion­al­ly, they facil­i­tat­ed valu­able con­ver­sa­tions to ensure the designs we want­ed to imple­ment were con­sis­tent with the over­all intent of the project. Their Design-Build approach pro­vides effi­cien­cy, and their tenured team offers the unique expe­ri­ence own­ers and design firms will val­ue and can rely on.”

–Jaclyn Tay­lor, Own­er, Tay­lor REP 

World­Wide Logis­tics 

“World­Wide Logis­tics was a project that was impact­ed in sev­er­al ways, most­ly due to equip­ment delays with­in the sup­ply chain. With that said, it cre­at­ed var­i­ous issues for fur­ni­ture, equip­ment, and sig­nage coor­di­na­tion. Lat­i­tude was flex­i­ble and remained flu­id with the adjust­ments we had to make in the field and on the site to address the var­i­ous impacts and issues. Lat­i­tude was able to respond effec­tive­ly with the entire team’s involve­ment. Sec­ond­ly, Lat­i­tude had a short run­way to design, man­u­fac­ture, and install the cus­tom inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or sig­nage. The Lat­i­tude team suc­cess­ful­ly kept the project on track.”

–Jaclyn Tay­lor, Own­er, Tay­lor REP 

Ronald McDon­ald House — Peoria

“The Design-Build process with Lat­i­tude was a remark­able expe­ri­ence that took place over sev­er­al months. Their team tru­ly had their work cut out for them due to the vary­ing needs we had as a non­prof­it, includ­ing our goals of improv­ing our vis­i­bil­i­ty in the com­mu­ni­ty on the exte­ri­or while pro­vid­ing a wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment to our fam­i­lies on the inte­ri­or, all while cre­ative­ly rec­og­niz­ing the numer­ous busi­ness­es, indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions in the com­mu­ni­ty who helped to make this project possible.”

–Kel­ly Thomp­son, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer, Ronald McDon­ald House Char­i­ties of Cen­tral Illinois

Ready to stream­line your next project? Con­nect with a sign expert today!