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What Is a Pro­ject­ing Sign? 4 Tips to Great Pro­ject­ing Signage

Todd Carey

Sum­ma­ry: A pro­ject­ing sign (or blade sign) is a dou­ble-sided dis­play mount­ed per­pen­dic­u­lar to a build­ing façade to max­i­mize mul­ti-direc­tion­al vis­i­bil­i­ty. Get design and engi­neer­ing tips for suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion, includ­ing opti­miz­ing ver­ti­cal brand assets, lever­ag­ing dou­ble-sided real estate, scal­ing for ele­vat­ed sight­lines, and strict­ly fac­tor­ing in wind loads and local munic­i­pal sign codes.

Why do we con­sid­er pro­ject­ing signs to be one of the high­est-ROI invest­ments for com­mer­cial store­fronts, bou­tique hotels, and urban dis­tricts? Let’s break down the def­i­n­i­tion, ben­e­fits, and best prac­tices for imple­ment­ing this high-impact sig­nage type.

Defin­ing the Pro­ject­ing Sign

A pro­ject­ing sign, also known as a blade sign or a flag-mount­ed sign, is a dou­ble-sided dis­play mount­ed per­pen­dic­u­lar to a building’s exte­ri­or façade or inte­ri­or cor­ri­dor wall.

Unlike stan­dard flat fas­cia signs that can only be read from direct­ly across the street, a pro­ject­ing sign pro­trudes direct­ly into the sight­line of oncom­ing traf­fic. This allows your brand assets, logo, and wayfind­ing mes­sag­ing to be eas­i­ly viewed from two direc­tions simultaneously.

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Why We Love Pro­ject­ing Signs:

  • Max­i­mized sign real estate: Because they are dou­ble-sided, they offer dou­ble the brand­ing space.
  • Pedes­tri­an wayfind­ing: They act as nat­ur­al visu­al anchors for foot traf­fic nav­i­gat­ing city side­walks or mul­ti-ten­ant retail spaces.
  • Aes­thet­ic flex­i­bil­i­ty: They adapt seam­less­ly to both mod­ern, illu­mi­nat­ed cor­po­rate struc­tures and his­toric archi­tec­tur­al preser­va­tion districts.

4 Expert Tips for Design­ing and Installing a Great Pro­ject­ing Sign

Because pro­ject­ing sig­nage intro­duces dis­tinct struc­tur­al and visu­al vari­ables, suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion requires a blend of pre­cise envi­ron­men­tal graph­ic design and rig­or­ous engineering.

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1. Opti­mize Your Visu­al Assets for Ver­ti­cal Design Orientations

Most blade signs fea­ture a tall, slen­der, or ver­ti­cal­ly ori­ent­ed foot­print. Because of this restrict­ed width, hor­i­zon­tal cor­po­rate logos or long busi­ness names can­not sim­ply be copied and past­ed onto the face.

  • Tip: Pur­pose­ful­ly adapt your brand assets for a ver­ti­cal lay­out. As your design team, we’ll exper­i­ment with stacked typog­ra­phy or iso­lat­ed brand icons. We’ll make sure clar­i­ty dic­tates your layout.
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2. Use Dou­ble-Sided Real Estate for High-ROI Visibility

A pro­ject­ing sign excels at cap­tur­ing two dis­tinct audi­ence seg­ments: pedes­tri­ans on the side­walk and dri­vers on the road.

  • Tip: Take advan­tage of both faces and make them cohe­sive but unique. While side A might fea­ture your pri­ma­ry logo for oncom­ing vehi­cle traf­fic, side B can fea­ture sub-brand­ing or direc­tion­al indi­ca­tors for approach­ing pedestrians.
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3. Fac­tor in Sight­lines, Mount­ing Ele­va­tion, and Scale

Because blade signs are installed high up on a build­ing face (typ­i­cal­ly at least 8 feet above the side­walk to com­ply with munic­i­pal pedes­tri­an clear­ance rules) they have a mas­sive view­ing distance.

  • Tip: Stan­dard let­ter sizes that work on a win­dow graph­ic will dis­ap­pear when ele­vat­ed on a build­ing exte­ri­or. We’ll scale up your copy, use high-con­trast col­or palettes, and expand your graph­ic ele­ments so they main­tain crisp read­abil­i­ty from a distance.

4. Account for Struc­tur­al Engi­neer­ing, Wind Loads, and Local Code

Because a flag-mount­ed sign sticks out from a wall, it func­tions like a sail in heavy weath­er. Wind loads affect pro­ject­ing signs dra­mat­i­cal­ly because the force push­es direct­ly against both sides of the panel.

  • Tip: Don’t attempt a DIY instal­la­tion. Our expert installers will do pre-install site vis­its to ana­lyze the wall struc­ture and ensure brack­ets can tie direct­ly into the struc­tur­al studs or steel frame­work of the build­ing. Many busy com­mer­cial zones require struc­tur­al engi­neer­ing seals, tem­po­rary street-block­ing per­mits for boom trucks, and strict adher­ence to region­al sign code allowances. We’ll help you nav­i­gate all of it.
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Part­ner with Local Sig­nage and Com­pli­ance Experts

With proac­tive plan­ning, pre­cise pro­duc­tion design, and expert instal­la­tion, a pro­ject­ing sign deliv­ers the ulti­mate bang for your buck by turn­ing a flat store­front into a mul­ti-direc­tion­al landmark.

Con­tact our Design-Build sig­nage experts today to talk about pro­ject­ing sign solutions.

Pro­ject­ing sign examples:

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