By signcraft
Posted on Friday, February 13th, 2026
In every issue, SignCraft gave a few sign makers an imaginary project. We asked them to do a sketch of the sign they might have produced, and to quote a price for the job. Most of the details were left to the designer’s imagination. The object was to see how different sign makers approach the same project. Here’s the scenario these sign makers were given:
A local furniture store is celebrating 25 years in business. They contact you to get a 3-by-24-ft. banner to announce their anniversary sale. It will hang on the wall directly under the channel letters on their building, which sits about 50 feet off a busy four-lane street.
This appeared in the November/December 2014 issue of SignCraft. While the prices have been adjusted for inflation as of 2026, they may not accurately reflect current pricing for such signage.
Basic layout
Intermediate layout
Complex layout
Basic: $491
Intermediate: $697
Complex: $866
Michael James
Apple Signs, Ball, Louisiana
I would ask the customer a few questions in order to proceed with the design and choose the colors.
Since the application is for outdoor use, I would recommend 13-oz. vinyl banner material, which I’d print on my inkjet printer. For reference, I use the SignCraft Pricing Guide. It’s a great tool for estimating projects like this on three levels, based on complexity.
Sales: $50 This covers time talking with the customer and office work for billing.
Design/Layout/Edit: $55 This covers 30 minutes at the computer creating the layout.
File Prep: $35 This covers sizing the layout and outputting to the necessary file type for production and uploading the file to the print company’s server.
Banner: $300 This is our cost for a 3-by-24-ft. single-faced banner on 18-oz. vinyl, with ropes/
grommets, including shipping.
40% markup on banner: $120
Subtotal for above: $560
Business profit: 10%: $56
Total $616
Sales tax of 9.75%: $60.06
Total: $676.06
Larry Elliott
Elliott Designs, McLemoresville, Tennessee
We made two roughs to give the customer a choice or starting place for minor edits towards the final layout. They accepted the top layout after we made a slight color change on the background blends to the black, blue and green as shown. The copy was trimmed to the minimum for maximum impact, and they agreed the larger lettering would be more legible from the busy traffic area.
Layout time would be about equal for either version, usually ten to fifteen minutes per sketch, so we lumped them together to cover the overall design time (plus the one small edit) to a total of about 30 minutes.
We don’t have a digital printer, so we outsource banner prints to a local shop or one of several online shops specializing in producing quality banners. We still knock out small, simple banners with a brush or with vinyl lettering, but for larger banners a digital print is the most economical way to go—plus you have the option of blends, outlines, colors and effects that would take hours to do by hand.
Utilizing suppliers who specialize in products like digital printing can mean greater profits for small shops like ours and free up production time for work that we can produce in-house. It’s like having all the employees you can ever use and not have to keep them on a payroll.
Here’s a breakdown of the costs. The 10% added for business profit is sometimes overlooked by shops cutting to the bone on competitive bids, but I find it a necessary part of keeping our business in the black. Every shop owner should make a personal salary, plus the business should be making its own profit for future growth.
If you are taking money out of your pocket to run an established business, something is wrong. New businesses usually run on a tight budget, and it may be necessary to take some of your own money to keep it afloat in the beginning, but this shouldn’t be an ongoing situation year after year.
