Blog / Hospitality Signage
Hospitality signsone place. everything branded
What actually brings hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants more customers, and a few small extras worth adding while you’re getting a sign made anyway.
A guest decides what they think of your venue before they’ve read the menu, spoken to anyone, or parked the car. That decision gets made at the sign.
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This isn’t always about a full rebrand. Most hospitality venues in New Zealand, get more out of getting a few things right than they do out of starting again.
Who We Do This For
What Your Signage Is Actually Doing For You
Working after dark
A lot of hospitality trade happens after dark: dinner bookings, late check-ins, after-work drinks. If your building sign isn’t lit, or the lettering’s hard to read from a moving car, you’re invisible for half your trading hours.
An illuminated sign is the difference between guests finding you and driving past to the place next door (they could actually see).
Marketing Tip
If your sign already gets attention, use the space around it. A small, well-lit secondary panel for “tonight’s specials” or “open until late” gives people a reason to stop, not just notice you exist.
catching people who weren’t looking for you
Most people walking past a cafe or bar weren’t planning to stop. An A-frame on the footpath is the cheapest, fastest way to change their mind, especially if what’s on it changes.
Having said that, a board that says the same thing every day stops working after a fortnight.
A board that changes with a daily special, a happy hour, or the weather gives regulars a reason to check it.
Marketing Tip
Interchangeable panels or a chalkboard-style board mean staff can update it in two minutes, no reprint required. Some of the busiest cafes we work with change their A-frame message daily, not because the food changes that much, but because a static sign stops getting read. The panel above for Hiku regularly gets a refresh.
a billboard you’re already paying rent for
Your shopfront glass is prime advertising space that’s sitting there unused on most venues.
Branded window graphics, seasonal decals, or simple menu highlights turn a plain window into something that sells while you’re closed, on your day off, and to everyone who walks past without coming in.
Marketing Tip
Swap window graphics seasonally, Matariki, Christmas, a local event, without touching the rest of your signage. It keeps the venue looking current and gives people a reason to notice you again even if they walk the same street every week.
where the upsell actually happens
A printed menu board is fine if your prices and specials don’t move. The moment they do, cafes and bars either live with an out-of-date board or pay to reprint it every time something changes.
A digital screen fixes that. Content updated remotely in minutes, makes it far easier to actually advertise specials, rather than deciding they’re too much hassle to promote properly.
Marketing Tip
A digital screen at eye level near the counter is one of the easiest upsell tools in hospitality. “Add a coffee for $2” earns its keep.
While You’re Getting a Sign Made Anyway
Once you’ve got a designer working on your colours, your logo, and your brand files, the extra step to also sort your staff shirts or your menus is small.
Just a couple of things worth asking about while you’re getting a quote:
A second sign somewhere you’ve been meaning to fix.
Most venues have one piece of signage they know isn’t pulling its weight, a faded A-frame, a window that’s needed graphics for two years, wayfinding that hasn’t kept up with a renovation. If you’re already talking to us about one sign, it costs nothing to ask what the second one would look like.
Branded workwear for the team.
Screen printed or embroidered, matched to whatever’s already on your signage. Useful on the floor, useful at markets or off-site events, useful the next time you’re hiring and want new staff to look the part from day one.
Printed menus and cards for your clients.
If your venue hosts weddings, birthdays, corporate functions or any kind of private event, branded print gives your clients something professional to hand their own guests, and something with your venue’s name on it that leaves the building and does its own quiet advertising. It’s a small addition that works in your clients’ favour and yours at the same time.
Why It Works Better When It All Comes From One Place
A sign company for the building sign, a separate printer for the menus, and a uniform supplier for the shirts means three separate colour matches and three chances for something to not quite line up.
One team holding the lot, exterior signage through to what’s on the tables and what your staff are wearing, means it’s actually the same brand everywhere, not just close. And it means one phone call, not three, when something needs fixing, updating, or reprinting before a big weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. We produce UV printed braille for room numbers and facility signage, laser cut accessible icons, and accessible car park and wayfinding signage that meets compliance requirements.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need a full rebrand to get more out of your signage. Sometimes it’s fixing the one sign that’s stopped working. Sometimes it’s adding a piece you didn’t think of as signage at all, a shirt, a menu, a card. Start with what’s actually costing you customers right now, and build from there.
