“And in gold? And if it is backlit?” Every façade sign takes three or four photomontages nobody charges for, a quote by letter and height that gets redone with every change, and a customer who still cannot picture their name lit up.
You run a five-person sign workshop: two in design, two in production and the owner, who measures façades, installs and sells. You make 3D letters for shops, hospitality and the occasional clinic or office. On Wednesday morning, the owner of a coffee shop opening in three weeks calls you for the third time. She wants to see the name on the façade again, now in a different typeface and in gold, because the white version “looks cold to her”.
The designer drops the vinyl for a van halfway through, opens the photo of the façade, repositions the letters, adjusts the size and colour, simulates the light and exports. A good half hour. While he is at it the quote has to be redone: the letter height has gone from 40 to 50 centimetres, the total width has changed too and, with it, the number of spacers and the power supply. The new version goes out by message at half past twelve.
At five, the customer replies: she likes it, but asks how it will look at night, whether backlit would look more elegant and whether the council will object to the size. The owner will have to visit her agent with the dimensions and the power to apply for the permit. And the coffee shop is only a seven-letter sign: this week there are another eleven quotes waiting for exactly the same process.
A letter sample on the counter or another customer's sign on a phone does not tell them how their name will look, in their typeface, on their brick or grey panel façade. Without seeing it they hesitate, ask for more versions or postpone the deposit. And while there is no deposit, the job does not go into production.
What it costs youThe sign does not reach the workshop until the customer can see it.
Every change of typeface, colour or height is a new photomontage someone in the workshop makes by hand over the photo of the façade. Nobody charges for it, because there is no order yet, and the customer has no limit on versions. They get done in the gaps, at the end of the day, while the jobs that are actually sold wait their turn.
What it costs youHours of design time that eat the margin on the sign.
The price depends on the number of letters, the height, the type of light and the fixing, and any change moves everything: total width, spacers, power supply. Redoing the quote every time the customer touches the text or the height takes time, and meanwhile the customer is asking another signmaker.
What it costs youThe sign goes to the workshop that replied that same afternoon.
An illuminated sign is bought so it can be seen when the shop is open and it is already dark. But the difference between face-lit letters, backlit letters with their halo on the wall and LED neon is hard to explain with a photo taken in daylight. The customer sticks with what they understand in that photo, which is almost never what looks best once the sun goes down.
What it costs youThe halo and the neon stay in the catalogue.
Depending on the council, applying for a sign permit means giving its dimensions and, if it is illuminated, details of the installation. The customer asks you what width it will be, how much it will consume and whether it exceeds what is allowed on their street. Working those numbers out by hand for every version is another task, and a mistake can mean remaking the sign.
What it costs youDelayed openings and signs that have to be altered.
Count only the design time spent showing signs before they are sold. Replace the example with your own numbers.
€ a month
The values are an example: replace them with yours. The calculation is a simple multiplication and does not come from any study.
The customer types the text of their sign, chooses a modern, classic or narrow typeface, the colour and the letter height, and sees it in 3D on a grey panel, brick or wood façade, with spacers or on a backing frame. They rotate it, zoom in and appreciate the depth of each letter.
The sign in 3D on the façade
With the night scene you can see the difference between face-lit, backlit and LED neon on their own façade. The comparison tool puts up to three versions side by side — white face-lit against gold backlit, for example — with the differences highlighted, and the customer chooses with their name already lit in front of them.
Day and night and a version comparison
Number of letters, height, type of light and fixing give an indicative price instantly, calculated with your price list. If the customer goes from 45 to 60 centimetres, they see it without waiting for anyone. And the order sheet comes out with letters, power supply and spacers, ready for the workshop.
Indicative price and order sheet
Every version comes with the approximate width of the sign and its estimated power. The customer takes them to their agent or to the council, and you do not have to work them out again every time a letter changes. It is all gathered in a PDF along with the image of the sign on the façade.
Width, power and PDF
The link is sent by message or opened on a phone with a QR code, and the customer tries colours and heights at home as many times as they like, without taking up the designer. By the time they write to you, they have chosen. The workshop spends its design time preparing the final version for production.
The configurator on a phoneType in one of your customers' names, set it in gold backlit on brick and switch on the night scene.
An open demo, with no registration, with example products and prices. It is designed for manufacturers, dealers and installers: private customers are welcome to try it, but we do not sell the product.
With your typefaces, your lighting systems and your price per letter in front of us, we go through what your website — or your resellers' — would need.
Most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the manufacturing rules and the integrations. Maintenance and hosting from €190 a month. We start from a base that already works: you are not paying for development from scratch.
Would you rather talk it through? Call 662 061 421 or write to grup3d@grup3d.es.
In the demo, letters with face lighting, backlighting, LED neon or no light, in six colours and three typefaces, from 20 to 120 centimetres high, fixed with spacers or on a backing frame. In your version we include your materials, thicknesses, typefaces and lighting systems, with only the combinations you actually make.
In the demo they choose between three typical façades — grey panel, brick or wood — by day and by night. They can also see it at real size in their own space in augmented reality from their phone, with no app to install, to get an idea of the scale of the sign against their door or their shop window.
The first thing we look at is how you quote today: by letter, by height, by linear metre or a combination of all three. That, along with the types of letter, materials and lighting systems you want to offer, sets the figure. Developments start from €6,500 for a visual configurator of one product family; most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the rules and the integrations, plus maintenance from €190 a month. In the demo we show you how it would fit into your website.
It gives the approximate width, the letter height and the estimated power, and collects them in a PDF with the image of the sign. They are figures that help prepare the paperwork, but every council has its own bylaws and requirements, so the application is still yours or the customer's agent's job.
Yes, if we include it in your development. Each reseller works with their own logo and applies their margin on top of your price list, and the orders reach you with the full production sheet. That way the design agency or the signmaker who does not make letters sells yours without calling you for every price.
The demo allows up to 16 characters, enough for a short trading name, and recalculates the total width with every letter and with the chosen height. If your signs have two lines, a logo or longer texts, it is adapted in your version to what you make.
See all the lighting and energy configurators → · See all the 3D configurators by sector →
Wallbox, post and battery
See page →Sizes, material, IP rating and mounting plate
See page →Single colour, dimmable or RGB · with the driver calculated
See page →A guide to choosing 3D letters: how to measure the façade, what letter height, face-lit, backlit or neon, fixing, width and wattage, and typical mistakes.
Read the guide (in Spanish) →