Standardized, error-free, professional signage can help keep your facility running smoothly.
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Standardized, error-free, professional signage can help keep your facility running smoothly.
Look around your facility. Do you have postings that ask your members and guests to enter here, re-rack weights, be careful of this or that? Did you know that there are specific standards regarding what certain signs should say, their format and the symbols they use? An international standards organization, ASTM International (www.astm.org), developed specifications for signs that address areas like those in your fitness center.
Standards for fitness signs
ASTM developed the Standard Specification for Fitness Equipment and Fitness Facility Safety Signage and Labels (F1749-02) to address sign design, including font, color, placement, minimum wording and symbols (for which they referenced the American National Standards Institute). You may be wondering, what's wrong with my sign in the wet area of the locker room that reads "Floor May Be Slippery When Wet," written in 100 point Arial Black font? The benefit of using a resource like ASTM is that its guidelines are universal and international. When you put up signs to help or protect your members and guests, you want anyone who may walk into your facility to be able to recognize colors, key words and symbols. This could mean the difference between having to fill out incident report paperwork or not.Lose the tape
When posting signs, instead of using tape across the corners, or even rolled tape behind the corners, the better solution is to invest in uniform sign holders that can be mounted in strategic locations for your permanent and rotating signs. Have you ever seen a handwritten comment on a sign? While the comment may be amusing for a moment, ultimately, it's an eyesore. Sign holders look professional, they're harder to graffiti, it's easy to change notices, and you won't have to subject members and guests to unsightly corner tape.When done well, signs can be helpful and even powerful.