How to use AI in Sign Design – An in-depth guide
Unsurprisingly, now more than ever, we receive enquiries from customers that reference AI. It tends to be in one of two ways: either they say they were recommended Carousel Lights through an AI prompt or they’ve used generative AI to create a mock-up of a sign they’d like, and they send us that image to ask us if it’s possible to make it as well as how much it costs.
We thought it was about time we produced an in-depth guide into how we’ve incorporated Generative AI into our signmaking process her at Carousel Lights. So here it is, a 100% human-written (is that a bit postmodern?) article by Ben, one of our Founders, about just that.
Using AI for Sign Design – Let’s get to it!
I’m the first to admit that the signage industry can be a bit stuck in it’s ways – often for very good reason. Heritage, quality and discipline are really important in trusted signmakers, but we don’t want this to be at the expense of progress. At Carousel Lights we’re proud that our customers come to us saying that we’re always keeping one eye on the horizon and coming up with the next big thing, so AI just had to be a topic that we covered as we’ve totally embraced it. This guide is aimed at clients who want to get a custom sign made, giving them hints and tips on how to incorporate AI into their request.
Ok, breaking this down, I think the best way to cover this BIG topic is to break it down into 3 sections: (i) How to use AI in your Sign Design request, (ii) Considerations you should make, and (iii) Case study examples.
IMPORTANT NOTE: All images in the main body content of this page have been generated by Carousel Lights using AI, unless otherwise noted.
1. How to use AI in your sign design request
Take a look at the animation below – this shows what you can achieve from a few simple – yet clear – iterations into AI.
Looks great heh? But let’s go back a step and have a think about how exactly you can use AI to help with your custom sign project.
Generate concept ideas to see your preferred signage style
Let’s say for example you own a small group of bars or restaurants and you’ve just taken on a new site. It’s in East London, so the vibe there is quite specific and perhaps your normal branding needs adjusting to be appealing to the target maket in that area. You can input prompts into Generate AI such as ChatGPT or Midjourney. With the examples belkow, we went through an iterative process whereby we wanted to see how a venue in London would look if it was called Nighthawks. We wanted to see how the facade might look in a weathered hand-painted finish, and then how it would appear if we used a different mix of neon and fairground lights on the front.
This is brilliant at helping you rule out – or rule in – certain types of lighting. We find that customers often end up being surprised at what they end up ruling in.
Create in-situ mock-ups to bring to life how it will look
Many people aren’t sure what type of sign they actually want. There are thousands and thousands of different options, which is great, but as we know choice kills! Whilst some people are great at imagining how their choice will look when it’s made and in position, we find that most people can’t envisage it.
Here’s where in-situ mockups can really come into play. You can upload a photo of the location in which you want your sign to be installed into a generative AI tool, and then also upload your logo or design if you have one. No problem if you don’t. You can then generate AI signage renders of whatever sign options you’re considering – for the two renders shown behind this hotel reception we simply asked for neon-effect in a cursive font and halo signage in a block serif font.
For simplicity we prompted for white illumination, but your variables are: size, font, material colour, light colour, sign location, how text is justified….you get the idea. You could spend all weekend on it and next thing you know it’s Monday morning again 😉
We took a slightly different AI approach with our coffee shop example here. We put ourselves in the shoes of a design agency or architect for hospitality, who specialises in fitout. We wanted to envisage what sort of style of sign would hit our brief – and make our client happy – so was promoted AI to initially create the coffee shop setting that we envisaged from our moodboards, and then after trying out various signage options, settled on this Coffee & Pastries sign as best achieving the look we wanted.
We then went back to the location of the unit on the high street and took the photo of the outlet with the lady walking past. We actually sourced this from Unsplash and is the only image on here that hasn’t been generated by AI.
We then asked AI to transpose the Coffee & Pastries sign it had created into the real photo of the unit that we uoploaded into AI. Great! So we’re now getting a picture of how the sign will look at that location, along with how the location will look when it’s been designed as per the mood board.
Generate design ideas from your logo
How to liaise with your signmaker
2. Considerations you should make
3. AI-generated signage – Case study examples
