A restaurant sign has two jobs: bring people in from the street, and give the people already inside something to photograph with your name in it. Those need two different signs.
Warm White for anywhere food or people are photographed. Saturated color makes food look wrong, and food photographs are your best free advertising.
Two signs, two jobs
| Window or exterior | Interior | |
|---|---|---|
| Read from | The pavement, at speed | A table, at leisure |
| Size | 100 to 150 cm | 80 to 120 cm |
| Wording | Your name, two or three words | Your name, or something with character |
| Backboard | Black or none, to read against daylight | Mirror or brushed, to suit the room |
| Color | Anything strong | Warm White, near food |
Where the interior sign goes
- ✓ Above banquette seating or a feature wall, where people are already sitting facing it.
- ✓ Behind the bar, where a mirror backboard doubles the tube and adds depth behind bottles.
- ✓ Centered around 150 to 170 cm, so it sits above a standing person's head rather than behind it.
- ✓ With two to three meters of clear floor in front, or a phone cannot fit a person and the sign in one frame.
- ✗ Not directly over a table people eat at. Anything above a diner's head is one spilled tray from being a problem.
Heat, grease and cleaning
Restaurants are the hardest domestic scale environment a sign lives in. Keep it well away from the pass, the fryer and anywhere steam collects. Grease films build on any surface near a kitchen, and acrylic is unforgiving about how it is cleaned.
Cleaning is a dry microfiber cloth. If it is genuinely greasy, one drop of washing up liquid in water on a well wrung cloth, then a clean damp cloth, then dry. Never glass cleaner, never alcohol wipes, never a sanitising spray, all of which permanently haze acrylic. This is worth telling your closing staff explicitly, because the instinct in a restaurant is to reach for the sanitiser.
If it is going outside
A sign hanging inside the window is an indoor sign and needs no special build. A sign mounted on the outside face of the building needs the IP67 outdoor build, which adds about 25 percent, and it may count as signage for planning purposes where a window sign usually does not. Check with your local authority and your landlord before ordering.
Buy the interior sign first if you can only buy one. A window sign brings in people already walking past; an interior sign with your name on it travels through every photograph your customers post. Warm White, above the banquette, with clear floor in front of it, is the version that earns its money.
Frequently asked questions
What color neon sign is best for a restaurant?
Warm White anywhere food or people are photographed. A saturated tube casts its color onto plates, and food photographed under Hot Pink or Turquoise looks wrong. Save the strong colors for a window sign, where nothing is being eaten in front of it.
Where should a neon sign go in a restaurant?
Above banquette seating or a feature wall where people already sit facing it, or behind the bar on a mirror backboard. Center it around 150 to 170 cm and leave two to three meters of clear floor in front so phones can frame a person and the sign together. Not directly above a table people eat at.
Should the sign show my restaurant name or a phrase?
Your name. A generic phrase gets photographed and shared just as often and carries no attribution back to you. Your name in the background of every table photograph is advertising you never paid for.
How do I clean a sign in a restaurant?
A dry microfiber cloth. For grease, one drop of washing up liquid in water on a well wrung cloth, followed by a clean damp cloth and dried. Never glass cleaner, alcohol wipes or sanitising spray, which permanently haze acrylic. Tell your closing staff this explicitly, because the instinct is to reach for the sanitiser.
Can a restaurant sign go outside?
Only if it is built for it. An exterior mounted sign needs the IP67 outdoor build, which adds about 25 percent, and may count as signage for planning purposes. A sign hanging inside the window is an ordinary indoor sign and usually avoids both issues.
What size sign do I need for a restaurant window?
100 to 150 cm, because it is read from the pavement rather than from inside the room. Use a black backboard or no backboard so it reads against daylight, and keep the wording to two or three words.
We have made neon since 1998, and we still make it ourselves. If something here does not answer your question, ask us.
