What should you check before approving a construction site board for print?

Write down what someone should understand from the board. Perhaps it needs to identify the contractor working on a refurbishment, introduce a development or explain a specialist trade's role. Choose the main message before deciding how many photographs, badges or services to include.

Record where the board will sit and how it will be seen. A pedestrian passing a site entrance can spend longer reading than someone seeing a board briefly from a distance. Give your designer a photograph of the intended position and the dimensions confirmed by your supplier.

Use that context when reviewing the layout. Can someone find the business name and understand the main message without reading every line? Is the next step clear? If the board needs a long explanation to make sense, decide which information belongs on a linked webpage instead.

Read the flat proof slowly, independently of the presentation mock-up. Check the business name, description of the work, project name where used, phone number and website address. Compare them with the approved source information rather than relying on memory.

Be precise about your role. A specialist contractor's board should describe its own work without suggesting that it designed or delivered the whole project. Ask the project lead to review the wording and confirm which names, logos and images have permission for this use.

Check claims and badges with the person responsible for keeping them current. If a detail cannot be confirmed, resolve it before approving the artwork. A designer can organise supplied information, but the layout cannot establish that a credential or project claim is accurate.

Open the displayed website address and test the phone number through your normal business checks. If there is a QR code, test it from a printed proof at the intended size and confirm the destination. Keep a readable contact route alongside it. Assign someone to maintain the linked page for as long as the board is in use.

A board that fills a laptop screen may still have a small phone number or an overcomplicated service list when produced. Ask for the finished dimensions and any artwork scale to be written on the proof.

Review the whole composition, then examine important details at their intended physical size. A full-size sample of the name and contact area can help you judge the lettering. Discuss the proposed viewing distance with the designer and supplier; a close-up check alone does not establish how the whole board will read in position.

Look for specific problems you can describe. Does a photograph compete with the business name? Does a service line disappear against its background? Is the contact information scattered across several corners? Ask for those issues to be resolved and check the revised proof.

Keep brand decisions separate from layout feedback. If the identity itself needs attention, our brand refresh or rebrand guide helps you decide what to commission. A print deadline is a difficult point to begin an unplanned identity project.

Ask the supplier for its current artwork specification before the designer prepares the final file. Confirm the finished dimensions, orientation, number of sides and any panel divisions or fixing areas that affect the design. Identify which areas must remain clear.

The specification should also explain the required file format, artwork scale, colour preparation and any bleed or printer's marks. Send that document to the designer, including the supplier's contact for technical questions. Avoid passing on settings copied from a different print job.

Bleed is artwork that extends beyond the finished edge so trimming does not leave an unwanted gap. Adobe's print-bleed guidance explains that principle and recommends using the PDF preset your print provider specifies. Its example settings are not a specification for every sign material or production process.

Similarly, Adobe's guidance on printer's marks says to confirm which marks the provider expects. Your role as the buyer is to make sure the designer and supplier are working to the same requirements, rather than choosing export settings yourself.

Give the designer the original logo artwork and the best available source photographs. A logo copied from a social profile or a picture forwarded through several messages may not be suitable for the size required. Ask the designer to assess the supplied files at the intended output size and identify anything that needs replacing.

Review the actual crop in the proof. Check that it still shows the relevant work, that captions match and that important detail has not disappeared behind text or at a panel edge. Keep image permissions and required credits with the brief.

If colour matching matters, discuss an appropriate proof or sample with the supplier. Agree what it will show, what it costs and who approves it. Treat a screen preview as part of the review, without assuming that it settles how the chosen material and print process will look.

Nominate one person to combine feedback. They can gather factual corrections from the project lead, brand comments from the marketing contact and production questions from the supplier, then send one agreed response to the designer.

Refer to the proof's filename or version and identify each change. For example: “On version 03, replace the old office number with the approved number in the brief. Keep the website address unchanged.” If two reviewers disagree, settle the decision before sending the consolidated feedback.

Review the complete revised proof, including details that were not meant to change. Once the content is approved, confirm which exact export the supplier will receive. A marked-up review PDF and the final production PDF need clear labels so they cannot be mistaken for one another.

This is a hypothetical example, not a Crafters client result.

A metalwork contractor commissions a board for a refurbishment project. The first layout has a large finished-building photograph, a small business name and the headline “Project by”. The contractor's actual package is the fabrication and installation of balustrades.

The project lead identifies the ambiguous description. The designer revises it to name the contractor's specific package, gives the business name more space and brings the website address into the main reading order. The supplier then confirms the finished size and a fixing area that needs to remain clear.

The office manager reviews the revised flat proof against those decisions, checks the contact destination and records the approved version. Each reviewer has answered a different question: whether the claim is correct, whether the message is clear and whether the file fits the production job.

Before the order proceeds, bring these details together in the job record:

• The exact approved artwork filename, version and date.
• The finished size, material, quantity and any separate front, back or panel files.
• Confirmation of the copy, contact details, images and permissions.
• The supplier specification used and any technical questions still open.
• The person approving the design and the person authorising production.
• The delivery requirements and who is responsible for installation.

If something remains unresolved, name it and assign the next action. “Design approved, awaiting supplier confirmation of the panel layout” gives a clearer instruction than an unqualified “looks good”. Do not let approval of a visual concept stand in for an agreed production order.

Retain the approved file and proof with the supplier's job reference. When a board is reused for another site, check the project wording, contact details and production requirements again before ordering it.

Crafters' graphic design service for construction businesses includes site-board artwork, with content, dimensions and production responsibilities agreed in the brief. Printing, fabrication and installation need their own confirmed arrangements.

To discuss a board, send us the message it needs to carry, a photograph of the proposed position and your supplier's specification if available. Include the deadline, the current brand files and who will check the facts and approve the artwork. That gives us a practical starting point for agreeing the design work.