RIBA Site Signboards: The best £90 you might ever spend
Whether you’re running a well-established practice or winning your first job, do not start a project without buying a RIBA Site Signboard. Having the practice’s name emblazoned on one of the distinctive red boards and clearly visible to passersby may well be the best £90 a business can spend.
Architects have been using RIBA Site Signboards for over 60 years. And though there’s a multitude of modern marketing channels to exploit these days, the board’s strong physical presence can pique the interest of potential customers just as effectively. And none other for so little outlay: £91, if you include VAT and postage. It’s a bit of a no-brainer.
That’s certainly the thinking of a number of practices who invest in them. Katie Knowles, co-founder of Knowles Whittingham, is one such architect. She set up the practice with an old university friend, Frances Whittingham, about a year ago; both had attained senior positions within large practices, but - with young families to consider - they wanted the opportunity to work more flexibly and call on each other for support.
Knowles Whittingham has been lucky in having a steady stream of projects, mainly residential or small scale commercial, in London, Kent, and even in the South of France.
Katie said: “It’s been a brilliant start for the practice, and using some of our old contacts has meant we’ve not had to do much marketing as yet. But we are now finding that things are slightly slowing down, so we do want to market ourselves, and the signboards come into that. When you've got a project on site, it’s essentially free advertising because the signboard is visible the whole time the scaffolding’s up.”
Her business partner Frances Whittingham added: “They are great value.”
One of the firm’s more prominent projects is a listed house on the quayside in Salcombe in Devon, where their RIBA Site Signboard can be seen from the Kingsbridge estuary as well as the street.
“Having RIBA's logo on display at the project adds a lot of weight to it – and being a chartered practice makes a client feel they are in safe hands,” says Frances.
The boards are available exclusively for RIBA Chartered Architects, RIBA Chartered Practices, and RIBA Client Advisers. RIBA Members are considered the gold standard of the architecture profession, so displaying a board proves they work to the highest industry standards.
Julia Cameron, director of Colchester-based Inkpen Downie Architects, agrees that adopting RIBA Site Signboards on projects is a badge of professionalism which reassures the client – and the public. That can be particularly important on the sort of sensitive sites the practice often works on.
Inkpen Downie Architects has developed a reputation for executing elegant solutions for difficult and constrained sites across East Anglia that often include historic buildings. They are working to transform Colchester's historical landmark and oldest standing building, the Grade I listed Holy Trinity Church, for example.
It has other high profile projects in prominent city centre locations. One of these is a new build, digital workspace, for Colchester City Council, on the site of the former bus depot, a sensitive site in the City of Colchester's Conservation Area, adjacent to Colchester’s Roman Wall. The new building will be known as the ‘Digital Forum’ and will be launched in 2025. Julia says that being involved in such prominent schemes and projects in busy locations has prompted the practice into displaying more RIBA Site Signboards to capitalise on the marketing opportunities they bring.
“It makes sense to put them in strategic places,” says Julia. “For instance, we are doing an extension to a listed dwelling, located in a popular Suffolk village, where there are many similar properties along the street, and a visible momentum for similar building activity. We deemed this as a key place for our signboard, in the hope people might consider contacting us for their project”.
She’s convinced that having a name sign displaying the well-recognised RIBA brand provides an extra level of trust. Public recognition of the RIBA logo, she feels, helps instil confidence that a professional and responsible firm is involved.
Julia has been impressed by RIBA’s ordering and specification process. “We did toy with producing our own signs, but we came to the conclusion that as well as having the kudos of the RIBA brand, the process of ordering from RIBA is just a more efficient use of our time. We found it all very straightforward.”
The signboards are available in standard sizes (1.2m and 2.4m wide), produced on a 5mm rigid board (suitable for outdoor), or a vinyl sticker (suitable for windows) or a mesh banner (suitable for outdoor/scaffolding). There’s space for contact details at the foot of the board and they can come with an integrated QR code too, taking those scanning it straight to a practice’s website. More bespoke designs are also available.
Many practices have won work from people who have liked what they have seen and got in touch.
And as well as providing a neat bit of marketing, Inkpen Downie’s director says there is also another important dimension to consider – the positive effect on the team. Says Julia: “We’re a small practice of six, and staff were very proud to see Ink Downie Architects displayed on signboards in the town, showing our credentials as professional consultants in the built environment. It really was a boost to morale – our team were really excited to get them out there.”
For more information and to order visit RIBA Site Signboards to download an order form, login to My Account and select the signboard tile under My Practice Benefits or email RIBA Design Services.
