Creating effective barricade covers requires a strategic blend of colors, designs, and messaging, but achieving the perfect formula can be challenging without expert guidance.
That’s where our partnership with signZilla comes in. Together, we aim to provide top-tier solutions for custom fence screens and barricade covers.
SONCO offers superior fences and barricades, while signZilla specializes in high-quality fence screens and barricade covers, complete with complimentary design services.
Leveraging signZilla’s expertise in custom fence screen design, we’ve curated a complete guide to help you elevate your branding with high-performance banners and custom fence screens for your business, construction site, or event venue.
Barricading and its Applications
Sometimes referred to as barrier jackets, barricade covers provide physical protection, privacy, and a wide variety of event branding opportunities.
Custom barricade covers slip over fencing used for crowd control at festivals, grand openings, and parades, among others. And when deployed as custom fence screens, they showcase eye-catching designs and messaging.
Custom fence screens can also include warnings to prevent job site injuries and the cost of civil litigation. These are common applications for barrier jackets.
Custom barricade covers for marketing
The versatility of high-quality custom fence screens is undeniable. Depending on the type of mesh selected, barrier jackets can showcase logos, slogans, and detailed advertisements.
This use has been a darling of companies that want to associate their brand with the good feelings people experience at music festivals and other events. Utilizing customized screens at conferences is also a common business-to-business marketing technique.
Barricade covers to aid in crowd control
Using custom fence screens at large events gives law enforcement and other crowd control professionals a material support tool. Messaging can be integrated to direct people to move in specific directions. Jacket barriers can also include warnings, such as “no pedestrians beyond this point.”
Fence screens can improve job site safety
Contractors are tasked with adhering to strict OSHA guidelines on construction sites. These federal and state regulations apply to employees, job site visitors, and curious passersby.
When erected around a work zone or selected area, fence screens help prevent flying debris from contacting pedestrians and motor vehicles. This application proves particularly useful in tight urban landscapes.
Fence screens can also prevent prying eyes from seeing the tools, equipment, and other assets being used on a project. Shielding clear views of a job site in this fashion helps deter thieves from trying to steal valuable tools.
If you would like to learn more about the ways barricading can benefit contractors and others, check out this Guide to Barricading in Construction.
What is a custom barricade cover?
A custom barricade cover is typically a type of mesh overlay that slips on and off temporary fencing.
These products are widely used to convey messaging or add to the aesthetic appeal of an event or landscape.
When custom screens are used to cover metal fences at events, it’s not uncommon for organizations to provide this space for sponsors. That is a consistent practice at little league baseball fields across the country.
What is important for decision-makers to keep in mind about custom fence screens is the relationship between the mesh and the branding. When temporary fencing is erected in wide open spaces, the mesh usually needs to allow wind gusts to pass through.
Should the mesh act more like a sail, a strong wind could topple the security fence. The opposite holds true for barricade covers in tight urban environments, indoor events, or festivals where surrounding trees offer adequate windbreak.
The point is that highly detailed and attractive custom screens generally require vinyl mesh to run in the 70 to 80 percent density range or higher.
The higher the density, the less airflow it will allow, making it more prone to falling. Conversely, the lower the density, the less printing surface available, resulting in less impactful marketing messages. To strike the perfect balance between airflow and a good printing surface for branding messages, we recommend using 80% mesh for outdoor events.
If you only need to print a logo or less detailed images, you can also opt for the 70% mesh for maximum airflow.
Benefits of Custom Barricade Covers
The benefits of custom barricade covers can be summed up in a few words — safety, security, aesthetics, and branding. But thinking about custom fence screens in these broad strokes can prove elusive.
Consider the following practical uses and benefits that companies routinely enjoy from barrier jackets.
- Homeowners use custom fence screens to complete an aesthetically pleasing landscape.
- Residential and commercial property owners can install temporary fencing with color-appropriate barrier jackets to prevent winter road salt and sand from negatively impacting their grounds.
- Public safety departments use barricade jackets to funnel walking traffic.
- Police departments use fence messaging to direct crowds and establish no-go zones.
- Contractors use customized barrier covers to meet safety regulations and lower insurance premiums.
- Outdoor concert promoters use temporary fencing with barrier jackets to establish VIP sections.
- Festival organizations use temporary fencing to form ticket lines, separate events, kiosks, and market brands.
- Youth sports organizations deploy fencing and customized jackets to separate spectators and participants.
- Marketing firms utilize custom fence screens to provide advertising opportunities for good-paying clients.
Perhaps the greatest benefit companies derive from custom barricade covers is connecting products, services, and ideas with everyday people.
A fetching logo, message, or design will resonate with consumers who pass by it. Unlike social media, radio, or streaming ads, people cannot fast-forward, hit delete, or simply change the channel.
As a branding opportunity, companies also have the benefit of targeting select audiences at events and locations.
Tips for a well-designed fence screen
Choose the right fence screen size
Unmistakable visibility is critical to sign design, so it’s vital to choose a proper sign size, message font and installation location. SignZilla’s creative team helps you select the best shape, size and orientation based on sign or banner placement and average viewing distance.
As you think about your sign’s size, font choice and layout, ask yourself:
Are there physical obstructions or other detractors that impair your message’s clarity?
If so, consider a larger layout, more distinctive font or increased color contrast. You may also want to move your sign, fence screen or banner to a more prominent location — or install multiple custom signs to ensure clarity from every angle.
Would custom barricade covers, and temp fence screens garner more views than other sign styles?
Remember, temporary fence screens and custom covers for barricades are unique, eye-catching ways to brand a venue, advertise an event or line your perimeter.
Plus, these products have other amazing benefits! Protect barriers from weather and daily wear while safeguarding construction crews from dangerous dust or debris blasts.
Barricade Cover Design: Simplicity Reigns
You’ve heard us say the most effective signs must be seen, understood and followed. While this may seem obvious, the execution can be tricky. To get your point across, keep custom barricade covers simple and direct. Remember:
- Content really is king. Place key text front and center to be seen at first glance.
- Drive action with focused headlines. From large event banners to the barricade signs commonly found along parade routes, high-quality headers spur action and coax viewers to learn more.
- Ditch the visual clutter. Sexy graphics and glitzy visuals seem alluring, but in the end, excessive artwork often serves to confuse or dilute key messages.
Stay On-Brand
It’s tempting to create flashy custom banners with fluorescent colors and gimmicky fonts, but the best custom screens are brand focused. Keep advertising and marketing tools consistent in brand voice and overall appearance.
A brand-forward approach prevents customer confusion and keeps your company top of mind. It also promotes logo recognition and assures a clear, memorable visual identity across every touchpoint — from highway billboards and brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce platforms and company-sponsored events.
Emphasize Visual Quality
There’s no doubt: pixelated images, poor-quality photos and gimmicky fonts taint your brand and convey a cheap, hasty design sense to customers and event spectators.
Our creatives develop professional templates and best-quality graphic renderings to produce the industry’s best custom barricade covers and fence screens. Using proper file formats and image sizes, correct color codes and high-resolution imagery, we deliver banners and screens that garner attention and promote action.
It’s Worth Repeating: Simplicity Is Fundamental
The best design is concise and uncluttered. Think of the last vehicle wrap you passed on the highway. Was it covered in photos, phone numbers, URLs and amateur graphics? Did you get lost in the visual mess, or were you confused about what they were advertising?
Clean, uncomplicated messages are “sticky.” They get the point across, linger in our memory and encourage us to take action. And, like the truck wraps that crowd your daily commute, well-designed business banners, festival signs and barricade art must be seen clearly by customers on the move — in cars, on bikes or on foot.
In the moment, it’s tempting to go crazy with graphics or exaggerate your marketing claims. But in the end, extreme tactics often obscure the most vital part of your message — and that’s the worst kind of marketing failure.
Custom Barricade Covers Can Help Your Organization
Smartly designed barricade jackets offer a rare opportunity to cost-effectively further marketing and branding goals.
Temporary fencing typically fills a pragmatic need to enhance workplace safety, manage crowds, and separate landscapes. By adding straightforward messaging and iconic designs to an appropriate mesh screen, your business, property, or organization can enjoy wide-reaching benefits.
We hope these tips for a well-designed fence jacket, screening material choices, practical barricade cover applications, and the benefits of strategically deploying them prove helpful.
If you would like to learn more about how to choose the appropriate type of barricade covers, reach out to the signZilla team of experts!
