On this page 5 sections
Cafe signs work in three time frames. A passer-by gives you about five seconds, so the pavement board and the window have to win them fast. Once they’re sat down you’ve got the length of a coffee or a meal, which is where menus, tent cards and the specials board earn their keep. And behind the kitchen door, signs and labels keep staff safe and allergen information straight. Here’s what suits each moment, with the sizes and materials we make them in.
Cafe signs for the first five seconds: pavement and window #
A-boards
An A-frame pavement sign is a frame plus a pair of posters, A2 or A1, ready in 5 working days on the Standard service. Treat the two faces as two different signs. Most people walk towards you from one end of the street, so that face gets who you are and what you do (“Fresh coffee, homemade cakes”). The other face gets today’s deal. When breakfast turns into lunch, slide in a fresh poster; the frame stays.
Picture someone strolling past, half looking at their phone. They’ll take in one offer, one price and your name, and that’s it. Squeeze the whole menu onto A2 and nobody reads any of it. Place the board in their path a few steps before your door, rather than pressed up to your glass, and take it in when you shut.
Windows
Window graphics in matt vinyl, as circles or squares from 300 mm up. Two do most of the work: your logo on the door glass and your opening hours at eye level. Add a bigger one on the main pane if what you serve isn’t obvious from the street.
Outdoor seating and barriers
Got tables outside? Cafe barriers fence off your seating and carry your branding to everyone walking by. Pick a Classic or Premium kit, 1000, 1500 or 2000 mm long, with print on one face or two. Want a longer line? Add extension kits, which only work alongside a full kit, so buy that first.
Watch the timing on these. Barriers are the slowest cafe signs we make: 17 working days before they leave us on Standard, 16 on Express and 19 on Saver. Order in early spring, not on the first sunny Friday. Most councils want a pavement licence before tables, chairs or barriers go on the public pavement, so make sure yours includes barriers. Leave enough room to pass for a wheelchair, a pushchair or someone with a cane.
The next fifty minutes: at the counter and the table #
Menu boards
Printed menu boards come in A3, A2, 500 × 700 mm and A1, on 3 mm or 5 mm Foamex or 3 mm Dibond, and take 3 working days on Standard. Foamex is fine for an inside wall; Dibond is for a board that lives outdoors. Ask for drilled corners so you can screw it up now and swap it later.
The specials board
Our printed chalk boards measure 1000 × 600 mm. Buy the bare framed board, or have your logo and headings UV printed onto it; either way it’s 5 working days on Standard. The trick is to print only what never changes (the logo, “Today’s specials”, the headings) and leave the middle for chalk. The board looks tidy even on the day the new starter writes the specials.
On the tables and the counter
- Tent cards, either a DL triangle with three faces or an A5 tent printed both sides. Use them for puddings, happy hour, or a scannable code that opens your menu online.
- Foamex strut cards in A4 or A3, portrait or landscape. They prop themselves up by the till or on a shelf, and a tough gloss varnish is available if they’ll get knocked about.
- Takeaway menus as folded, laminated leaflets. They start as flat A4 or A3 and fold in half, in a roll, in a Z or as a gate. The laminate on both faces means a quick wipe after a sticky-fingered browse. Flyers work for door-to-door drops.
Save money on reprints
The cheapest cafe signs over a year are the ones you don’t have to reprint. Put prices that rarely move on the printed menu, and prices that jump about on the chalkboard or a swappable poster. When a supplier puts the price of oat milk up again, you rub out a number instead of binning a board.
Toilets: small signs, big difference #
The washroom range has door signs for every combination you’re likely to need, including accessible and baby changing, in 150, 200 or 297 mm squares. They come in self-adhesive vinyl, Foamex or Dibond. Inside, hand-washing, turn-off-the-taps and don’t-flush-sanitary-products signs start at A4. Fix door signs at the same height throughout, beside or on each door, so wheelchair users and people with sight loss know where to look.
The kitchen nobody sees #
Not all cafe signs face customers. Some of the most important ones are for your team.
Machinery and hygiene signs
The kitchen and machinery range covers hot-running machines, safe procedures for dangerous machines, specific kit such as chippers, peelers and convector ovens, plus beard snoods and hand-washing reminders. On tiles or steel, go for vinyl. On a painted wall, Foamex looks neater.
Allergen and date labels
- Allergen labels. An “Allergy Advice” heading, then blank lines where staff write what the dish contains and what it may contain. Two sizes: a 62 × 33 mm oblong or a 51 mm square.
- Food rotation labels. Same two sizes, with space for what it is, when it was made, its use-by date and whose initials go on it.
In fridges and freezers, paper labels go soggy. Pick waterproof polypropylene and a permanent marker; our label material guide explains why.
A label is a handover note between shifts. Your allergen matrix and staff training still do the heavy lifting. For the 14 allergens and the rules on food made and packed on the premises, go to the Food Standards Agency.
Putting the order together #
- Slowest first. On Standard: barriers 17 working days, A-boards and chalkboards 5, menu boards 3. The count begins when order and artwork are both confirmed.
- Council first, pavement second. Sort the licence and ask about A-board rules before you put a single thing outside.
- One look. Same colours, same fonts on the board outside, the glass and the menus, so it all reads as one place.
- Artwork. Upload your own file for a free check by a person, design in the free online designer, or use the paid artwork service. Typesetting a menu into a clean layout is one of its fixed-price options.
- Delivery. £7.95 to UK mainland addresses, free on orders of £100 or more after discounts. The delivery page covers other areas.
Fitting out a new place, or need cafe signs we don’t list? Send the details through get a quote.