{"id":23048,"date":"2026-08-10T03:46:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T03:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/?p=23048"},"modified":"2026-08-10T03:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T03:50:12","slug":"presidents-post-august-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/2026\/08\/10\/presidents-post-august-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"President’s Post – August 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

President's Post - August 2026<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

It\u2019s been a busy month. I\u2019ve had my head down with plenty going on in my own business, as I\u2019m sure many of you can relate to.<\/p>

But amongst the busyness, I\u2019ve still managed to catch up and have a few good conversations with fellow signies. I enjoy hearing about what\u2019s going well, but probably even more, I enjoy hearing about the challenges people are working through. As they say, a problem shared is a problem halved – and quite often someone else has already faced the exact same issue and learnt something from it.<\/p>

A couple of those conversations lately have been around signs that simply haven\u2019t lasted as long as expected.<\/p>

You see, sometimes the problem isn\u2019t necessarily what we\u2019ve used. It\u2019s where we\u2019ve used it.<\/p>

My shop is based in New Plymouth, and we do work right around the mountain. One thing 25 years of doing this has taught me is that the sign I make on the other side of the mountain is quite likely going to be different from the sign I make here, where our main street is only about 500 metres from the Tasman Sea.<\/p>

Salt gets into everything. Something that might happily last seven or ten years inland can start looking pretty average surprisingly quickly near the sea.<\/p>

So, here are a few of my DO NOTs for exterior signage in coastal environments:<\/p>

  1. Zinc Screws? Just Don\u2019t.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

    This one blows my mind with how often I see it.<\/p>

    You make a beautiful new sign, install it near the coast, and before long those screws start rusting, leaving horrible brown streaks down the face.<\/p>

    The sign might be absolutely fine. It\u2019s the few dollars\u2019 worth of fixings holding it up that let the whole job down.<\/p>

    Use quality stainless fixings suitable for the environment. Simple.<\/p>

    1. Don\u2019t Let the Hardware Let You Down<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

      The same goes for galvanised eyebolts and D-shackles on under-verandah signs.<\/p>

      They might look fine when the sign goes up, but give them a few years of salty air and it\u2019s a different story. They rust, stain and deteriorate.<\/p>

      More importantly, they\u2019re part of what is holding that sign above people\u2019s heads.<\/p>

      If we expect the sign to last, the hardware holding it up needs to last too.<\/p>

      1. Seagulls Love Polystyrene. Your Sign Won\u2019t.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

        I remember a local shop getting brand-new dimensional signs many years ago. They looked stunning, all painted up in navy and red.<\/p>

        Within a few months, the seagulls had pecked away at the edges, revealing the white foam underneath. A three-month-old sign suddenly looked ten years old.<\/p>

        It\u2019s funny now. I suspect the shop owner didn\u2019t find it quite so funny at the time.<\/p>

        If you\u2019re going to use polystyrene outside, particularly around the coast, make sure it is properly protected with an appropriate coating system.<\/p>

        1. Raw Aluminium and Paint Don\u2019t Mix<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

          I see this on aluminium letters, lightboxes and tavern-style blade signs far too often.<\/p>

          The paint starts bubbling and eventually flakes away, and what was once a tidy sign looks rough well before its time.<\/p>

          Preparation matters. Degrease it properly, etch prime it, then use a suitable paint system.<\/p>

          Just because aluminium doesn\u2019t rust like steel doesn\u2019t mean you can throw some paint over it and she\u2019ll be right. Salt will soon prove otherwise.<\/p>

          1. Protect Those ACM Edges<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

            This would have to be one of the biggest offenders I see.<\/p>

            ACM is everywhere in our industry, and for good reason. But on exterior signage, particularly shop fascias, think about those cut edges.<\/p>

            A cut edge facing upwards becomes a perfect little shelf for moisture, salt and grime. Once corrosion gets into that exposed aluminium edge, you can end up with bubbling and delamination.<\/p>

            A sign that might give you seven-plus years inland can have its life dramatically shortened beside the sea.<\/p>

            Fold it, cap it, protect it or detail it differently. Just don\u2019t leave that edge sitting there hoping for the best.<\/p>

            1. Mild Steel Can Become More Than an Ugly Problem<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>

              I\u2019ve seen lightboxes, plinth signs and other sign structures fabricated from mild-steel hollow section with steel plates welded onto them, then painted and installed near the coast.<\/p>

              They look great when they\u2019re new.<\/p>

              Then the corrosion starts.<\/p>

              The plates begin blowing out, rust appears around the welds and joints, and the connection between the hollow section and steel plate starts corroding away.<\/p>

              Now we\u2019re not just talking about appearance. We potentially have a safety issue.<\/p>

              A freestanding sign blowing over or a projecting sign coming away from a building isn\u2019t just a callback. It can hurt someone.<\/p>

              We need to think about the whole life of the structure, not just how good it looks when we drive away from the installation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

              \n\t\t\t\t
              \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
              \n\t\t\t\t
              \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

              Make the Sign for Where It\u2019s Going<\/strong><\/p>

              Twenty-five years of making signs around Taranaki has taught me plenty – sometimes through getting it right, and sometimes through getting it wrong. And I\u2019m still learning.<\/p>

              I think that\u2019s one of the strengths of our industry. We talk, we share what works and what doesn\u2019t, and hopefully we all get a little better because of it.<\/p>

              So next time you\u2019re quoting an exterior sign, there\u2019s one extra question worth asking:<\/p>

              \u201cWhere is this sign going to live?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>

              Because sometimes the smallest change in how we make it today can add years to the life of the sign.<\/p>

              Logan Sutton
              Creative Director \u2013 Future Grafix
              President \u2013 NZ Sign & Display Association<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Twenty-five years of making signs around Taranaki has taught me plenty – sometimes through getting it right, and sometimes through getting it wrong. And I\u2019m still learning.<\/p>\n

              I think that\u2019s one of the strengths of our industry. We talk, we share what works and what doesn\u2019t, and hopefully we all get a little better because of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nzsda-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23048"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23056,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23048\/revisions\/23056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nzsda.org.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}