Blog
October 9, 2026
How We Work With You on a Sign Board: Site Survey, Free Proposal, Costing and Fitting
What happens after you send us a photo of your shop front: the site survey, our free page-by-page proposal, the costing, and the making and fitting of your board.
How we work · Orchid Digitals, Pune
Your board, planned before it is made
A sign board isn't something I can hand you across the counter. It's made for one wall, one building and one brand, and then my team goes up and fixes it there. So before we talk about the final price, we plan your board with you, on paper.
This post walks you through exactly how that works at Orchid: what you send us, when we come to your site, what our free proposal shows you, how we arrive at the cost, and what happens after you say yes. Still deciding which kind of board you need? Start with our guide to choosing a sign board.
You start with
A few photos and a rough size
Our proposal costs you
Nothing
You see your board
Before anything is cut
The final price comes
Once the plan is final
Why there is no rate card
Every board is different
Clients often ask me for a price per square foot, as if a board were a sheet of paper. But no two boards are alike, and four things change the price of every single one.
A sky sign high up on a building: a very different job from a board above a shop.
That's why, for budgeting, we give a rough figure: about ₹2,000 per sq ft + 18% GST for our 3D LED glow sign boards. Your real price comes only after we have studied your project, and here is how we do that.
The size of every element
The letter A on one board is 2 ft tall, on another only 1.5 ft. Bigger letters mean more acrylic and more LEDs.
What goes into it
How much acrylic, how many LED modules, how big the ACP base is, and whether parts are 3D or flat.
Where it goes up
Above a shop at road level, or on the side of a 10-storey building that needs scaffolding, a pahaad or a crane.
How far it travels
A board near our shop is easy to bring over. On the outskirts of Pune or outside it, it needs a tempo or a truck and a team to fit it.
Step 1 · What you send us
Your logo, a rough size and a photo of the spot
Send us a few things on WhatsApp or by email. Rough measurements are fine at this stage; we only need to understand the scope of the job.
This is the photo a preschool sent us of their new shop front, with the fascia where the board was to go.
What to send
Your logo and artwork
Preferably as a .AI or .CDR file. We check and prepare it so it cuts and prints perfectly. We don't design logos, but we can recommend good designers.
A rough size
The width and height you have in mind. It doesn’t have to be exact.
Photos of the site
One straight on and one from a distance, so we see the wall, the height and what is around it.
The address
So we know how far the board travels and how hard the site is to reach.
Step 2 · When we come over
A site survey, when your board needs one
Most boards can be planned from your photos and measurements. For larger or tricky jobs, such as a tall building, a long fascia or a wall we must measure exactly, we send a person from our team to survey the site.
The site visit is a paid service. Think of the fee as an earnest-money deposit, a show of good faith on both sides: if you go ahead with the order, it is adjusted in your final bill.
What we check on site
Exact measurements
The real width and height available, so the board fits the first time.
Access and height
Whether we need a ladder, scaffolding, a pahaad or a crane to fix the board.
Power and wiring
Where the power point is and how the wiring will run to a lit board.
Practical issues
Water leakage, wet paint or repairs that need attention before the board goes up.
Step 3 · Your free proposal
Your board on paper, page by page
With your inputs in hand, we make a detailed proposal for your board, free of cost. Why put this much work into something we don't charge for? Transparency: you should know exactly what you are getting before you pay a rupee.
Here is what each page shows you. The examples come from real proposals we made for a hospital logo, a tools shop and a preschool (prices removed).
Saying a specification out loud and actually showing it in a proposal are two different things. With the proposal, you know exactly what you are going to get.
Proposal · The idea
What we are aiming for
The proposal opens with the idea: a quick picture of the board on your wall, by day and lit up at night, so we agree on the look before working out the details.
Proposal · The layout
Where everything goes
Next, every element gets its place: your name, logo, tagline, services and contact details, arranged so the board is easy to read and gets noticed. When there is more than one good way to do it, we show you options side by side and mark the one we recommend.
Four layout options, A to D, for one tools shop board.
Proposal · The dimensions
Every size, written down
A page with the overall size of the board and the height and width of every element. Check it with your architect or interior designer before anything is made.
Proposal · Materials and colours
What your board is made of
Every material that goes into your board, with a photo of each: the base and the frame, the acrylic and its thickness, which parts are lit and which aren't, the kind of LED modules and the power supply, and the colour of every element.
Proposal · Specifications
Your board, lit up at night
This page shows the board glowing, so you see at a glance which parts light up and which stay unlit, which parts stand out in 3D and which are flat, and how the board is fitted to the wall.
Proposal · The site render
Your board on your building, day and night
Finally, we place your board on the photo of your site, in a day view and a night view. You see how it will look on your own building before a single sheet is cut.
Step 4 · Your turn
You review it, we refine it
Go through the proposal with your family, your partners or your architect, and tell us what you'd like changed: a colour, a size, lit or non-lit, a different layout option. We revise it until you are happy with it.
Watch how we put a proposal together in this short video.
Step 5 · The cost
A price for exactly what you approved
Only when the proposal is final do we work out the cost. Because every material and size is now fixed, the price is for exactly that board, and we tell you what is included and what isn't: transport, installation, and extras such as a crane or a pahaad if your board goes up high.
Payment is 100% in advance, and fabrication starts once it is received.
If you don't like what you see at any point before you pay, you are free to walk away. The proposal costs you nothing.
Why it matters
What the proposal does for you
A sign board is a big investment, and it is what makes your shop, office or building visible every single day. The proposal protects that investment.
You see it before it is made
Layout, sizes, materials and a day-and-night render: no rude surprises when the board arrives.
You are free to walk away
The proposal is free. If it isn't what you want, you owe us nothing.
You can compare quotes line by line
Every material, thickness and size is written down, so you can set our proposal next to any other quote and compare like for like.
Everyone works from one plan
Share it with your architect, partners or landlord. What we make is what is on paper, so there is no room for misunderstanding.
Step 6 · Making and fitting
We make it, then we fit it
Once the cost is approved and paid, your board goes into fabrication in our workshop: laser-cut acrylic, the ACP base and frame, the LED wiring. A typical board takes 1 to 15 days, depending on the job, and we confirm the timeline in your proposal.
Good to know
Delivery
Free in Pune on orders of ₹3,000 + GST and above. Outside Pune, we ship the board; shipping is charged extra and told to you before dispatch.
Installation in Pune
On orders of ₹10,000 + GST and above, quoted separately after we study the site. Scaffolding, a pahaad or a crane is extra if needed.
Outside Pune
We ship the board ready to fit, with its fittings and a stencil for alignment. A local contractor installs it, or makes the frame or brackets that hold it, following our instructions.
Warranty
6 months from installation; repairs after that are chargeable.
Read next
Still choosing your board?
If you haven't decided between lit and non-lit, 2D and 3D, or what to put on the board, these two pages help.
Before you send us your photos
Guide
How to choose the right sign board
Three questions to narrow it down, what to put on the board, and a quick board finder.
Read the guide →Our boards
10 types of 3D LED glow sign boards
Box letters, channel letters, sky signs, metal letters, neon and more, with photos of each.
See the boards →Your turn
Planning a sign board?
Send us your logo, a rough size and a photo of the site on WhatsApp. We'll start on your free proposal.
Looking for any specific product?
Drop us a line. Send us your query. And we’ll get back to you with solutions and answers.
Mitesh Sanghani
Mitesh lives, mostly for Saturdays.
But when forced to work, you’ll find him heading Orchid Digitals – a printing press in Pune.
If it’s an emergency, try looking for him in the hills behind his house. You’ll almost certainly find him… lazing under a tree, with a book in hand.
