The Wide World of Non-English Signs

MULTILINGUAL AND ESL (English as a second language) communities abound in the cultural melting pots of the US and Canada, to which immigrants are drawn on the promise of better opportunities and better lives. These populations generate a unique demand for dual-language and multilingual signage, where Spanish, Portuguese and Korean stand alongside English in dominance.

“Churches and restaurants are often the types of businesses that use a language other than English in their signage,” says DJ Hovis, sales representative for Legacy Sign (Westville, IN). The company recently created Korean and English signage for the Korean United Methodist Church in Flossmoor, IL, a project that presented no additional hurdles besides a need to double-check for accuracy.

A dual-language sign in English and Korean by Legacy Sign (Westville, IN) for the Korean United Methodist Church in Flossmoor, IL. Photo provided by Megan Swick.

Widespread demand

Half of the sign pros in our June Brain Squad survey reported that they occasionally design, fabricate or install signs in languages other than English, for a wide range of clients and functions: medical facilities, schools, tradeshows, casinos, even regulatory signage for weapons policies. “Typically we have non-English-speaking clients, or English as second language clients who are in the construction, painting, landscaping, hardscaping, pressure washing, moving or general ‘handy-man’ businesses,” says Lisa Schlick, manager of the sign department for Creative Printing and Internet Services (Boone, NC).

A vast proportion of these sign projects include Spanish according to the sign pros, which reflects the prominence of Hispanic and Spanish-speaking communities in the US.

“We are a Dominican-American minority-owned sign company. My parents [emigrated] from the Dominican [Republic] and we take pride in helping our community and being part of the process,” says David de Los Santos, D-Signs & Awnings Inc. (Allentown, PA). One member of our Brain Squad, Harold Pedley of Sign Engineering, is based in San Juan, Puerto Rico and delivers Spanish signage on a regular basis.

“We usually do these types of signs for the Mohegan Sun Casino and Foxwoods Resort Casino here in Connecticut,” Bob Burke of Burke Enterprise (Oakdale, CT) reports. “Most often they are for things like players-club booths, but some are for food outlets that specialize in ethnic foods.”

Regional variations

Just as English accents and dialects vary from region to region and state to state — the eternal “soda,” “coke,” and “pop” differences come to mind — Spanish is not a monolithic block but a diverse umbrella of cultural and regional differences, something that signmakers should keep in mind in order to best serve their clients, and perhaps broaden their own linguistic and cultural horizon in the process.

“There is a large Hispanic community in Colorado with many different dialects. Spelling and meaning of words can be interpreted differently,” says Dawn Homa of Signarama Brighton (Brighton, CO), which most recently worked with a food truck to translate its menu items from Spanish to English. They have also created wayfinding signage in Spanish and English for state parks, government agencies, medical centers and schools.

A casino sign design provided by Bob Burke of Burke Enterprise (Oakdale, CT) in English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

Translation issues and solutions

“Google Translate is not your friend when it comes to translation. In many cases we leave it to the customer and have their staff translate,” Homa notes, adding that her company has several Spanish-speaking staff members who can translate as needed. Melanie Harden of Creative Sign Designs (Tampa, FL) drives it home: “Make sure the client provides/proofs the messages! We did it ourselves one time and there was a word that in one Spanish dialect was a curse word!”

Nearly two-thirds of the sign pros who reported having worked on non-English signage in our survey emphasized accuracy of spelling and translation as their top priority. After all, if misspellings and typographical errors in an English sign copy leave bad impressions, they do so too a non-English sign copy — and worse, such errors imply a lack of cultural considerateness on the signshop’s part.

So what can you do to make sure that your non-English copy is free of errors that render the sign meaningless, or even skew its meaning entirely? For one, as Homa mentioned, translation tools such as Google Translate don’t always give accurate or intuitive, natural-sounding results. Lisa Schlick from Creative Printing usually receives emails in Spanish or broken English, which she copies into Google Translate for back-and-forth communication. She recounts an instance of working with a moving company staffed by Spanish speakers and managed by local folks with deep roots in the mountains, with a southern slang of their own.

“The moving company in particular had her employees take my Google Translate version and correct it to make sense for today’s realistic conversational Spanish,” she says. “I printed what they sent me and they have it posted for training/quality services for their company policies. Artificial Intelligence software isn’t taking over our jobs any time soon!”

No matter how advanced the translation tools, the sign pros advise having a native or fluent speaker check the copy for you: a bilingual staff member at your shop, a family member or friend, locals in the community or the customers themselves.

Most of Signarama Brighton’s bilingual sign copy was already translated by the customers before they set about making the signs. Hill House Graphics (Bristol, RI), which serves a community with a strong Portuguese cultural influence, employs the help of bilingual locals for proofing and guidance. “Usually [the locals] will gladly do it for a cup of coffee,” according to owner Ian McLellan. Up in the Great White North, Geoff Orlick and Quality Designs Ltd (Campbell River, BC, Canada) work closely with First Nation bands for projects in their native languages.

Character concerns

English, Spanish and languages that use the Latin alphabet are relatively clear cut in that each character represents a specific sound, and the distinct combination of these characters in a horizontal string results in distinct words — so long as the letter ‘A’ is shaped like the letter ‘A,’ the meaning is clear. Logographic languages such as Mandarin Chinese and Korean, on the other hand, present a different issue as the fabrication process can affect the individual components in a character, thereby affecting the meaning.

“Our biggest challenge is weeding vinyl with Asian characters on it. You never know what it says if some very tiny part is weeded out and changes the meaning drastically,” says Bob Burke of Burke Enterprise.

From fabrication to communication, the unique challenges in crafting non-English signage reflect the unique qualities of the languages themselves. As demographics shift and populations change, sign professionals have found and continue to find new markets, new ways to overcome production obstacles and new connections in the language communities in which they serve.