The art of sign making involves a number of steps and processes. It can be rather intricate, and each step has its own challenges and techniques.

For those just starting out in sign making there is one initial step that must be handled in the design process. This of course is the choice of the background of the sign. There are many signs especially ones used for roads and traffic which use a very simple background or no background at all. There is power in having a simple plain white background because it can often highlight the words of images in the foreground. Sometimes the background will have another plain color but this also has significance in itself. For example, the color red background indicates danger or caution.