Bay signage, no parking notices, wayfinding and condition-of-entry boards for private car parks. Printed on aluminium, composite panel or reflective sheeting at our Ravenhall workshop and drilled ready to mount.
Car park signage is two jobs wearing one coat. Some signs allocate space: reserved bays, visitor parking, accessible bays, tenant numbers. Others move people around: entry and exit, level numbers, the way to the lifts, height limits at the ramp. They are read in bad light by someone new to the building, which is why plain wording beats clever design.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Printed in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
One distinction matters before you order. Signage on a public road, including kerbside restrictions outside your building, is a matter for the local council or VicRoads and gets installed by them under their own rules. Inside a private car park the owner or body corporate decides what the signs say. If enforcement is intended, get advice on the wording first.
What we do is make the signs. Panels are printed, cut, drilled and where needed laminated in Ravenhall, sized for the mounting position you have. No minimum order, so replacing three faded bay signs in an apartment block is a normal job. On larger car parks our crews can fix the whole set rather than leaving a box with the manager.
Most car parks need the same handful of sign types. Getting size and material right stops the place looking like it was signed with leftover panels.
| Sign purpose | Common size | Best material | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reserved bay | 450 × 300 mm | Aluminium or 3 mm ACM | Wall or column at the bay head |
| Visitor parking | 450 × 300 mm | 3 mm ACM | Post at the bay, or the wall |
| Accessible bay | 300 × 450 mm | Aluminium, often reflective | Post-mounted, seen over a car |
| No parking | 600 × 450 mm | Aluminium or reflective | Entries, driveways, loading zones |
| Wayfinding | 1200 × 300 mm | 3 mm ACM | Above ramps, at decision points |
| Level or bay number | 200 × 150 mm up | ACM or cut vinyl | Columns, stair cores, bay ends |
Height matters as much as size. A bay sign around 1.5 to 2 metres to the centre clears a parked car and sits in the driver line of sight. Signs over a vehicle route need clearance.
Car parks are hard on signage. Damp air, exhaust, the occasional bumper, and lighting that ranges from bright to almost none. These choices decide how long a sign lasts.
Solid aluminium with a printed face is the long-life option. It will not rust, will not warp on a hot open deck, and takes a light knock without creasing. The choice for post-mounted signs and anything in a vehicle path.
Aluminium composite gives most of the durability at less weight and cost, which suits wall and column mounting where nothing will hit it. It is the default for bay signage, wayfinding strips and directional panels.
Retroreflective material returns headlight beams to the driver, making a sign legible at night from much further back. Worth it at entries, on ramps, at height-limit bars and on accessible bays. Grades vary in brightness.
Post-mounted signs sit above the bonnet line and stay visible when the bay is occupied, which is why accessible bays are almost always done that way. Wall and column mounting is neater and cheaper, but hides behind a parked car.
Ramp entries need a clear height limit somewhere a driver can still act on it, which means before the point of no return rather than at the beam. Reflective faces are worth the extra, since a misjudged clearance is expensive.
Numbers run as small panels, cut vinyl straight onto the column, or large numerals for a long aisle. Condition-of-entry boards go at the entrance, with type big enough to read from a stationary car and wording reviewed by the site.
Owners corporations order bay numbering, visitor signs and no parking notices, usually once the existing ones have faded past reading or a dispute has made allocation an issue. Orders tend to be small and specific, often a handful of panels matching signs installed years ago, so holding to the existing size and style matters far more than how new they look.
Retail car parks live or die on wayfinding. Entry direction, level identification, the route back to the lifts, trolley bays and time-limited parking all have to be marked clearly. Signs get read by drivers who are distracted and by pedestrians who are lost, so the same information usually has to appear twice, at vehicle scale and at walking scale.
Tenancy allocation drives most of the list on these sites. Named or numbered bays, visitor spaces near reception, deliveries at the dock, and a clear route in from the street. Tenant turnover means bay signs change regularly, which is a fair argument for a panel that swaps out on the same fixings rather than being redrilled every time.
Sites with high visitor turnover and drivers already under stress need the plainest signage of all. Accessible bays, drop-off zones, short-stay bays and clear directions through to the main entrance. Reflective faces help where people arrive after dark, and consistent wording across the site stops anyone second-guessing which bay they are allowed to use.
Most parking signs are typographic, so there is usually nothing to design. Tell us the wording, the size and where it goes. If you are matching installed signs, send a photo.
We set the layouts and send a proof with sizes marked, so wording and hole positions can be checked before cutting. Wording carrying legal weight should be signed off by the site manager.
These jobs are usually printed and drilled in a single pass at Ravenhall, which keeps a small replacement order from getting stuck behind a big run. Tell us when the car park has to be signed and we will be straight about the date. Pickup on weekdays, delivery Victoria-wide, freight interstate.
No, not on your own initiative. Kerbside restrictions on a public road are set and installed by the local council, and on major roads by VicRoads.
Private land is different. Inside your car park the owner or body corporate decides what the signage says. Changing a restriction on the street is a request to council, not a print job.
For bay signs, around 1.5 to 2 metres to the centre works in most car parks. That clears the roofline of a parked car and sits in the line of sight of an approaching driver.
Signs over a vehicle route need to sit well above the tallest vehicle you allow in. Where a sign must read while the bay is full, use a post.
On private property that is your call, and it depends on the lighting. A well-lit basement usually does not need reflective material for bay signage, and plain print keeps the cost down.
Reflective sheeting earns its place at entries, on ramps, at height-limit bars and on open decks where lighting is patchy. It helps on accessible bays too.
Solid aluminium for anything post-mounted or exposed to vehicle contact. It stays rigid, takes a bump without folding and will not corrode in a damp basement. Height-limit and entry signs are worth doing in metal.
ACM covers the rest. Wall-mounted bay signs, directional strips and wayfinding sit safely on 3 mm composite.
The international symbol of access in white on blue is the recognised element, and the sign is normally post-mounted so it stays visible when a vehicle is in the bay.
Beyond that, requirements can be set by the building surveyor, the standard for the building class, or a permit condition. Confirm the specifics and we print to that.
Tell us what you need and we will say what can go in the quote. Channel posts and hardware are commonly sourced locally, and plenty of buildings already have posts needing only new panels.
What matters at quote stage is the fixing method, so holes get drilled at the right centres. Send a photo of an existing post.
Workplace signage in the AS 1319 formats. Frequently ordered alongside car park signs for the same site, in the same materials and finishes.
See the detail →Aluminium composite panel, the base material behind most wall-mounted bay signs and wayfinding strips in a working car park.
See the detail →Cut vinyl applied straight to walls and columns for bay numbers and level identification, with no panel or fixings needed at all.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send a photo of what is there now and a list of what you need. Quote back within two business hours on a weekday.