Safety signage and pictograms

What is safety signage?

Safety signage covers all the signs and pictograms that indicate a hazard, a prohibition, an obligation or an exit. Unlike the rest of your visual communication this is not a design choice: shape, colour and symbol are standardised, precisely because they must be recognised without thinking and without knowing the language.

We supply safety signage to companies, industrial sites, schools, care institutions, municipalities and building managers, from a single sign to a complete plan with an on-site survey.

The five families a plan consists of

Prohibition signs

Round, with a red border and diagonal bar on a white background. They show what is not allowed: no smoking, no unauthorised access, do not extinguish with water.

Mandatory signs

Round and blue. They impose behaviour: wear a helmet, safety glasses, safety footwear.

Warning signs

Triangular, yellow with a black border. They flag a hazard: electrical risk, corrosive substances, forklift traffic.

Rescue and escape signs

Rectangular and green. They point the way to the emergency exit, the first aid post or the assembly point.

Fire-fighting equipment

Rectangular and red. They mark the extinguisher, the hose reel, the alarm call point.

A coherent plan contains these five families in the right places, no more and no less. An excess of signs weakens the legibility of the whole.

Where to place them

Prohibition, mandatory and warning signs go at eye height, at the point where the rule starts to apply: at the entrance to a zone, on the door of a plant room, beside a machine. Escape signage goes higher, so it stays visible above people, and at every decision point along the escape route, with confirmation in between.

A common failing: signs that have become obscured over time by furniture, storage or a new partition. It is the first thing an inspection notices, and the easiest to put right.

Versions and materials

• Rigid plastic (PVC or PP): the indoor standard, economical and light.
• Powder-coated or anodised aluminium: for outdoors and demanding environments, resistant to UV and corrosion.
• Stickers: for smooth surfaces, doors and glazing, including transparent versions.
• Photoluminescent material: charges from ambient light and stays visible in the dark. Essential for escape signage, because the indication must remain legible during a power failure or smoke.
• Floor marking: strips and pictograms that withstand forklift traffic and machine cleaning.
• Tactile signs: where touch or darkness makes visual reading insufficient.

Installation

Most signs are fitted by bonding, screwing or on a profile. The choice depends on the substrate and on whether they need to be movable later. In food and care environments we favour smooth surfaces without seams where dirt can lodge. In industry we allow for cleaning, chemicals, heat and moisture.

We can walk the site with you and supply a schedule giving, sign by sign, the position, material and dimension. That makes phased execution straightforward and the budget predictable.

Standards and obligations

The shape, colour and symbol of safety signs are standardised internationally, and Belgian employment law requires their use on the basis of your risk assessment. Which signs are needed therefore depends on your activity and the layout of the building; there is no universal list.

What we see most often in an audit: pictograms from an earlier generation still in place, evacuation plans that no longer match the actual layout, and obscured signage. We produce a schedule of what needs replacing, with a priority per item.

Maintenance and replacement

Photoluminescent material loses effectiveness with age and soiling, so it needs periodic cleaning and checking. Outdoor stickers fade depending on the quality of the film. Aluminium signs last decades. We recommend an annual check, combined with the evacuation drill, and supply identical replacements.

What determines the price?

Safety signage has no fixed price per sign. The cost depends on:

• The number of signs and the number of different formats; repeating one format strongly reduces the unit cost.
• The material and expected service life.
• Whether photoluminescent material is used, which costs more but is required for escape routes.
• Whether an on-site survey and signage plan are needed.
• Installation: height, substrate type, work during or outside opening hours.
• Special requirements: tactile signs, vandal-resistant versions, chemical resistance.

Send us your floor plan or invite us for a survey, and you will receive a proposal itemised per position, together with an order of priority if not everything can be done at once.

Have your signage checked

We walk the site and supply a schedule of missing, outdated or obscured signage, with a proposal per item. That is usually the quickest way to put things in order before an audit or inspection.