Health and Safety stickers are an essential part of the label portfolio of many companies, as they help to ensure that staff remain safe throughout their time at work. We’ve put together some top suggestions for how you can ensure that your health and safety labels are the best they can be, using optimal designs and materials.
Use Standard Symbols
One of the most important elements of a health and safety label is any use of symbols or icons to help communicate meaning. Many hazard symbols are a requirement, and normally conform to certain standards or general design principles, with common designs including warning triangles or diamonds. We’re able to incorporate these designs using all our print processes, although smaller shapes or those with multiple colours are more suited to digital or flexo production.
Ensure Text Legibility
Another essential aspect of health and safety labels is ensuring that any text remains clear and legible, no matter the size or form of print. We recommend using standard sans serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica, which remain clear and distinctive at a range of font sizes and don’t have additional complicated design elements. Many designs will also use text set in caps-lock, as this helps to ensure each letter is as large as possible even at smaller font sizes.
Pick suitable materials
Lots of our customers use coloured vinyl labels; these are a great option because the material itself is a strong colour such as yellow or red, and when paired with black print they make a particularly effective and distinctive label.
Frequently used colours for health and safety labels include yellow, red, blue and green. These are available as coloured vinyl, or can be printed using a range of print processes.
It's also important to consider how long your health and safety labels are expected to be used in their application. Ensure your labels are made from a synthetic material so that they are hard-wearing, and combine with protective laminates if the labels are likely to be exposed to harsh conditions or be in place for an extended period of time.
Consider Accessibility
Because health and safety labels are so important to all workers and visitors, they must be accessible and understandable, even to those with disabilities. One key example is selecting optimal colours for those who are colour blind. Green and black, for example, is a particularly bad colour combination, so look to use an alternative such as a green and white. This is also another reason as to why symbols are so important, as they also help to convert messaging.