As a sign designer, I'm often asked for suggestions of good sign colors. I answer with a question: what colors do the large independent real estate companies in your area use? Avoid those. Stay clear of colors used by the franchises. Go for unique. Color is a huge factor in how memorable your yard signs are to buyers.

The biggest mistake I run across is limiting yourself to one or two colors, picked from the 12 main colors of the color wheel. [Flash back to high school art class]. Our graphic artists and screen printers have thousands of colors in their palettes. They love creating color schemes if given the opportunity. Give them the freedom of using three or four colors for your signs...ooooh, they'll be fighting each other to work on your sign design!

Look at product packaging on supermarket shelves for potential color combinations. Millions of dollars are spent on package design. You won't find too many red and black on white color schemes there.

Here's two great web sites that will give you ready to use color schemes to use for your signs and other marketing materials:

Colour Lovers Explore the latest color schemes for brands, web sites, summer dresses and even tatoos! Man, I could spend days there.

Kuler An Adobe web site (you'll need the latest version of Flash to use it). Great color combinations from a community of graphic designers. You can even create color themes using flickr images.

Finally, check out our Real Estate Sign Gallery. We've assembled over 400 of our favorite designs, many with unique color schemes.

Real Estate Sign Blog.