Your windows are free advertising space.

Cut vinyl — the essentials

Contour-cut lettering and logos applied straight to the glass: your name, hours, phone number, services. There's no background, so it reads as part of the window rather than a sign stuck on it. It's the cheapest option, the cleanest-looking, and the one every business should have before it considers anything else.

Applied to the inside face where possible, it's protected from weather and vandalism. Reverse-cut white or a dark colour depending on whether the glass reads light or dark from outside — get that backwards and it disappears.

Perforated film — see out, not in

Full-colour graphics printed on vinyl perforated with thousands of tiny holes. From outside, the eye reads the image; from inside, you see through it. It's how you get a bold full-window graphic without blinding your staff or making the space feel boarded up.

The trade-off is honest: it does cut the light and it slightly softens the view out. It also picks up glare at night when it's brighter inside than out. For a big promotional window it's unbeatable; for a window someone sits beside all day it may not be.

Frosted film — privacy that isn't a blind

An etched-glass look that diffuses the view while keeping the daylight. Conference rooms, clinic windows, restrooms, office partitions, and the lower band of a storefront where you want passers-by out of the sightline but the light in. It can be cut into patterns, bands, or your logo, so it does branding and privacy in one go.

If you want privacy and heat control, that's commercial window film — a different product that can be combined with this on the same storefront.

How much glass should you cover?

Less than you think. A window covered edge to edge stops feeling like a shop and starts feeling closed, and retailers consistently find that being able to see people inside pulls people in. A common approach is a clear band at eye level, graphics above and below.

Check your lease and your city too — some municipalities and most shopping centres cap the percentage of glass you can cover, and some fire codes require clear sightlines. Worth a call before you design.

Combine them

The best storefronts use all three: cut vinyl for the name and hours on the door, frosted on the lower band for privacy, perf on one big window for the current promotion. See window & floor graphics or send us a photo of your frontage.