Barn Signs

Advertise on the Barn Theater at UCSC

A well designed billboard can be a highly visible way to get the word out to hundreds of commuters and visitors who pass the Barn Theater each day in buses, bikes, and cars.
Barn signs are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Put in a request for a Barn Sign now

Pricing (effective July 2023)
Basic charge: $375 per panel
Additional characters (over 80) –  $8 per character
Complex design – $25 per each additional .5 hour
Correction or adjustment requested by customer –  $50

• Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
• All UCSC departments, organizations, or campus-sponsored events are invited to request billboard space.
• Programs of the Arts Division have priority for available space, but we are typically able to accommodate other campus units each quarter.
• A request for a Barn Sign does not a guarantee that space will be available.

Designing an Effective Barn Sign

• In design, less is more.
• We strongly recommend designing within the 80-character limit (to maximize readability and effectiveness as well as value for investment).
• Submit your final artwork as a 2″ x 7″ horizontal image at 300 dpi
• Approved file types include: png, jpg, pdf
• Use simple, striking art and clean, easy-to-read type.
• Use contrasting colors for background and text.
• Arts Division related campaigns should incorporate the Arts Division logo lockup into their design.
• Browse some recent Barn Signs for reference and inspiration. 

The Painting Process

Our painter projects your artwork after dark onto a freshly painted panel and hand sketches the projected design onto the panel. He then returns during daylight hours to hand paint the sign using the sketch as an outline.

• The painter approximates colors by hand mixing latex paint.
• The painting process takes a minimum of 2-3 days, depending on the complexity of the artwork, the weather, our painter’s availability, and the general schedule of reservations for the panels.
• During the rainy season, your sign may be delayed. In rare cases we will try to take advantage of dry weather and may ask permission to paint over your sign just before its final date in order to accommodate the next user before a big rainstorm. We appreciate your flexibility.

Meet our Artist

Local sign painter, scenic artist, and muralist Jim Urban has been painting barn signs at UCSC since the early 1980s.

Jim renders all the artwork for each barn sign. He projects the artwork after dark onto a freshly painted panel and hand sketches the design onto the panel. He then hand paints the sign during daylight hours. The entire process may take 3–5 days to complete.

To read more about Jim see this feature article.

Answers to FAQs

• Once completed, a Barn Sign typically stays up for approximately 7-10 full days, though some may remain up for two weeks or more depending on space availability. Your particular sign’s schedule will be identified when final space availability is determined each quarter.
• Barn Signs are hand painted. The final artwork painted on the side of the barn will not be identical to the digital art that is submitted. The painter doesn’t color match using matching systems (such as Pantone), instead he creates and mixes paint colors to match the artwork as closely as possible.
• The final charge covers the painting work and is unrelated to the length of time a panel is viewable.
• Your expense FOAPAL (eg. xxxxx–xxxxxx–X01261) is required to begin the painting process.

Questions? Please contact us at: artsmarketing@ucsc.edu