The important economic issues announced in the beginning of this year, such as the spin-off of the GS Group from the LG Group, are affecting even the sign industry. If a large corporation is divided or merged, it has to change its corporate identity (C.I.) and, therefore, a new quantity of sign production can be expected. This report will find out the scale in which corporations produce their signs and its spreading effect.

GS Group Expecting to Invest Huge Money for The Change of Signs
With the changes in companies’ C.I.s due to the merging and division of corporations, a considerable number of large corporations with nationwide networks are expected to start changing their signs this year. This is favorable news to the sign industry, which is suffering from doubly serious difficulties such as lack of order and price falls due to the economic depression. The most interesting case is the order quantity of the GS Group, which confirmed its spin-off from LG Co., Ltd. at the start of this year. The GS Group, which has LG Caltex, LG Mart, LG Engineering & Construction, and LG Energy, among other companies, as its major affiliates, announced its adoption of a new C.I. in a ceremony last March 31, and started to change the signs of its major company, LG Caltex, and of its other subsidiary companies and affiliates such as LG Mart, etc. It is known that LG Caltex will invest about KRW 150 billion to change its signs. About KRW 60 billion of this amount will be used by LG Caltex, which has 3,000 gasoline stations and 300 gas stations nationwide, to change its signs. Moreover, LG Mart plans to use about KRW 20 billion of this amount to change the signs of about 2,100 of its stores, including 2,000 branches of LG25, 73 branches of LG Super, 11 branches of LG Mart, and 3 branches of LG Department Store. The sign design and the selection of manufacturers are being processed by each affiliate company. LG Caltex has almost completed its selection of sign-making companies.

Finance Industry to Change About 1,000 Signs As Well
It is also worth paying attention to the sign change demands of the finance industry, which occurred with the industry’s reorganization process such as with the recent merging of foreign banks and domestic banks. The organization that first changed its signs was Citibank Korea. After Citibank acquired Koram Bank last year, the new Citibank Korea was established. From the start of this year, about 240 branches of Koram Bank started changing their signs and will complete them by the start of April. Moreover, since the Shinhan Financial Group and Choheung Bank agreed on their merger in 2003 and scheduled it this September, the 470 branches of Choheung Bank will have to change their signs soon. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) of the U.K. has confirmed its undertaking of Cheil Bank this year, so that from April next year, when Cheil Bank completes its contract, it would start changing its signs. Since Cheil Bank has 390 branches nationwide, the scale of the change is by no means small. Samsung Electronics Co. also changed about 250 of its Digital Plaza signs into ‘System Home Appliance Branch’ and ‘Computer Plaza’ signs to clearly reveal the specialty of each branch. It appears that the Hanhwa Group, which a few years ago has been rumored as planning to change its C.I., will finally change it this year.

Trend Towards 3D Signs Is Becoming More Popular
Until recently, most signs of companies were of the flat-faced type, which has the advantage of mass production due to its ease of production and its low price, among others. Two to three years ago, however, there have been active attempts to introduce new materials or production techniques that deviate from those of simple flexible-faced signs. The new sign of Citibank Korea, for example, is made of a specially-ordered and -produced curve-type polycarbonate panel adhered to a gradation color sheet. The notice of Seoul City effective July 1, 2004, mandating that only panel-type signs be used on the first floor of buildings located in certain regions and that only 3D signs be used from the second floor and up is also significantly affecting the 3D tendency of company signs. It is thus becoming more and more difficult for companies to stick to flexible-faced signs.