Location signs

A location sign tells the pilot which taxiway or runway the aircraft is on right now. A yellow inscription on a black background, framed by a yellow border — and never an arrow.

[SW] Location sign: yellow letters SW with yellow border on black, in a gray sign box with bird deterrent spikes

What a location sign is

A location sign tells a pilot which taxiway, runway or other paved area the aircraft is currently on. Where information signs point elsewhere and mandatory instruction signs say stop, a location sign only ever names here — and because that message combines with both of the others, the location sign is best understood as its own category. (Formally, ICAO Annex 14 and EASA CS-ADR-DSN file it under information signs, while the FAA gives taxiway location signs their own equipment type, L-858L.)

Because it identifies your present position, it is styled as the inverse of the yellow signs around it: a yellow inscription on a black background, framed by a yellow border. When the border applies depends on the standard:

Under ICAO Annex 14 Volume I (5.4.3.26) and EASA CS-ADR-DSN, the yellow border is required when the location sign is stand-alone — provided on its own rather than as part of a sign array.
The FAA (AC 150/5340-18H §1.6) goes further: every taxiway location sign (equipment type L-858L) carries the inset yellow border, including those mounted in an array.

So on an FAA airfield a location sign always has the border; on an ICAO or EASA airfield it is the stand-alone ones that do.

No arrows, ever

A defining rule of the location sign is that it contains no arrows — it makes no claim about direction, only identity. Under ICAO Annex 14 (5.4.3.32) a location sign shall not contain arrows, and the same restriction appears in EASA CS-ADR-DSN. If a sign shows a taxiway letter with an arrow, it is a direction sign, not a location sign.

Combined with both sign families

The location sign is the one message that pairs with everything:

With mandatory instruction signs — at a runway-holding position, the location sign stands beside the red runway designation (for example the assembly B | 04-22: you are on taxiway B, holding short of runway 04-22). The runway-holding position page shows exactly this combination.
With information signs — in a direction array, the convention is to place the location sign among the direction messages, with arrows to its left and right, so a pilot reads "you are here; these are your turns" as one assembly.
A location sign can also be mounted on the back of a direction or mandatory instruction sign so a pilot approaching from the other side reads their current location.

Draw them in Wingframe

Wingframe draws location signs to ICAO, EASA and FAA geometry — the yellow-on-black colouring, the yellow border as each standard requires it, and the character heights for the viewing distance. See what Wingframe can do.