Sign Builder Illustrated March 2015

led retrofits

New Lighting for Older Cans

vinyl at the movies Decals & Wraps for Film

www.signshop.com

Number 237 | march 2015

How-To

Custom

Orders

3

e1 g a nP

dO

Se

eO

A ur

A

N E W

D I M E N S I O N

I N

C R E A T I V I T Y

CORAFOAM / DUNA Board HDU ®

DUNA-USA’s CORAFOAM® HDU is engineered to be the “Gold Standard” of HDU sign substrates.

Our innovative “continuous-roll production method” means our cell structure is the tightest on the market.

Find out why signmakers insist on “the green foam” and request your sample of CORAFOAM® HDU today!

Call us at: (281) 383-3862

“At Signs By Van, CORAFOAM® is an absolute essential product for our sandblasted, carved, and CNC routed signs. Throughout our 30 plus years in business, we’ve used every alternative brand of HDU, and CORAFOAM® has always exceeded our expectations in quality and durability. For over one thousand signs, it’s the only HDU we use!”

– Phil VanderKraats

Come See Us at ISA 2015 at Booth #4884

www.dunagroup.com/usa

/dunausa

@duna_usa

March 2015

52

26 26

Orders of Channel Letters

BY JEFF WOOTEN

A custom sign shop designs and builds for various restaurants.

32 37

Retro View

BY MIKE ANTONIAK

LEDs can brighten profits when channel letters lose their glow.

Highway to LED

BY JEFF WOOTEN

An auto dealership drives its marketing to digital.

41

Optimizing for ADA

BY LORI SHRIDHARE

Choosing ADA-compliant designs and substrates.

Sign Builder Illustrated (Print ISSN 895-0555, Digital ISSN 2161-4709) (USPS#0015-805) (Canada Post Cust. #7204564) (Bluechip Int’l, Po Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Agreement # 41094515) is published monthly

by Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, 55 Broad Street, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10004. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and Additional mailing offices.

Pricing, Qualified individual working in the sign industry may request a free subscription. 12 issues per year. Non-qualified subscriptions Print version, Digital version, Both Print & Digital version: 1 year US/ Mexico/Canada $50.00; foreign $99.00. Agency subscriptions: 1 year US/Mexico/Canada $45.00; foreign $89.10. Single copies are $15.00 ea. Subscriptions must be paid in full in U.S. funds only. Prices are subject to change.

Copyright © Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation 2015. All rights reserved. Contents may not be

2

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

46 46

Figuring It Out

BY ASHLEY BRAY

A sign shop shows the range of its capabilities on two projects.

52 58

Reel Vinyl

BY JEFF WOOTEN

Dynamic duo hits big and small screens with their graphics work.

Sign Assembly: Adhesives

BY STEVE WEBB

How new structural adhesives solve readthrough problems in signage.

reproduced without permission. For reprint information contact: Arthur Sutley, Publisher (212) 620-7247 or asutley@sbpub.com.

For Subscriptions & Address Changes, please call (800) 895-4389, (847) 763-9686, Fax (847) 763-9544, e-mail signbuilder@halldata.com, or write to: Sign Builder Illustrated, Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, PO Box 1172, Skokie, IL 60076-8172.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sign Builder Illustrated, PO Box 1172, Skokie, IL 60076-8172.

Instructional information provided in this magazine should only be performed by skilled crafts people with the proper equipment. The pub­lisher and authors of information provided herein advise all readers to exercise care when engaging in any of the how-to activities pub­lished in the magazine. Further, the publisher and authors assume no liability for damages or injuries resulting from projects contained herein.

signshop.com

Agenda

How-To Columns

MARCH 2015

22

March 10-12: Digital Signage Expo, co-located with the Digital Content Show, is scheduled to be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. (www.DSE2015.com)

Partnering for Progress

16

Departments

16 Appetite for HDU

BY MARK K. ROBERTS

Creating a faux-sandblasted sign from HDU blanks.

22

Appetite for HDU

Partnering for Progress

BY DAVID HICKEY

Getting planners to see the benefit of signs doesn’t have to be confrontational.

6

UpFront

8

Dispatches

10

Sign Show

62

SBI Marketplace

St. Patrick’s Day? Editor Jeff Wooten points out that there are a few more days in March you can celebrate too.

The latest news from around the industry.

The newest products and services from sign manufacturers.

Advertisements and announcements from the sign trade. led retrofits

New Lighting for Older Cans

64 Shop Talk

vinyl at the movies Decals & Wraps for Film

www.signshop.com

Number 237 | march 2015

How-To

Ashley Bray details how a little-known role in the sign industry is making a big impact.

Custom

Orders

On the Cover This custom-fabricated sign for Moe’s Southwest Grill lights the way in Durham, North Carolina.

Photo: Sean Busher.

4

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

March 13-14: The Mid South Sign Association’s “New Ideas, New Possibilities” Conference happens at the Hilton Garden in Monroe, Louisiana. (www.midsouthsign.org)

APRIL 2015 April 8-11: The 2015 ISA International Sign Expo tradeshow, with educational and networking events, will be held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. (www.signexpo.org)

MAY 2015 May 3-7: LIGHTFAIR® International, the world’s largest annual architectural and commercial lighting tradeshow and conference, is scheduled to take place at the Javits Center in New York City. (www.lightfair.com)

JUNE 2015 June 4-6: The 2015 SEGD/ NEXPO Conference will occur in Atlanta, Georgia. (www.segdexpo.org) signshop.com

BRILLIANT COLOR: High-density ink delivers consistent rich, bold and glossy colors for maximum impact and leading outdoor durability and lightfastness.

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Local support from the industry’s best resellers | www.sii-printers.com | 800-264-1272

Up FRONT

by jeff wooten

March 2015, Vol. 29, No. 237

Mark Your Calendars

Sign Builder Illustrated (ISSN 0895-0555) print, (ISSN 2161-0709) digital is published by Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation executive offices

President and Chairman Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr.

Special days this month to celebrate your shop’s work.

“I

n like a lion, out like a lamb.”

You’ve no doubt heard this proverb, primarily used to describe the beginning and end of March, ever since you were a child. But what about all those other days in-between?

Aside from the requisite St. Patrick’s Day (or even if you’re one to get down with that whole Ides of March), you might not think there are any “special” days this month that can be celebrated by you and/or your shop.

However there actually are several specially designated days in March that can tie into (or be stretched to tie into) your sign-making skills.

So grab the wrapping paper, bring out the party favors, and throw that leftover Valentine’s candy out with the bath water, as we look at some of these special days.

March 5: National Multiple Personality Day. Well this seems like a strange day to mention— but it is one that’s morphed from mental health awareness into an opportunity to “get in touch with yourselves.” For full-service sign shops, this seems a no-brainer when you consider all these different hats you have to wear for your clients.

This is also a good time to check out the International Sign Association’s recently released Sign Industry Quarterly Economic Report for the fourth quarter of 2014, if you haven’t already.

Compiled by IHS and Vandiver Associates and sponsored by the National Association of Sign Supply Distributors (NASSD), this study shows favorable conditions and expected better-thanaverage growth in 2015 for the varied fields of large format printers, digital signage, electric signage, and wayfinding signage.

It forecasts that growth in high-tech manufacturing is set to ramp up 3.3 percent this year, while management and technical support rev6

Publisher arthur j. sutley 55 Broad Street, 26th floor New York, NY 10004 212/620-7247; fax: 212/633-1863 editorial editor

Jeff Wooten

323 Clifton Street, Suite #7 Greenville, NC 27858 212/620-7244; fax: 212/633-1863 jwooten@sbpub.com managing editor

enue will lead the growth within digital signage service sectors. (Note: This research tool can be accessed at www.signs.org/quarterlyreport.)

And speaking of the different roles of fullservice, we’re also profiling several sign shops handling these different capabilities.

March 6: National Salesperson Day. Before you can go out and design, build, and/or install a sign project, you have to be able to sell said sign project to your customer. So take this day (always celebrated the first Friday in March) and acknowledge the sales craft needed to bring in these jobs.

This month, we have a variety of articles on the “art” of the sale related to ADA, lighting, channel letters, etc. On page 52, we even detail how a two-man shop “networked” to expand into wraps, decals, and lettering for a variety of movie and television productions.

March 29: National Mom & Pop Business Owners Day. And speaking of two-person shops, this day celebrates the small business owners.

No matter how large your shop is now, chances are good that it hails from humble origins.

It reminds me of the great line from Lawrence of Arabia: “Big things have small beginnings.”

But shockingly, although small- and mediumsized businesses create two-thirds of the 100 million jobs in our nation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that less than 50 percent of small businesses successfully make it past four years of operation. And according to the Small Business Administration, about 550,000 small businesses close each year.

So take a moment to appreciate the job small sign shops are doing. In fact, it’s an accomplishment that should be celebrated each and every day.

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

Ashley Bray

55 Broad Street, 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 212/620-7220; fax: 212/633-1863 abray@sbpub.com contributing writers

Butch “Superfrog” Anton, Mike Antoniak, David Hickey, Jim Hingst, Mark Roberts, Lori Shridhare, Steve Webb, Randy Wright art

Corporate Art Director Wendy Williams Designer Emily Cocheo production

Corporate Production Director Mary Conyers circulation

Circulation Director Maureen Cooney advertising sales national sales director

Jeff Sutley 212/620-7233; fax: 212/633-1863 jeffsutley@sbpub.com west & midwest regional sales manager

Kim Noa

212/620-7221; fax: 212/633-1863 knoa@sbpub.com Sign Builder Illustrated is published monthly. All rights reserved. Nothing herein may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher. To purchase PDF files of cover and layouts or hard copy reprints, please call Art Sutley at 212/620-7247 or e-mail asutley@sbpub.com.

Circulation Dept. 800/895-4389

signshop.com

Simple.

Superior.

Direct.

Introducing Duets Direct™ Manufacturer-direct engraving, ADA and architectural signage substrates from Gemini.

Durable ADA, laser and rotary substrates ■ The colors, finishes and sizes you need ■ Premium quality with factory-direct value ■

Order your Duets Direct Sample Swatch Binder and request free color swatch and material samples at DuetsDirect.com or call 800.548.3358.

QUALITY ENGRAVING, ADA AND ARCHITECTURAL SIGNAGE SUBSTRATES MADE IN THE USA BY GEMINI ©2015 Gemini, Inc. Duets Direct is a trademark of Gemini, Inc.

Dispatches

Magnet System

Pops Up Shop

8

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

Providence, Rhode Island—The Lady Project Summit is a networking event in Providence, and when founders Sierra Barter and Julie Sygiel wanted to add extra dazzle to their event by adding a pop-up shop to showcase member-made goods, Visual Magnetics came through with a versatile and flexible system of graphics and elements.

At the event space, Visual Magnetics’ team installed a small 10-by-10-foot pop-up shop space using temporary walls skinned with changeable MagnaMedia® wallcoverings that were printed with a maple veneer and zigzagging pastel pattern.

A custom-made modular table and pedestals skinned in a watercolor motif brought the look together, while custom logo layers for merchants helped to identify emerging brands. signshop.com

Matthews Paint Celebrates 80 Years

Thanks to the versatility of the Visual Magnetics system, the smaller graphic layers could all be repositioned on a whim if needed.

Brushed steel shelves fitted with Visual Magnetics InvisiLock® system were locked onto the wall without any a d h e s i ve s o r s c re ws t o s h o wc a s e smaller merchandise.

All of the elements in the shop were versatile, and the smaller graphic layers could be repositioned on a whim if products needed to be moved around.

A custom-made modular table and pedestals skinned in a watercolor motif brought the pop-up shop's look together.

signshop.com

“Last year, Visual Magnetics sponsored a fun, interactive photo booth for our event that had changeable backgrounds.

This year, we took it to a whole other level by creating an entire store using their versatile materials and fixtures,” says Barter. “A pop-up sounded intimidating, but Visual Magnetics made it easy to design on the fly.”

Delaware, Ohio—In 1935, FDR was pulling the United States out of the great depression, Babe Ruth hit the final home run of his career, and Ed Matthews opened the first Matthews Paint store on Belmont Avenue in Chicago.

Flash-forward to today, Matthews Paint is celebrating eighty years serving the needs of the architectural signage industry.

The history of Matthews Paint is one of continual improvement to meet the needs of sign fabricators and architects. With expansions to larger facilities in 1968 and 1993, and the purchase of the business by PPG in 1995, Matthews Paint has met the challenges of growth and market changes.

Recent developments include the 2009 introduction of MAP-LV, the ultra-low VOC paint that helped secure Matthews Paint’s position as a leader in providing environmentally-­ minded products. This was also the year that Matthews Paint relocated to Delaware, Ohio in order to accommodate growth.

In 2012, Matthews Paint introduced its newly acquired brands— 1-Shot, Lacryl, and Field Master. The acquisitions broadened Matthews Paint’s representation in the sign fabrication market.

“As we reflect on our history, success, and future, we owe a debt of gratitude to our employees and loyal customers without whom none of this would be possible,” stated Jan Scheske, manager of Marketing and Customer Service at Matthews Paint.

To learn more about Matthews Paint, call 800/­3 23-­6 593 or visit www.matthewspaint.com.

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

9

SignSHOW CUTTERS/PLOTTERS Roland DGA Introduces Its Most Advanced Desktop Cutter Ever The new CAMM-1 GS-24 desktop cutter from Roland DGA is an unbeatable tool for creating vehicle graphics, signs and decals, and decorated apparel, especially with its Three-Year Trouble-Free Warranty. The GS-24’s robust build quality, redesigned cutting carriage and blade holder, 10x overlap cutting capability, and 350g of downforce (a 40 percent increase from its predecessor) allow users to cut a variety of materials ranging from 2 to 27.5 inches wide at speeds up to 20 inches per second. The bundled Roland CutStudio™ software lets you enlarge, reduce, reposition, rotate, and mirror images. An improved tiling function makes cutting oversized images a breeze, and you can even cut TrueType® fonts without the need for outlining. CutStudio supports BMP, JPG, STX, AL, and EPS file formats, as well as the ability to cut directly from Adobe® Illustrator® or CorelDRAW® (also included). www.rolanddga.com/gs

D I G I TA L P R I N T I N G E Q U I PM E N T/ S U P P L I E S Rowmark Expands Its Vision with a New Digital Printing Business Division Engraving plastics provider Rowmark LLC has launched GoVivid™, a new digital printing division offering the only onestop solution for the UV digital printing market. From a line of Direct-to-Substrate (DTS) UV/LED digital printers to inks, printable media, accessories, and sign-making extras, the inspiration for GoVivid was born out of the need to make DTS digital printing simple and understandable for experienced fabricators and novice business owners alike, supporting them from initial education to their sale of printed projects. With the help of a factory-certified GoVivid trainer, customers receive on-site printer installation support and education, along with all the materials and technical tools they need to get started. Upon their first printer purchase, GoVivid customers become members of an exclusive online community with access to personalized support, education, and valuable tools to help them fuel business growth. GoVividUSA.com

POI NT-Of-PU RC HASE Orbus Exhibit & Display Group’s New Exhibitors’ Handbook Catalog is Now Available Orbus Exhibit & Display Group™ announces the addition of dozens of new portable displays and several new exhibit lines to its extensive offering of tradeshow, exhibit, and display products in the first edition of its 2015 catalog, The Exhibitors’ Handbook. Some of the new displays and lines include banner stands, outdoor tents, pop-up displays, modular fabric displays, and more. Among the new products featured is the line of ten point-of-purchase display kits named Merchandise Express™ (pictured), which feature simple frames, shelving, pegboard, and push-fit fabric graphics.

Orbus has also added Xclaim™, a new pop-up system that combines a collapsible magnetic pop-up frame with push-fit fabric graphics. www.theexhibitorshandbook.com

ROUTERS/ENGR AVERS Kern Laser Systems Adds k-vision Camera Registration System to its Line of Lasers The optional k-vision package from Kern Lasers is a fully integrated hardware and software solution that allows for accurate cutting of printed materials. This process starts with a nozzle-mounted camera, which automatically measures the dimensions between registration marks on printed materials. The system then uses these measurements and the registration marks of the original cutting file to compensate for distortion and rotation. The slight adjustments that k-vision makes to the cutting file results in a perfectly matched cutout in the material being processed.

The entire camera system can be easily removed and stored in a protective box when not in use. The k-vision option is compatible with the entire Kern laser system lineup. 888/660-2755; www.kernlasers.com

Get Your Copy of the LaserBits 2015 Catalog The 2015 LaserBits catalog is filled with lots of new products and materials for laser engraving. Tips, settings, and ideas are on every page—making the LaserBits catalog an excellent resource to utilize. Each product listed has been lasertested for top-quality results. Inside its pages, you will notice that the company’s expanded product line includes Acrylic Sheets, Metal Shape, Wood Sheets, and so much more. You will also find TechLine plates that come in a semi-polished and a brushed finish. CerMark Metal Marking Solution is needed to engrave this product, with the result of detailed engraving permanently bonded to the metal to create a black-on-metal look. Both finishes are available in three sizes: five-by-seven inches, six-by-eight inches, and seven-by-ten inches. 800/733-7705; www.laserbits.com

10

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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GO BEYOND expectations.

The new Mimaki CJV150 Series cut and print devices go beyond extraordinary to deliver a wide range of applications. Eco-solvent inks in a variety of colors – including Silver – and advanced printing technologies means you can produce nearly anything in a single unit that fits your workflow. Precision cutting capability gives you the ability to deliver custom and short-run items such as labels, T-shirt transfers or package prototypes.

With the Mimaki CJV150 Series printers’ superb quality, color fidelity, and flexibility – plus cutting capability – you’ll go beyond the expected to increase your business and deliver more than your customers can imagine.

The CJV150 is available in four versatile media widths – 32”, 43”, 54”, 63”.

mimakiusa.com

© 2015 Mimaki USA, Inc.

info@mimakiusa.com

888-530-4021

SignSHOW AXYZ Offers the Choice of 366,918 Standard Machine Configurations AXYZ International understands that each industry requires a choice of machines that offer multiple processing areas and routing head configurations to accommodate different applications, and the company delivers a staggering 366,918 standard machine configurations. For the sign and graphics and digital printing industries, the AXYZ 4000 and 6000 series of machines provide a choice of processing widths that will accommodate virtually any sheet material used in these industries and typically include a radically expanded automatic tool change facility, Automatic Camera Registration system, and one or more knife-cutting heads. For plastic fabricators, the 6000 series accommodate standard sheet sizes and include the latest helical drive and servo drive options, while the Pacer-branded heavy-duty routing solutions eliminate machine vibrations that can lead to imperfect cutting. For customers processing large volumes of aluminum composite materials, the 5000 series provide up to forty feet of material processing length and triple routing heads that are designed to enable pendulum processing for continuous machine operation and maximum throughput speed. www.axyz.com

SERVICE TRUCKS/CRANES/EQUIPMENT New Aluminum Bed and Box Package Offers 60 Percent Weight Savings During the past decade, truck weights have steadily increased due to emissions and other design changes, so the need for a lightweight tool and equipment storage package has become increasingly important. Elliott Equipment Company, in collaboration with dealer MIRK Inc., has developed a new, lightweight aluminum body and toolbox package designed specifically for the company's material-handling HiReach aerial work platforms. This new aluminum body package allows owners to benefit from lower chassis costs and less maintenance, while retaining excellent versatility and resale value. It includes a two-piece aluminum bed with an extruded grip surface and can be fully customized to each user’s unique requirements with a variety of underbody boxes, torch boxes, and lamp bins constructed of treadplate or smooth aluminum with locking doors. Other options include tool trays, custom box sizes, bed cutouts for vertical boxes, and more. The complete aluminum bed and body package with six toolboxes weighs up to 60 percent less than a standard steel flatbed and toolbox setup. www.elliottequip.com

Pick Any Four!

• Quality:

Our innovative printable magnets are designed to deliver maximum print quality, durability, and magnetic strength.

• Service:

Our U.S.-based customer service is second to none, with real people answering the phone who care about your experience with our products.

• Value:

We can custom fabricate material to meet your exact magnetic material requirements, reducing waste and excess inventory.

• Reliability: Our unbeatable lead times include same-day service on many stock items, and custom material delivered in days, not months.

Don’t compromise—get all of the above with Magnum Magnetics® brand magnetic media!

800.258.0991 magnummagnetics.com/sbi sales@magnummagnetics.com 12

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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Clever Headline We’ve Got& You

Subhead 2go here Covered!

ORAJET® 3954 The specialized solution for textured surfaces.

Series 3954 is a versatile 2-mil film that is ideal for short-term outdoor advertising. This brick stone film possesses unique stretching capabilities for challenging, unsealed textured surfaces like brick, concrete block and poured concrete. Recommended for use with ORAGUARD® 290 laminating film.

www.orafolamericas.com 888.672.2251

SignSHOW S O F T WA R E - D E S I G N / P R I N T/ R O U T E R / E ST I M AT I N G Large Format Providers Can Use SAi Flexi Software to Produce Custom Wallcoverings SA International (SAi) has introduced a new interface for large format print providers to operate the HP WallArt 3.0 custom wallcovering application. Once a new design is uploaded, they can log on to the HP WallArt dashboard where they review and download jobs for printing. Thanks to SAi Flexi’s user-friendly new interface, jobs are now displayed with a preview in the Production Manager tool, a dashboard where the operator manages the queue and output device(s), checks job status, and selects the order of files for printing. The new interface uses JDF workflow to handle HP WallArt jobs easily and efficiently. SAi’s new workflow-enhancing HP WallArt interface can be accessed by any customers with branded SAi Flexi software running Version 11, Service Pack 6. www.thinksai.com

VINYL/VINYL FILMS/SUPPLIES New 3M Window Films Make Windows into Showcases With new 3M™ Window Graphic Film 8170-P50 and 3M™ Window Graphic Film 8170-P40, graphics manufacturers can offer top-quality films to showcase their customer’s brand and create striking messages. These high-performance cast vinyl perforated films allow graphics manufacturers the option to print cross-platform—including UV, latex, solvent inkjet, and screenprinting. The 4-mil cast vinyl films lay flat during printing and do not lift around simple and mild compound curved windows. With a 50/50 perforation pattern, 3M Window Graphic Film 8170-P50 offers balanced viewing from both sides of the film and is optimal for vehicle graphics. 3M Window Graphic Film 8170-P40 offers a 60/40 perforation pattern for greater printable surface and increased image quality with slightly reduced (non-imaging) viewing through the second surface. Both have a three-year expected performance life and are backed by the 3M™ MCS™ Warranty and 3M Performance Guarantee. 800/328-3908; www.3MGraphics.com

LARGE

doesn’t always mean

Heavy...

Down gauge your sign materials with Makrolon® LD • First choice for oversized or formed letters and cloud signs • Extensive industry standard color palate • Eliminates the need for diffuser films and textures

Get more information at sheffieldplastics.com or call 800.254.1707

A D VA N TA G E 119 Salisbury Road • Sheffield, MA 01257

14

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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Visit us at ISA Sign Expo in Las Vegas!

Booth 2779

1935

Ed Matthews opens first Matthews Paint store on Belmont Avenue in Chicago

1955

Ed Matthews Jr. joins Matthews Paint

1968

Moves corporate office to Wheeling, IL

1993 1995

Moves corporate office to Pleasant Prairie, WI

1985

Joins SEGD

800.323.6593 • www.matthewspaint.com •

2012

PPG buys Acquires 1-Shot, Lacryl Matthews Paint and Field Master

2009 2015

Introduces MAP-LV Ultra Low VOC. Moves to Delaware, OH

HOW-TO

By Mark K. Roberts

Dimensional

Appetite for HDU Creating a fauxsandblasted sign with HDU panels.

O

f all the signs I have made over the last thirty-five years of owning and operating my sign company, I would have to say those fabricated out of high-density urethane (HDU) are my favorite.

To begin, these signs are dimensional— which gives them an automatic “wow” factor from the start.

Creating hand-tooled HDU signs is not too hard at all. For example, this month, I will use a recent sign project I made for the nearby Antie’s Meat Market & Deli to help guide you in creating your very own faux-sandblasted HDU sign.

The most important item to begin with is a very accurate paper pattern with all the designs and details.

I created my paper patterns on my Roland

VP-540 printer and then took them to the electro-pounce table. Carefully unrolling the paper pattern, I secured them to the steel surface of the table, using magnets to hold the pattern in place.

Once the paper pattern had been “pounced” with the electric stylus, I removed all the magnets and turned the pattern over for a light sanding. I performed this with 220-grit sandpaper, using very little pressure.

After the sanding, I securely taped the pattern to the surface of the HDU material. Once secured, I “pounced” the charcoal bag all over the perforated paper pattern.

Once all the designs had been pounced with the charcoal, I carefully removed the pattern and applied a light coating of workable fixative that comes in an aerosol can.

After the pattern had been applied to the sur-

The Antie’s sign on the wall before light fixtures were added.

16

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

signshop.com

A division of World Industrial Equipment Inc

“Designer & Manufacturer of Lift Equipment”

With Over 45 years of experience Stamm Manufacturing’s Heavy Duty Aerial Lifts, have been meeting all your tough Aerial lifts needs. A wide variety of optional features gives Stamm Aerial lifts the ability to customize your aerial equipment needs to your specific requirements. Resolve your aerial lift needs today and put Stamm’s muscle to work!!

Towable Trailer mounted lift 43-21 with outriggers and Honda Pony-motor for hydraulic power. 43’ high reach and 21’ of side reach -- full hydraulic controls -stowed height 10’ 4”.

Reasonably priced at $39,500.00 or $499.00 per month with approved credit.

Standard Bucket truck 41’ working height Insulated boom - single stick controls, full hydraulic. 11’ service body mounted on F-450 V-10 Gas truck with trailer hitch.

Priced at $84,300.00

Lamp Lighter 43. 43’ working height insulated boom with full hydraulic controls and a 10’ lamp box mounted with full access roll up doors for lamp storage and sign faces storage. Mounted on 2015 Ford F450 chassis with V10 Gas engine.

Call for Price

A 2015 International 4300 with Manitex SC62 boom installed with aluminum body and tool boxes.

Call for Price

ATR-45 mounted on a 2015 F-550 Gas truck with 15’ flatbed body and 2 underbody boxes one set of outriggers, Reciever hitch.

Base unit available $106,000.00

43’ bucket truck with 11’ service body and New F-550 cab chassis Gas V-10 Ready to go for $77,980.00

Financing Available

4850 Orange Avenue • Fort Pierce, Fl 34947 • (772) 461-6056 MAIN PLANT • 1-800-226-5056 IN FLORIDA (772) 464-2716 FAX • www.stamm-mfg.com • Email: liftinfo@stamm-mfg.com

A. Spraying the Antie’s pattern to adhere to the HDU material.

B. Spraying the black paint through the pattern.

C. Hand-held routing of the Antie’s sign.

D. Attaching the left-hand side sign face to the frame.

A

B

face, I took my hand-held router and began cutting around all the shapes.

For the long, straight cuts, I used a straight guide to run my router down the side. This method guarantees a consistent depth and saves a lot of time when the graining takes place. (Note: Take care around the design elements and never get within a 0.25-inch of your pattern lines.)

Once the background had been hogged out, I worked some more detail in with Dremel tools. I like to carve my HDU signs with the Dremel tool and a conical-shaped stone cutter.

C

As Low

As

¢ EA.

8(for1100+ units)

Diamond Brite LED Channel Letter Modules Featuring Next Generation Technology Highest CRI • Tightest Binning Codes

• Next Generation Technology! Each LED uses its own lens without any silicone, to prevent yellowing from exposure to UV or salt water • IP68 rated modules and power supply for superior protection against dust and water immersion • Only requires 3-1/8” can depth • Supplied with 3M adhesive backing • Can be mounted with screws (not included) • Rated for approximately 50,000 hours of use 2 LED Module 3 LED RGB Module 4 LED Module

LED Standoffs

• Finishes: Polished Chrome, Matte Chrome & Black • Holds panel materials up to 1/2” • Perfect for lobbies & reception areas • Flat Cap-M10 thread • Up to 10 LED Standoffs can be run off of one power supply • Screws & anchors included

New

Now available with Red, Green, Blue and White illumination

Go to Web: Catalog 42, Page 1099

Outwater Plastics Industries, Inc. Serving the Industry Since 1972

1-800-631-8375 18

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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However the stone might look like a small stone cone but do not underestimate its power. This conical stone can zip right through eighteen-pound Precision Board™ with ease, so make a few practice runs and see how accurate you can be. This technique will take time to perfect, but you will quickly learn how much pressure to apply for accurate cutting.

Next I took my riffler files and created some interesting wood grain.

Most of the time, you will work your grain horizontally in a smooth, flowing pattern. I usually keep my filing to within a quarter-of-an-inch of the elements in the sign. If you get too close, you could easily ruin a section of your sign, and I know you will not be happy about that!

Exercise patience and never get too close to the pattern lines until the very end.

For close accuracy, I used a Dremel tool to carve the pattern lines within 1/8inch and then finished the beveling by carefully rounding the edges with emery boards.

Pay attention to accuracy as you bevel the edges. It is important that you do not rush this step. Make sure all of your bev-

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March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

19

els are consistent and survey the entire sign panel before vacuuming and washing the surfaces.

When I was satisfied with the panels and everything looked good, I thinned FSC-88 primer and applied it to the HDU surfaces in two light coats.

(Note: Apply the primer indoors or in the shade, as the sun will dry the primer too quickly—resulting in a notso-smooth finish.)

After the primer was thoroughly dry, I applied the latex enamel topcoat to the

E

E. Positioning the second panel of the Antie’s sign to the wall.

F. The Antie’s sign on the wall with gooseneck lamp downlights.

F

We added a small amount of latex caulk to the seam in the middle of the sign, which was painted to mask the two halves of the sign. primed HDU surfaces with a one-anda-half-inch brush, working at a good pace. I feathered out any brush strokes as I applied the paint, resulting in a nice, smooth finish.

The next day, we loaded the truck and travelled to the installation site.

Using a man-lift, we attached four horizontal aluminum angles to the concrete wall with masonry bolts.

After all the horizontal angles were securely in place, we lifted each half of the sign into place and secured them with four-inch lag bolts.

To complete the project, we added a small amount of latex caulk to the seam in the middle of the sign, which was painted to mask the two halves of the sign.

The Antie’s sign is now complete, and the new owners of the deli were thoroughly pleased with our product.

We are looking forward to our next assignment for this client, which is to create a wall graphic featuring their logo that we will begin soon.

MEMBER

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20

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

Mark K. Roberts is a thirty-fiveyear sign professional working in Houston, Texas.Visit his Web site at www.theintersigngroup.com. signshop.com

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HOW-TO

By David Hickey

Regulations

Partnering for Progress Getting planners to see the benefit of signs doesn’t have to be

Finding common ground between the sign industry and planners is vital—and mutually beneficial.

Signs and sign technology are areas in which few planners have had any formal training. They may not fully understand how important signs are to their community’s economic development.

But once they begin to comprehend more of these issues, we find that, more often than not, they are open to seek resolutions that benefit both goals.

The Planning for Sign Code Success seminars, like the one attended by the aforementioned Florida planner, have been the most successful method of outreach to this important community.

Since 2011, we’ve held 25 workshops around the country where we’ve trained nearly 1,000 planners in person. We’ve helped them understand the types of technologies related to signs, which leads to better regulations.

For instance, instead of banning electronic message centers altogether because they don’t like the light emitted, we’ve helped them understand dimming technologies.

Photo: pcruciatti / Shutterstock.com

confrontational.

T

he sign industry understands the importance of our products in helping businesses grow, and we believe communities should have access to good signage. Planners have had few opportunities to learn how signage contributes positively to a community’s aesthetics.

With this in mind, it might seem that the sign and visual communications industry and planners would be ready to argue. But this does not have to be an adversarial relationship. Take a recent chain of events in Florida.

A planner attended an ISA-sponsored Planning for Sign Code Success™ event. Later this person then sought out ISA staff asking for assistance with a sign code issue.

International Sign Association’s James Carpentier traveled to Florida to help educate the planner and their staff in person. This work resulted in language from research conducted by the Signage Foundation Inc., being included in the community’s proposed sign code, which was subsequently passed by the local council.

22

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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We’ve shown them scientific research that details the economic value of signage to the businesses in their communities. Then we’ve tied in how regulations can negatively impact those businesses.

No planner wants to see their community’s tax revenues go down or make it tougher for their fellow citizens to find jobs or even have local businesses fail.

That’s worse than what could be perceived as a permissive sign code.

We’re seeing a shift in some commu-

nities where planners and codes officials seek input from sign companies and local businesses before making sign code changes. Or if sign code changes go too far, they listen to businesses seeking relief.

Recently in Hollister, California, stepped-up sign code enforcement of sandwich board signs led to business complaints. In response, the city council reopened the issue of the codes.

The executive director of the Hollister Downtown Association told a local

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

newspaper: “We need to find that balance that’s aesthetically pleasing and works for the businesses.”

That’s a win-win and a goal that can be agreed upon by the sign and visual communications industry, end users, and codes officials, no matter what the community.

We’ve also seen a shift in understanding that sign companies have expertise in areas planners may not. If we show that we’re willing to work together, they might rely on that expertise.

That’s what Mike Burnett found recently in Newport News, Virginia. He heard about impending sign code changes that would’ve been bad for business there and contacted ISA. Burnett was provided with resources and two model sign codes, which he presented to the local zoning officials.

While he and local business leaders were prepared to make their case before the city council (which would vote upon the sign code), Burnett found out that the zoning staff had incorporated most of the changes the sign industry wanted.

Granted there will be times in which we must advocate a “no holds barred” approach for our industry and for the customers we serve, but more frequently, we’re finding planners who are willing to work together.

In 2014, we presented our first educational seminar at APA’s National Planning Conference. And we continue to exhibit at regional/state and national APA events, in addition to presenting Planning for Sign Code Success.

This is proving successful, and ISA will continue to invest significantly in this area.

It’s also a model that we can replicate.

We recently did so in conjunction with the International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI), exhibiting at five regional events and presenting educational material at two other IAEI meetings. This kind of outreach is a great way to answer local inspectors’ questions and clarify enforcement issues related to electrical signs.

Building these relationships with those who influence whether our signs are installed is important. And it doesn’t have to be confrontational to be successful.

David Hickey is vice president, Government Affairs, at ISA. He can be reached via email at signcodehelp@ signs.org. signshop.com

C h a n n e l L e t t e r s / By J e f f Wo ot e n / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

signshop.com

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Orders of

Letters

Custom sign shop designs & builds for various restaurants.

Rite Lite Signs of Concord, North Carolina not only prides itself on being full-service (project management, design, build, install, service, etc.), but they also relish their role as creative custom sign specialists. “We’re very interested in working on projects that give us a little bit of a challenge,” explains Sales Manager David Cornelius.

They have a firm grasp of the technologies and components they utilize to craft signage that’s more than the norm. Their projects can include prints or paints, and their staff boasts neon benders and LED module installers.

Vice President of Operations John Sullivan credits his company’s roster of forty employees (designers, fabricators, installers, etc.) for maintaining their creative edge. “We do a lot all photos: sean busher.

of hands-on collaboration and brainstorming on creative ideas with clients when it comes to construction and fabrication,” he says. “It’s a

The company, owned and operated by David and Tasha Catchpole, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last year (“Shop Talk,” February 2015). As mentioned earlier, they have a diverse set of capabilities—their shop floor features inkjet printers, CNC routers, automated brakes and sheers, spray booths, etc. And they’ve been fulfilling channel letter requests since the mid-1990s.

Typical clients include retail shopping centers, cinemas, educational campuses, health facilities, office complexes, etc.

One demographic that the company has done channel letter signage for is restaurants—both franchise (Mellow Mushroom, Firehouse Subs, etc.) and independent-owned.

Let’s take a look at some channel letter signage for franchise and non-franchise restaurants that this successful sign shop has worked on recently.

Moe’s Southwest Grill Rite Lite Signs built and installed this attention-grabbing, double-sided building-mounted custom sign for Moe’s Southwest Grill at a trendy shopping center district in Durham, North Carolina. It features steel open-face cans with exposed neon and letters, a face-lit arrow surrounded by decorative bulbs, and rows of yellow neon tubes inside the cans. Everything was mirrored for the opposite side (except the arrow).

It’s actually based on a similar sign hanging at Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando, Florida. Still Rite Lite was able to add some custom input. “The owners wanted to mimic its look closely,” says Cornelius, “but we did get to tweak it, due to code issues and what the franchisee wanted.”

The client emailed Rite Lite Signs a photo of the Orlando sign

good team effort.” signshop.com

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

27

The main set of Aria Tuscan Grill twenty-four-inch-tall letters are full welded construction made with heavy gauge metal for a more highend, artsy look.

The sign’s power supplies were placed in locations that would make it easy to service later.

with a few notes. Their designers imported the photo into CorelDRAW® to modify and outline it, before exporting it to AutoCAD for CNC-router production of the pieces.

All the components were painted separately using AkzoNobel paints before being assembled via bolts and welding.

The sign’s pieces are mechanically attached to one another, thanks to several strategically hidden custom-made brackets.

Rite Lite Signs successfully hid the daisychained wiring for the various light sources, which were routed through the brackets to jump to the next can or element.

The sign company placed some of the power supplies inside the sign’s cavities, some in the light box of the arrow, and another in the “southwest grill” cabinet. “We tried to keep them in locations where it would be easier to service later, if needed,” says Sullivan, “and not have to do a major disassembly of the sign.”

Since the sign features heavy steel plates, installation was achieved through the aid of the company’s crane truck. Rite Lite also used this vehicle to drill through the wall to attach the mounting brackets.

Not only was a lot of engineering required for the build—but the install as well. There happened to be a concrete floor running right where the sign needed to be installed, to meet the above-grade distance of foot traffic below. There’s also a semi-hollow “bump out” protruding from the building.

“They run i-beams through those columns to support all the different floor levels,” says Sullivan, “and we had to drill around them.”

28

But once the anchor bolts were set and anchored in place, this ended up being a relatively straightforward install. “It was 90 percent prep and 10 percent stick the signs onto the bolts,” reports Sullivan.

One challenge: Setting up the vehicle around the landscape and surrounding trees. “We were working over a sidewalk, so there was also a lot of pedestrian traffic,” says Sullivan.

Aria Tuscan Grill

City Smoke

The main set of Aria Tuscan Grill letters are bottom-mounted to the triangular, “open air,” aluminum composite canopy for this restaurant newly relocated at Bank of America’s corporate center in Uptown Charlotte. The letters are a full-welded construction built from heavy gauge metal. “The client wanted them very rigid, extremely square and straight,” explains Sullivan. “They didn’t want any oil-canning or any unnatural bends in the letters.”

“This is the opposite spectrum of basic, quickly fabricated, economical channel letters,” says Cornelius. “It was an artsy, high-end way of dressing up a façade.”

Other than going heavy on the metal, this set was built like fairly typical channel letters—acrylic face, trim cap, LED modules, etc.

The 1/4-inch-thick red “Tuscan Grill” letters are flat-cut aluminum and painted with AkzoNobel.

To provide down-lit illumination of them, Rite Lite installed a slightly protruding LED light bar beneath the “ARIA” letters. Its power supply is carefully hidden on the other side of the ACM canopy.

For installation on the busy street, Rite Lite used their light-duty service truck with lifting capabilities.

Earlier Rite Lite Signs completed work on a high-end, eight-foot-tall blade sign for the City Smoke restau-

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

This blade sign features openface neon channel letters with dimensional elements along its top and bottom.

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rant a few blocks up the street from Aria. This was part of the city’s remodeling of this district with stainless steel storefronts.

It features open-face bromo blue neon channel letters mounted to a corrugated metal background with dimensional

graphics and text at its top and bottom.

Rite Lite Signs finds that the best way to transport neon to a job site is to make sure it’s fully assembled in the sign before venturing out from its facility. “We wrapped it completely with plastic you’ll find on shipping pallets,”

says Sullivan. “We mounted the sign to the bed of our truck behind the cab to prevent it from getting hit by any kind of road debris.”

Sullivan credits his team of experienced installers for drilling into the exterior wall constructed from imported marble and terrazzo panels and then successfully lifting the sign to the wall-installed anchor bolts.

“Just rigging the sign to the crane and tilting it from a horizontal position up to a vertical one was probably the most dangerous part of handling this sign and keeping it in one shape,” he says.

The Midwood Smokehouse sports neon signage that resembles the classic galvanized corrugated metal architecture of a classic BBQ restaurant.

Midwood Smokehouse The owner of this unique barbeque restaurant in Charlotte wanted a sign that resembled the classic galvanized corrugated metal architecture a BBQ joint would sport. Rite Lite’s simple solution: Use actual galvanized corrugated metal panels. “We sourced those out the same way an old BBQ shack sourced them out,” says Sullivan, “to make it more authentic.”

Everything but the galvanized corrugation was framed out of aluminum.

The aluminum letters are mounted to the metal panels with stand-offs. Rite Lite added four open-face pig logos with an old-school mechanical neon chaser to make it appear like the pigs are chasing one another. They attached galvanized gooseneck lights at the top of the sign to downlight the letters.

The company used its CNC router to cut the aluminum letters and pigs.

“However we had to cut the galvanized metal by hand with nibbler shears because it was steel,” says Sullivan.

Sign visibility was important to the owner, so Rite Lite attached it to Ibeams nearest the roof of the building (away from the nearby stairwell) via bolts for a secure mounting surface.

The end-result: A nice mix of very modern-looking architecture with a very retro signage. “It’s not often one sees neon with chasers anymore, so we’re very proud to still offer them,” says Sullivan.

30

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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L E D R e t r o f i t s / By M i k e A nto n i a k / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Retro View

LEDs can brighten profits when channel letters lose their glow.

options. They can order an entirely new sign, or they can repair or replace only those sections where neon or fluorescent lighting has lost its luster.

Or they can rejuvenate said sign with an LED retrofit.

Business owners often turn to sign service providers for recommendations on what to do. Because of this, many sign shop owners now find the LED retrofit, properly pitched, can be an easy sell.

The promise of significant savings on energy, long life, and lower maintenance costs all resonate with the cost conscious.

Consequently more and more channel letters are getting the LED treatment.

“LEDs have become the default answer for retrofitting neon in channel letters, since channel letters tend to be 32

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

uniquely shaped,” says J. Bryan Vincent, co-founder and partner at Principal LED (www.p-led.com), an LED supplier that recently acquired all assets of its former competitor Ventex Technology (www.ventextech.com). “LED modules are a natural replacement for neon tubing wherever you have closed-face channel letters.”

Mark Abernathy, director of sales for US LED (www.usled. com), notes, “The only place where LEDs don’t fit the bill is where you have letters with exposed neon as part of the effect.

Otherwise LEDs are really the easiest way to do a retrofit.” signshop.com

photo: shutterstock.com/mehmetcan.

W

hen channel letter signs are past their prime, sign owners have several

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Savings Incentives Although one can be limited by the number of colors when using LEDs in channel letters, the manufacturers interviewed for this article present that, when you do the math and compare the costs with other lighting components, LEDs can provide a sensible return-oninvestment.

“The price of LEDs is very competitive compared with other light sources, and the payback time is very short,” states Dr. Densen Cao of LED manufacturer CAO Group (www.caogroup. com). “It will save the customer money immediately.”

With the potential to reduce power consumption as much as 80 percent signshop.com

compared to neon, an LED retrofit will pay for itself within a few years on energy savings alone, according to Mark Harris, national sales manager, Light Source Solutions (www.lightsourcesolutions.com).

“LEDs are easier to install and maintain, and they promise a long life—anywhere from 50,000 to 85,000 hours,” he says. “With savings on energy and maintenance, an LED retrofit is just a Sales 101, ROI-type sell.”

Most LED suppliers will provide their trade customers with cost-savings projections as a sales aid to help close the deal. As part of their services, they’ll also spec the entire project for sign builders who require that help.

“All they have to do is figure out the

time it will take to remove and replace the neon, build in their margin, and go,” remarks Mike Bluhm, sales manager for sign products at Sloan LED (www.sloanled.com).

Sourcing and Sign Assessment Sign makers should exercise some caution when choosing a supplier. LED suppliers and their components are not all the same.

As LEDs become increasingly popular across the lighting spectrum, new players continually enter this market, some with unproven solutions of questionable quality. Ultimately each retrofit depends on the integrity of the com-

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

33

Partners for Success In most situations, though, the retrofit involves removing all old lighting, wir34

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

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Before completing a retrofit, a sign shop should inspect each letter of the sign, and any cracks must be repaired to prevent light leaks and moisture penetration. The inside may require a cleaning or refresh with new paint. ing, and power supplies and upgrading to new LED components. Installation of adhesive-backed LED modules is simple, convenient, and easily accomplished. “With retrofits, you want to make sure it’s going to stay in place long term,” remarks Harris.

Some sign producers add a bead of silicone across the module or install some mechanical screws to ensure components stay in place.

When properly designed and installed,

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

the LED retrofit should serve reliably for years as an advertisement for that business and the company that installed and maintains it.

“This is part of the services a sign shop has to provide,” sums up Bluhm.

“The next time you notice a letter or two out in a channel letter sign, you might want to talk to that customer about the benefits of an LED retrofit.”

When the retrofit is in order, sign shops can get as much help as is needed signshop.com

photos (top half): us led; (bottom) shutterstock.com/nikkytok.

ponents used.

“Quality of the product is the most important factor,” says Cao. Company history, reputation, and range of LED solutions are all evaluation points. Cao advises to look for suppliers with products already proven in the market, and a solid service and support network, as well as overall cost of LED modules and power supplies.

“Focus on suppliers offering at least a five-year warranty,” adds Abernathy.

On any proposed retrofit, the initial challenge is assessing the existing sign and making sure all letters are good candidates for a retrofit. The installation location matters too. Some LED modules are waterproof; others only water- or moisture-resistant and will endure limited exposure to the elements.

“A successful retrofit can depend on the age of the sign, the facing, and if any of the letters are cracked or faded,” notes Harris. “The first thing to consider is the overall condition of the sign, then the inside of the channel letters.”

There are general evaluations to make regarding the maintenance of a channel letter sign and some specific to an LED retrofit.

“You’ve got to evaluate each sign, and each letter, on a case-by-case basis,” says Abernathy.

As far as the facing goes, for example, some acrylics will not properly diffuse LED lights, resulting in hot spots for individual LEDs. A replacement or a diffusion filter may be required for LEDs to illuminate the letters effectively.

Suppliers say each letter should be inspected inside and out, and any cracks be repaired to prevent light leaks and moisture penetration. The inside may require a cleaning or refresh with new paint to project and reflect new lighting.

Accessibility is also paramount: Can existing lights, electric wiring, and power supplies be easily removed and replaced without damaging the sign?

If any letters are not good candidates for the retrofit, the merits of replacing that letter versus replacing the entire series have to be weighed by the customer.

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An LED retrofit can pay for itself within a few years on energy savings alone. times they’ll ask for specific recommendations about the best type of LEDs for the project.”

Those unfamiliar with LEDs can turn to suppliers to figure out the most efficient retrofit—from design through installation.

“We need to know the size, depth, and stroke of each letter and then will do the layout for our customers,” ex-

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

plains Harris. “Photos help, and engineering designs are best.”

“We try to make it as easy as possible for the sign shop to do these retrofits,” says Abernathy. “Just give us a photo or a sketch of the sign with the measurement of each letter. We’ll then provide a list of how many LEDs and power supplies you’ll need and how they should be installed.”

signshop.com

photo: us led.

from LED suppliers.

Most will design the retrofit (with a detailed breakdown of the type and number of LED modules and power supplies required). Many will also give advice on installation.

“Typically if the sign manufacturer has built and maintained a sign, they know what they need in LED modules and power supplies,” comments Harris.

“Most of our customers have a lot of experience with these signs, but some-

D i g i t a l S i g n / By J e f f Wo ot e n / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Highway all photos (unless noted): optec.

to LED

A

An auto dealership drives its marketing to digital.

fter years of using a tri-face sign embedded in a threestory-tall pylon sign structure located along the Interstate I-95 corridor on the coast of Florida, the Daytona

Auto Mall in Daytona Beach recently replaced it with a doublesided, full-color LED video display. This new landmark has increased exposure for the auto dealers and helped drive up sales.

signshop.com

But it’s the behind-the-scenes story where the sign’s true message rests.

The flippers on the tri-face sign had completely stopped working. “With its failed components, they were basically stuck with just an expensive banner sign up there,” says Shawn Klinger, southeastern regional sales manager of digital sign manufacturer Optec Displays.

Due to the expense and time required

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

37

to replace the blade messages (as well as the cost to get it repaired), the owners decided it was time for an upgrade.

Their thoughts turned to using outdoor digital sign technology—however the city of Daytona Beach had other plans.

38

Using a sixty-foot Elliott Equipment bucket truck and a ninety-six-foot crane truck, Southeastern Lighting Solutions removed the old tri-face sign and installed the new digital sign in its place.

the industry standard on the 14-by-48foot billboards one normally sees on the sides of highways.

“The clearer or the more pixel density that’s within a particular cabinet, the clearer that image will be,” he says.

“They’re as tight as 10mm (as you’d see in Times Square) or as 25mm to 30mm center-to-center spacing on the LEDs.” And since every city municipality has a requirement in regards to square footage and setback for outdoor signs, Klinger asked Daytona Auto Mall owners what they wanted to accomplish with their digital sign.

“If they’re trying to do photos, there’s a certain density requirement or resolution that the sign is going to have to have,” he says. “And the more density in place and the more LEDs in the unit, the

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

clearer that image.”

Another factor is determining the viewing distance and the height of the positioned LED display. Image clarity isn’t a concern in larger applications.

“If the sign is going to be in a low-tothe-ground monument-type application (with walk-up traffic), you’ll need LEDs at a very tight resolution of 10mm,” says Klinger. “If you’ve got 100 or 150 feet viewing distance away from that sign, then you can start spacing those pixels out and probably offer a 16mm or 20mm.”

To help Daytona Auto Mall officials get a better grasp on resolution, during his sales meeting, Klinger provided them with video renderings featuring messages overlaid onto them demonstrating what 12mm, 16mm, 20mm, and 25mm displays would look like. This helped signshop.com

Photos (bottom row): southeastern lighting solutions.

Luxury Features When Daytona Auto Mall opened in 2001, it did so with just one vehicle seller. Today the establlishment sits on a mile-and-a-half property located on a service road running parallel to I-95 and housing thirteen brands and seven separate rooftop dealerships.

A digital sign, the owners thought, would make a fitting replacement for the broken tri-face sign. It would also be able to enhance the lots and provide room for displaying even more messages.

So the executive board conducted extensive research to determine manufacturers’ engineering, construction, and materials that go into a digital sign—all of which have a significant impact on its quality, durability, and cost of ownership.

Their choice: A top-of-the-line Optec 16mm Infiniti display with a 208-by-752 matrix. The UL 48 Listed and UL Energy Efficiency Certified sign measures 11 feet, 4 inches-by-39 feet, 11 inches, and depending on the conditions, it can be seen from up to half-a-mile away.

Patrick Shelton, marketing manager for the Daytona Auto Mall, is pleased that the new digital sign gives the dealerships the ability to quickly respond to situations and manage its messages.

“For example, if we have a sale, an event, or a new model introduction going on, we can upload new graphics or text and update our message quicker and more efficiently on a minute-by-minute basis,” he says. “I can change it right now and tomorrow return it back to what it had been promoting.”

Of course in the LED display industry, there are a variety of different options available.

So during initial meetings, Klinger put aside trying to sell a product and rather acted as a consultant, in essence educating the owners about digital signage technology.

“From a visibility standpoint, we focused on trying to explain to them what ‘standard’ is,” he says, “and the reasons for stepping up.”

According to Klinger, he explained how 20mm center-to-center spacing is

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“We can upload new graphics or text and update our message quicker and more efficiently on a minute-by-minute basis,” says Patrick Shelton, marketing manager for the Daytona Auto Mall. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// move the conversation away from price and investment and into image clarity.

However the final decision was made a little easier when the City of Daytona, disappointed with a prior digital sign installation involving a higher-res, moretext-based unit, changed its LED sign code to only permit 16mm products.

But this still required some finessing with the local government to understand intent on the part of the auto mall and the display manufacturer, which ended up being a good thing in the end.

“They originally wanted us to only use two colors,” says Shelton. “And we told them that this defeats the purpose of having a sign of this nature.

“They showed a willingness to work with us and adapt to our needs.”

On the Lot Southeastern Lighting Solutions, also of Daytona Beach, handled framing, electricals, set-up, and installation of the units.

Using a sixty-foot Elliott Equipment bucket truck and a ninety-six-foot crane truck, they removed the tri-face sign and installed the new digital sign in its place.

“We’ve done lots of digital sign billboard installations,” says Walt Cox, owner of Southeastern Lighting Solutions.

“At our shop, we assembled the video cabinets and added support brackets across the back of them.

“At the site, we lifted and guided into place the lower half as one complete piece and then fit the remaining cabinets in their respective positions for the top half.”

The entire installation took only a day-and-a-half, while removal of the triface had taken place five days earlier.

Optec officials were on-site to ensure everything was done properly and to provide any help. “If everything is installed in the proper manner, 95 percent of the time you’re not going to have an issue,” says Klinger.

They provided different preventative maintenance issues to consider when working with digital signs—such as cleansignshop.com

ing out the fans, ensuring plenty of ventilation, making sure that the cables were in the proper conduits, checking to make

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Road and Driver The auto dealership collective keeps the messages on its new digital sign display updated every thirty seconds, so customers feel like they’re always seeing something new. Even better, customers actually refer to the sign and specific promotions when coming in to buy a car.

Content management (text and graphics) is currently conducted inhouse with Shelton’s marketing team via Media Editor Pro software. “We aren’t able to do video yet,” says Shelton, “mainly because of a city ordinance that we’re diligently working on trying to get adjusted.”

Not only has this installation proved to be beneficial in attracting vehicle sales, but it also lays claim to the title of the largest LED display sign in the entire city.

“It’s strategically located,” says Shelton. “It benefits patrons and people onsite but also benefits people driving by on the highway.

“Our original tri-face sign was a good landmark, but with the digital capabilities that we now have and some of the messages we’ve been able to put up (9/11 remembrances, Veterans Day, Black Friday, etc.), it provides great visibility for us to the public that we’ve never been able to do before.”

The auto dealership collective keeps the messages updated every thirty seconds, so customers feel like they are always seeing something new.

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

signshop.com

A DA / B y L o r i S h r i d h a r e / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Optimizing for ADA Choosing ADA designs and substrates.

all photos: viscom architectural graphics.

G

one are the days of purely functional ADA signage when businesses were solely concerned with compliance. No longer does this equate to just simply blocks of Braille text or the handicap icon.

Today it’s easier than ever to design and manufacture compliant signage that is also worthy of being showcased in a design portfolio.

The credit is due to the range of substrates, the engraving techniques, and the design software lineup that are now available.

These are exactly the reasons why Jim Nordquist, president of specialists Viscom Architectural Graphics (www. viscomgraphics.com) in Largo, Florida, is excited about the possibilities of working with ADA signage.

“With all the new design software and users implementing modern and creative design practices, we’ve seen a nice upswing in the creative use of acrylics, metals, digital printing, layering, and signshop.com

other techniques in the design of ADA signage,” he says. “I still get giddy when our customers create a design that I’ve never seen before or combine different materials that one would never have thought would work together.”

Thanks to the range of substrates, engraving techniques, and design software now available to sign shops, the creation of ADA-compliant signage that features unique and creative designs is easier than ever.

Designs on ADA As a wholesale fabricator, Viscom doesn’t get involved directly with design but instead receives the sketches from the sign company or architect. However the experience of having reviewed hundreds of design plans has put them in the unique position of understanding what works and what doesn’t work.

“It is very common to see designs done in materials and methods that are not practical either in form or function or both,” says Nordquist. “Of course, cost is a major factor with signage, and when a customer designs something using a material or method that is costprohibitive, it can turn a once-affordable sign package for fabrication into something well out of a client’s budgeted pricing range.”

To eliminate this turn of events, Nordquist always advises clients unfamiliar with ADA signage materials, methods, and production times to consult with them first before designing a product that

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

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The type of material used will often dictate whether a shop can use rotary or laser engraving when creating ADA signs.

will be presented to the end-user client.

“As for modular systems, if it’s an inserttype of sign used for a framing system—like Vista, JRS, Arris, or others—we can usually accommodate those sign needs. However certain companies have proprietary signage lines that only those companies can fabricate signage to fit within their systems.”

Building ADA Signage The “101” of designing ADA signage is engraving, which include options for both laser and rotary engraving and blast etching. The latter uses an abrasive media under high pressure to “blast” away surface layers of material.

Viscom’s primary method is laser

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

engraving, which Nordquist notes they have chosen for its speed and capability to etch fine details. This form of engraving differs from rotary engraving as it uses a CO2 laser to burn away surface layers of material, as opposed to a rotating engraving bit (which chews away at surface layers).

“Laser engraving makes a fraction of the mess that rotary engraving does, and it has a much finer point area that engraves, which gives us the ability to achieve very fine detail,” says Nordquist.

Another disadvantage to rotary engraving is that it can be challenging to use on very small signs, as they tend to “fly away” when they are cut out. This issue is eliminated with laser. “It doesn’t require the material to be held down other than with a slight vacuum on smaller signs,” says Nordquist.

However Nordquist points out there are some benefits to rotary engraving.

“Rotary engravers don’t use heat to cut, which alleviates the fumes created in the process, whereas the laser must have a ventilation system to remove those fumes,” he says.

Nordquist adds that rotary engravers have the advantage of being able to choose from a wider selection of materials, whereas lasers can only cut laserfriendly materials. “PVC, for example, cannot be cut on the laser, due to the toxic gasses it produces when cutting,” he says.

Still, in weighing these pros and cons, ultimately Viscom chooses laser over rotary the majority of the time. signshop.com

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Falling Short on ADA As Viscom sees a diversity of design options submitted to them, they also see ADA sign designs that are non-compliant.

“We receive from our customers many ideas that are visually stunning yet fall short of compliance to the ADA Accessibility Guidelines,” says Nordquist, “and for good reason.”

Their customers’ main issue: Too many options, too little knowledge.

“Many of our customers own and operate successful sign shops,” says Nordquist, “yet due to the popularity of newer product offerings like digital printing and wraps, they don’t have the time nor the inclination to study all the nuances of ADA sign requirements for the occasional requests they receive from their clients.”

The result: The shop’s creative talents design fabulous-looking signs that simply aren’t legal.

But, Nordquist adds, this isn’t a reason to let potential sales slip away. “We try to guide our customers in the tweaking of their designs into compliancy,” he says. “We derived a simplified set of

44

guidelines that are a bit easier to decipher in comparison to the government’s rendition, and with this, our customers can typically design ADA-compliant signage, while keeping their customer’s original design intent intact.”

Guiding customers in this arena has paid off for Viscom, as Nordquist’s motto is: “Legal signage, happy customer!”

To keep customers well informed, Nordquist makes sure his team discusses the Accessibility Guidelines on font usage,

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

spacing, sizing, foreground and background coloration and contrast, background material gloss level, Braille dot specifications, pictogram use, and installation (among other topics) with customers.

“These areas all need to be discussed and understood prior to design and fabrication,” he says. “Being ‘on the hook’ for three hundred hospital room signs due to bad font usage or an improper background is the last place we want our clients to wind up.

signshop.com

“With a little bit of guidance and understanding, successful and creative ADA sign design and sales can be well within reach to most any sign shop.”

The Rules of ADA As the saying goes, in order to break the rules, you need to understand them first.

Knowing the Accessibility Guidelines means a company can stretch their creative limits to stay within the parameters yet still put out a unique product.

“This is where it’s beneficial to have creative team members and customers that can follow the rules but also bend them enough to create new and unique designs that customers aren’t used to seeing,” says Nordquist. “A recent new addition to the production in some market segments has been the choice of vandalresistant signage versus the traditional appliqué methods commonly used.

Nordquist says that while many of his customers feel that “ADA” is a scary word, there are many possibilities to explore.

When it comes to sorting out the market of wholesale fabricators, Nordquist offers some sage advice: Just because there’s a plethora of new technology and equipment available does not mean the company recently opened can handle the complexities of this work.

“Ease of ownership for lasers and CNC equipment has allowed many new ADA sign [providers] to ‘hang a shingle,’” says Nordquist. “While this can be a good thing for our economy, ‘a new set of scalpels and golf clubs does not a good doctor make.’”

Nordquist recommends asking the following questions when looking to hire a wholesale ADA sign manufacturer: + How long have you been in business? + Do you fully understand the legal ramifications of improper ADA sign design? + Can you provide me with any references and successfully completed major projects?

“Just keep in mind the usual questions and concerns that you would normally have when having any professional project outsourced,” says Nordquist, “especially one where legal action can come into play!” signshop.com

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F a b r i c a t i o n / B y A s h l e y B r ay / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Figuring

It Out

V

alley Wide Signs & Graphics hesitates to say it specializes in any one area; instead the shop does whatever it takes to get a job done—no matter if that calls for a custom sign or for a custom process that’s never been done before.

“I always say the answer is yes, and we just need to figure out how to go and do it,” says

Steven Gingras, who has owned the thirteen-year-old shop for the last five years.

Wall Signs That Wow Valley Wide Signs has done a lot of work with medical device company B. Braun Medical, so when the company wanted new interior signs to highlight its history, 46

the sign shop was top of mind.

B. Braun approached the shop with a drawing of a forty-foot-long illuminated wall sign that would showcase the company’s timeline.

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

Based on the drawing,Valley Wide Signs created a prototype that was the full 30 inches high but only 2-1/2 to 3 feet wide.

The shop presented it to the client, who was so impressed that he ordered ansignshop.com

all photos: valley wide signs.

The shop put this figure-it-out mentality to work to complete two recent projects.

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A sign shop shows the range of its capabilities on two projects. other wall sign to display the company’s product portfolio. (Note: After the two signs were installed, the client ordered a third sign for a total of 120 feet worth of signage throughout the building.)

The fabrication of the wall signs required a bit of research on the sign shop’s end.

The first hurdle was finding a material that would properly diffuse the LED lighting. Valley Wide Signs found that traditional acrylic wouldn’t work—the light went right through it.

Gingras turned to LuciteLux® for some material recommendations and ended up choosing LuciteLux® Light Guide Panel (LGP), a continuous cast signshop.com

acrylic specifically designed for edge-lit applications with evenly dispersed diffusion particles.

“LGP’s unique properties provided even illumination and allowed us to achieve the wow-factor and lit, floating effect we were aiming for in the design,” says Gingras.

Valley Wide Signs ordered fifteen to twenty sheets of LGP and cut them to about 7-1/2 to 8 feet long on their Vision Engraving and Routing Systems’ fourby-eight-foot CNC router.

Then using its CET Color X-Press 500 UV true flatbed printer, the shop printed the images in reverse onto the back of the material to create visual dimension and to prevent scratching. They lay down white vinyl over this.

“Our flatbed does not have white,” explains Gingras. “So instead, we just print all the other colors and then lay down a piece of white vinyl behind it. This makes it look just like it was printed with white.”

Valley Wide Signs also fabricated rails for the top and bottom of the sign,

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

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2014 SBi Sign Summit Sparks Ideas and Inspiration

Lori Anderson, president and CEO of ISA.

Mike Santos, director of Sales and Product Development for Nova Polymers.

On December 12, Sign Builder Illustrated held its first-ever SBi Sign Summit, a one-day conference dedicated to finding new profit avenues and markets, at the Hilton Tampa Downtown in Tampa, Florida. Speakers addressed the digital signage, dimensional signage, and digital printing sectors of the sign industry.

Dan Marx, vice president of Markets and Technologies at SGIA, discussed what’s happening and what’s on the horizon for the digital

printing sector of the industry. Key points included what distinguishes printers from one another (throughput speed), opportunities for differentiation (inks, materials, and finishing), and how to go beyond signs with graphic film applications.

Glenn Feder, director of Business Development at ISA, focused in on the sign shop’s place in the digital signage boom. He stressed that shops shouldn’t get hung up on the technology learning curve but, rather,

focus on what they do know, which is branding and messaging. Branding knowledge can be used to generate content, which is an opportunity for a renewable source of revenue in the digital signage market.

Mike Santos, director of Sales and Product Development for Nova Polymers, provided a closer look at the ways to manufacture ADA signage, including thermoforming, sand carving, raster and applied, Continued on page 51

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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photos (sidebar): ashley Bray.

Andy Reinhard, CEO of Wondersign.

which the faces slide into. Using their CNC router, the shop cut particle board to size. It then applied .040 aluminum sheets over the board and secured it with contact cement.

“It gives it a really nice, consistent look,” says Gingras.

The shop inserted 1/4-inch aluminum U-channels into the rails to hold the sign faces and the flexible strips of LED on the top and bottom.

“LEDs pretty much have to be right up against the acrylic. They can’t be away from it,” says Gingras.

The U-channels not only hold the LEDs against the acrylic, but they also keep the panels straight and conduct some of the heat away from the LEDs. It took about a day to install each wall sign.The rails were secured to the wall with one-inch standoffs, and the faces were slid into place. The standoffs make it appear as if the signs are floating off the wall.

“We created a template so that we knew exactly where all the holes went, and we could line it up perfectly down the hallway,” says Gingras.

Valley Wide Signs finds it is doing a lot more interior signs like these lately, which toe the line between interior décor and signage.

“It’s somewhere in between a sign and art,” says Gingras. “It really helps having the router and the flatbed printer.

You have the right tools, and you can get these done a bit easier.”

The wall signs were made from a combination of particle board, aluminum, and a special acrylic.

Revving Up a Rebrand On a rebranding project for Air Products, a supplier of industrial gasses, the right tools ended up being a bit more cerebral for the sign shop.

Air Products needed to update hundreds of tanker trucks with its new design, which called for a combination of paint and a yellow “momentum line” of vinyl.

The company wanted the trucks painted because there was a lot of “junk” on them that would prove difficult to wrap in vinyl. They also wanted the vehicles on the road for at least ten years before touch-ups or updates would be needed.

Air Products asked Valley Wide Signs to create kits that included the paint mask, the yellow vinyl line, and instructions for painters at five different locations to complete the rebrands.

The new branding elements include a signshop.com

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Rebranding these tanker trucks required a combination of paint, vinyl, and some math skills.

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

green/white interface, which is an arc of a circle, and the yellow momentum line, which is a completely different shape.

The challenge was to find a way to take the two-dimensional curves, translate them into three-dimensional space, cut them out of two-dimensional materials, and then create instructions for the painters to duplicate.

The additional challenge was that Air Products has ten different diameter trucks but only wanted to stock three different rebranding kits.

Valley Wide Signs had a good, oldfashioned math problem on its hands.

Gingras fell back on his chemical engineering background for this one. Without a CAD program to help, Gingras used an Excel spreadsheet and some trigonometry and geometry to work out the dimensions so that everything fell into the right place.

For the mask, Gingras turned to his router’s layout program to lay out the two-dimensional design.

“I got the data points off of that and did the calculations,” he says.

Gingras cut the masks and vinyl strips out on his plotter, using 3M vinyl for the yellow momentum line.

He then wrote up directions and put in guide marks to help the painters line everything up.

“If you put one point in exactly the right spot and then lined up this extra stripe with the green and white interface, everything came out perfectly,” says Gingras.

Thanks to the success of this project, Valley Wide Signs is now helping Air Products to rebrand thirty to forty additional vehicles. signshop.com

Continued from page 48 photo engraving, and the photopolymer process. He also touched upon the new ADA sign code and explained what really changed with the updates.

During the Keynote Luncheon address, Lori Anderson, president and CEO of ISA, gave some insight into just what it is the sign industry provides. She described the ISA’s efforts to prevent and eliminate restricting sign codes, as well as its efforts to help usher in a new generation of sign makers and installers at a time when 63.7 percent of shops are concerned about finding new workers.

Andy Reinhard, CEO of Wondersign, presented on digital signage content. He warned that with the wrong content, even the most dynamic digital signs risk fading into the noise of signage and media that people block out.

He also pointed out that digital signs work best when they have a clear purpose.

Ken VanHorn, director of Marketing and Business Development for Mimaki USA, and Michael Maxwell, branch manager of Mimaki Technology Center, dove deeper into dye sublimation printing, explaining that different inks work better with different materials and examining some key verticals in the market (interior dĂŠcor, soft signage, wearable/garment, etc.).

Rounding out the day, Ken Goldberg, CEO of Real Digital Media, and Brian McClimans, vice president of Global Business Development for Peerless-AV, provided a detailed look into all stages of a digital signage project, including the planning, execution, and maintenance of a sign system.

Visit www.signshop.com to access presentations from the conference.

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11:32 AM

D i g i t a l P r i n t i n g / By J e f f Wo ot e n / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Reel

Vinyl

If you’ve watched some of the most recent cinematic blockbusters (such as the latest Batman and Spider-Man movies), then chances are, you’ve probably also seen the work of South Shore Signs & Graphics without even realizing it. After all, the vinyl lettering and wraps up on the big screen didn’t just appear via Hollywood special effects magic.

South Shore Signs & Graphics is a design firm and sign shop located in Long Island, New York. Cladio Juliano and his best friend Steve Tague co-started the business back in 2008, and today, it still remains (most of the time) a two-man operation. “I handle design and print, and Steve installs,” says Juliano, noting that they do bring in other staff when the need arises.

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

Dynamic duo hits big and small screens with their graphics work. signshop.com

all photos: south shore signs & graphics.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The model for South Shore Signs & Graphics is similar to that of Juliano’s friend, noted design expert Dan Antonelli, who was a major influence on him.

“I explain to people that we’re designfirst,” says Juliano. “Design is the most important aspect of a project, and it should match the purpose of the output graphics.”

Juliano impressively hand-draws a lot of his sign and wrap designs. “I grew up in the times of technology, which is led by computers,” he says. “But I try to preserve the ‘human’ art of hand sketching; “I pay homage to the way it used to be done, back in the days of sign painters.”

After finishing a design, Juliano will either scan it and import it into Adobe Illustrator or sketch and illustrate directly into the computer with creation tools like Surface™ Pro 3 or Wacom drawing tablets (which he’ll use to make further tweaks when collaborating with clients).

“Sometimes I’ll use FlexiSign™ too, signshop.com

because it has a lot of great features for sign making,” he says, “particularly its vectorization and cleanup tools.”

South Shore puts graphic arts at its forefront, marrying printing technology with design.

Currently the company uses its Roland VersaCAMM VP-540 fifty-four-inch wide format digital printer/cutter to create logo designs, signage, posters, and more for their clients. They call vehicle graphics work their “bread and butter,” doing full and partial wraps for commercial fleets and individual shop vehicles.

One of their specialties is small business branding for local clients.

“We can handle the logo design and fabrication services for them in one place,” says Juliano, “as well as offer Web site services to unify their branding across the board.

“We try to make every customer we serve become a repeat customer.”

In fact, it was servicing this particular

segment of customers that led to their other big niche: their aforementioned work for movie and television productions.

Today South Shore has printed and installed “set prop” graphics for use in films such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Wolf of Wall Street, Something Borrowed, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Most recently, the shop created set graphics for the Golden Globe®-winning Showtime series The Affair.

“We worked hard to become the goto guys for film sets in New York,” says Juliano.

Networking played a huge role for them here. “We made sure a lot of the work we were putting out for other small business clients was great,” says Juliano, “and that it was getting noticed by the people it needed to get noticed by.

“And it did!”

Starting out, the company supplied some car graphics for smaller-made in-

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

53

dependent movies, and their exceptional work allowed them to work their way up into increasingly bigger films. “Not only did they see the quality of our work, but they actually saw how quickly we were able to produce it,” says Juliano.

(Note: For film and television work, South Shore Signs & Graphics also call in John Barbella, a top designer and graphics installer in the area. “Anything we’ve achieved in film is done with John and, in fact, wouldn’t be possible without him,” says Juliano. “He gave us a shot to prove ourselves when we opened up shop, and the rest has been history.”)

Design requests are always interesting when it comes to film and television.

Sometimes the production company provides them with strict guidelines, and sometimes South Shore is able to come up with ideas of their own.

“It can be based on reality, like recreating all the NYPD cars for Spider-Man, or it can be for a made-up world, like Gotham City,” says Juliano. “For The Dark Knight Rises, we produced unique vehicle markings like the Gotham news vans, Gotham sanitation trucks, disaster relief trucks, taxi cab graphics, and

Juliano is a very talented artist with a loyal fan base, creating his own personal line of computerized and hand-drawn illustrations that are used for decals and posters. His designs have even been included on wraps and T-shirts, thanks to the shop’s confidence with its inkjet hardware.

various other physical printed objects,” says Juliano. “It can even be something as small as a newspaper or a bar cup coaster that appears in a scene.

For films, the production company South Shore works under takes care of everything beforehand related to the vehicles that will be wrapped or lettered.

“They take care of vehicle measurements,” explains Juliano. “This helps establish a quicker workflow for everyone.”

South Shore relies exclusively on the Roland Color System for spot color matching on all their projects, but Juliano finds that color management requirements are a little more lenient and forgiving when it comes to film and television. “The camera is able to do a bunch of tricks,” he says.

“But this really all depends on the director and what they need printed.”

Juliano admits that the major difference when working for movie/television clients is speed.

“You’ve got to work snappy, because you’re often printing and then shooting the next day,” he says. “Sometimes you’ll get a last-minute call at three in the morning and need to have the graphics ready and installed for a shoot later

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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that morning.

“But even with all that, working with this industry is still a lot of fun!”

For films, vehicle wrap installations are either done on set or at a secret warehouse facility where many of the film props are also worked on and stored.

“Luckily for us, many movies are shot here in New York,” says Juliano, “but there are times where the film is out of state, which requires more travel. And being that I run the daily operations, design, and customer relations for everything outside of film, it can get crazy.

“However we’ve figured out a good system that works. Being up to our necks in projects is our specialty!”

Working on major motion pictures, as you can imagine, requires secrecy.

South Shore prints these graphics privately in their studio in a lockdown mode. “We can’t show any of the work we’ve done while the film production is in progress, or we’ll have one angry director,” says Juliano. “We also believe in the art of surprise.

“It’s more exciting for us that way, because we get to show off our work on the opening day of the film, which creates more excitement for the finished project.

Then friends and fans go to the film and see our work on the big screen!”

Juliano is already a very talented artist with a loyal fan base, creating his own personal line of computerized and handdrawn illustrations that are used for decals and posters.

And the confidence Juliano and Tague have gained with their inkjet hardware is allowing them to expand into more customized wall graphics/wraps, T-shirts, and even skins for small personal electronics (like smart phones and tablets).

“Pretty much anything someone suggests, we can come up with a way to do it,” said Juliano.

Custom wrap customers can select from a mixture of design possibilities that include Juliano’s pre-existing artwork. “They can also bring in a custom photo or artwork, and we’ll template it and design it for them,” he explains.

For T-shirts, Juliano’s artistic talents for illustrations alone are often requested.

Then there are those instances where customers request a couple of T-shirts to go with the signs and/or vehicle graphics South Shore has done for them.

On shorts runs, they’ll print-and-cut signshop.com

the design onto a white opaque heat transfer material via the VersaCAMM. The machine will automatically cut out the design, and then they’ll take it and press it with one of their heat presses.

“But if they want T-shirts in larger quantities, we’ll go direct-to-garment or get them screen printed,” says Juliano. “In the future, we’re looking to mix direct-togarment in with the heat press because we think they marry together pretty well.

They tend to mix up the vinyls and glossy papers used in projects. “We use a

variety of ORACAL and 3M materials,” says Juliano, noting they use VersaWorks to RIP their designs.

South Shore Signs & Graphics is gearing up for more wraps and decals in another upcoming major movie production that Juliano is excited about, but as is the case with the usual hush-hush security involved with these shoots, they cannot divulge which film…yet.

So be sure to get your popcorn and felt-edge squeegees ready!

—Additional reporting by Ginny Mumm.

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

55

Your Direct Source for Sign Information 3 Easy Steps

Receive vital product and service information from manufacturers and distributors by completing the adjacent card or visiting www.signshop.com/infodirect

1. Choose up to 10 categories of interest and check off on card.

2. Select up to 28 suppliers and record InfoDirect # on card.

3. Mail card to start getting info!

InfoDirect #

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 56

Company

Page

Ability Plastics, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Advantage Sign & Graphics. . . . . . . 36 Allanson Lighting Components. . . . 24 Allwood SignBlanks Ltd.. . . . . . . . . 51 Alpina Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . 62 Alpina Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . 62 Arris Sign Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 AXYZ International . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Bayer MaterialScience . . . . . . . . . . 14 Biesse America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Brinks Mfg. (Van Ladder) . . . . . . . . 40 Brooklyn Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 CAB Sign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Central States Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Coastal Enterprises/Precision Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 DUNA-USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2 Duxbury Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Elliott Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Gemini, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Gemini, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 GH Imaging.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Gravotech Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Hartlauer Bits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Howard Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 J. Freeman, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Keystone Technologies. . . . . . . . . . 23 Lightfair International. . . . . . . . . . . 57 Lind SignSpring Group. . . . . . . . . . . 62 Magnum Magnetics Corp.. . . . . . . . 12 Master Magnetics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Matthews Paint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Mimaki USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Mutoh America, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 National Banner Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 ORAFOL Americas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Orbus Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Orbus Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Outwater Plastics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Page

InfoDirect #

39 Principal LED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 40 Roland DGA Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

59

InfoDirect #

Company

Company

Page

Companies in Sign Show

41 Rowmark, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 42 Seiko Instruments USA. . . . . . . . . . . 5

60

43 ShopBot Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 44 Sign America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

62

45 Sign-Mart Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 46 Sign-Mart Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

64

47 Signs365.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4 48 SloanLED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

66

49 Southern Stud Weld . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 50 Stamm Manufacturing.. . . . . . . . . . 17

68

51 Stouse Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 52 SunRise LED Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

70

61 63 65 67 69

3M Commercial Graphics . . . . . . . . 14 AXYZ International . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Corel Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Elliott Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 GoVivid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Kern Lasers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 LaserBits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Orbus Exhibit & Display Group . . . . 10 Roland DGA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Rowmark, LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 SA International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

53 Syntech Architectural Signage. . . . 20 54 Trotec Laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 55 US LED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 56 VKF Renzel USA Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . 63 57 Wensco Sign Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . 31 58 Wilkie Mfg., LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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THE GLOBAL

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NEW YORK, NY USA

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Sign Assembly:

T

he signage industry is all about image, and to be consistently successful in the business, the image must be perfect. Customer expectations are high, and the human eye can easily pick-up surface distortions of only a few thousandths-of-an-inch on a sign’s painted, glossy surface.

This is not acceptable for an industry that prides itself on providing a “Class A” finished product.

One of the conditions that can mar a sign’s surface is read-through that occurs when you can see an adhesive’s bond through the substrate material on the Class A surface.

Signs assembled with thin-gauge materials and bonded with structural adhesives can be subject to surface distortions from the adhesive.

While structural adhesives offer the high-strength properties needed for a durable bond, their inherent stiffness and shrinkage during the curing process can contribute to read-through.

58

Adhesives Recently new acrylic structural adhesives have been developed that offer low shrinkage and low exotherm properties, eliminating bond-line read-through.

Materials and Attachments The signage industry utilizes a unique type of substrate developed specifically for sign manufacturing—aluminum composite material (ACM), a material comprised of a highly finished, aluminum surface exterior with a core of polypropylene or polyethylene and another sheet of aluminum.

The resulting ACM “sandwich” panel lends itself well to the bending, folding, and manipulation needed to produce complex sign designs and channel letters, and for cladding applications.

However, the ACM panels’ construction of soft aluminum and a soft plastic core forms an extremely soft material. This material is particularly susceptible to read-through if tradi-

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

tional structural adhesives are applied during the assembly process.

While most of the signage industry has adopted ACM usage (especially since the lighter weight material offers cost advantages), the thinness of the ACM exacerbates the readthrough problem.

As a workaround to the read-through dilemma with adhesives, some signage manufacturers use mechanical fasteners to hold panels together.

Mechanical fasteners though tend to limit design flexibility since the end user typically does not want the fasteners to be visible on the surface of the sign. Consequently the sign designer is challenged to create solutions to hide mechanical fasteners.

Because mechanical fasteners require holes in the sign material, water penetration can develop at the points of attachment. Not only can the water penetration degrade the surface of the sign, it can also wreak havoc with electrical wiring in back-lit signage.

signshop.com

all photos: lord corporation.

How new structural adhesives solve read-through problems in signage.

From an engineering perspective, signage manufacturers have implemented a “belt-and-suspenders” approach to obtaining a secure attachment. This usually entails using multiple methods of attachment, such as rivets and mechanical fasteners with some sealants and caulking, sometimes coupled with a limited number of structural adhesive attachment points.

Unfortunately this approach adds multiple steps to the signage manufacturing process and increases labor and material costs.

A large commercial aluminum sign assembled using structural adhesives.

Solving Read-Through As a solution to the problem of readthrough, new acrylic structural adhesives have been developed that offer no bondline read-through on most substrates.

These structural adhesives are designed for bonding thinner gauge materials, such as ACMs, with little or no substrate preparation. The flexible adhesive formulation has low-exotherm and low-shrinkage properties, and it also bonds well to pre-painted surfaces.

Structural adhesives are engineered to be as strong as possible. They typically have high exotherms and tend to be very rigid.

Thin-gauge materials, such as ACMs, are designed to be very flexible. When two flexible, thin-gauge substrates are joined with a stiff adhesive, readthrough occurs—a visible distortion of the metal or painted metal surface.

Moreover, as the adhesives cure, they shrink, which further pulls-in or distorts the substrate’s surface.

Preserving the ACM’s surface finish is especially important in the sign industry.

ACMs are supplied with a prepainted surface. Having pre-painted materials allows the smaller to midsized sign shop to eliminate the necessity for in-house painting operations and the ensuing concerns over environmental regulations. (Note: The larger materials manufacturers are better equipped to maintain VOCregulated paint shops.)

Signage manufacturers, therefore, must carefully preserve the existing pre-painted finish and prevent readthrough from occurring.

In signage industry applications where strength and aesthetics are important, acrylic adhesives are a good choice. The need for less surface preparation also provides savings in time and labor costs.

Fast cure times are another advan-

This adhesive, specially formulated to be more flexible and exotherm less, results in a clean, aesthetically pleasing surface.

signshop.com

tage of acrylic adhesives. They have a handling time of as little as twenty minutes, and they are 90 percent cured in thirty minutes at room temperature.

The adhesives are environmentally resistant to dilute acids, alkalis, solvents, greases, oils, and moisture and are also resistant to UV-exposure and weathering.

Making the Switch As sign shops transition to using the new structural adhesives, there are a few important aspects they must stop and consider: + Limiting read-through can be a challenge when using adhesives on thingauge materials. + To limit read-through when adding

Notice the significant surface distortion due to an underlying adhesive. This distortion is the result of bondline-read-through of a very stiff adhesive that has significant exotherm and shrinkage during cure.

March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

59

attachment points to ACM panels, it is necessary to also limit the amount of adhesive that squeezes-out when applying the adhesive. + Excess adhesive squeezed out and remaining around the attachment point of the ACM will intensify the readthrough problem. Therefore minimizing squeeze-out will also minimize read-through. + ACMs are made of lightweight, untempered aluminum with a soft, lowmelting-point plastic core. During the curing process, traditional structural adhesives heat up (exotherm), softening the ACM panel’s core. This softening, combined with adhesive shrinkage, pulls down the facing or painted surface. The result is read-through that mars the Class A finish and is visible on the surface. + While many sign shops understand the advantages of switching to structural adhesives to construct signs, they must also understand how to convert their production facilities to using adhesives. Similarly signage design changes must be taken into consideration when adhesives are substituted for mechanical fasteners. A full-service adhesive supplier should not only provide the adhesive products and application devices but also offer training, production, and engineering support.

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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+ Adhesive dispensing options are available for high- and low-volume applications. Hand-held applicators are ideal for the small- to mid-sized sign shops, and automated dispensing systems can be implemented for high-production operations.

Using new, low-read-through structural adhesives eliminates “trade-offs.”

The adhesives can be easily used on ACMs to achieve the aesthetically pleasing designs so crucial to the signage industry.

Steve Webb is Northeast regional sales manager at LORD Corporation (www.lord.com), a company that develops and manufactures highperformance adhesive products. signshop.com

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Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

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March 2015 // Sign Builder Illustrated

63

B y A s h l e y B r ay

Business Management

The Value of Independent

I

n a market as small, yet convoluted, as the sign industry, manufacturers often need additional help getting their products into the hands of suppliers/distributors, architects/specifiers, and most importantly, sign shops like yours.

Enter independent sales representatives. These reps have served the sign industry for many years and often play a big part in bringing products to market. Yet they remain a little-known role.

Reps typically have a background as a distributor or a direct sales associate for a manufacturer but choose to switch careers to avoid the relocation that often comes with a direct sales job. “The thing that a rep brings is expertise in a specific market in a specific territory,” says Charles Cohon (pictured, below), CEO and president of Manufacturers’ Agents National Association (MANA).

Territory and expertise is just how manufacturers typically search for reps.They find them through databases and lists from trade associations like MANA or by networking with other manufacturers for recommendations at events and tradeshows.

The most common reason for hiring a rep is the cost savings when compared to hiring an inhouse sales team. Reps can also help to position a new manufacturer in a market or help an existing manufacturer break into a new territory. Reps offer physical proximity in territories manufacturers

Sign Reps

may be distant from for face-to-face exchanges and office visits. “They have a deeper level of rapport with customers than someone who is only stopping over in a territory,” says Cohon.

So what benefit does all of this bring to sign shops? Better service and access to more products.

Unlike a sales associate that represents one manufacturer’s products, an independent rep will build up a line card of complementary, noncompeting lines of products. “A rep can sometimes take the products of three or four different manufacturers and create a package that no one manufacturer selling on a direct basis could,” says Cohon. “It’s more efficient for the sign shop because [a rep is] then in a position to talk to them about two or three different products.”

A rep typically works on commission, but shops shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that a rep is only out to make a sale. “A rep generally is more interested in earning a customer,” says Cohon. “He/she is going to be in that territory for another two or three decades. If they step on somebody’s toes, they’ve lost twenty or thirty years of business from that customer as opposed to just a single sale.”

It’s this dedication to relationships that results in better service for shops.

Attendees of the 2015 ISA Sign Expo can learn more about reps when Cohon presents the seminar, “The Value Independent Sign Representatives Bring to the Sign Industry,” on April 9 at 11 a.m.

Photos : (top) shutterstock.com/Syda Productions; (bottom) Charles cohon.

“

SHOP TALK

A little-known role in the sign industry is making a big impact.

64

Sign Builder Illustrated // March 2015

signshop.com

The Wilkie Model 58XRB Is designed from the start with your needs in mind.

• Power level power rotate basket with easy front entry to access the work in front of you.

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• All hydraulic extension for ease of maintenance and smooth extension.

• Sliding face rest.

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• Available in two load ratings standard rating # max load at 23’ or 1995# in Wilkie’s reduced rating at 23’ • Full 360 degree working rating.

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Wilkie Model 58XRB

Wilkie Mfg., L.L.C. 2640 NW 2nd street Oklahoma City, OK 73107 (405)235-0920 Phone (405)236-3324 Fax www.wilkiemfg.com