Which is Best – LED vs. Neon Signs?

A question we often get when we discuss building signs is whether LED is better or should they go with neon. The individually lit letters on a building that are enclosed in aluminum housings withacrylic faces are called channel letters. It used to be that most of the signs had neon tubing inside the channel letters and that’s what you got. With the acrylic faces on the letters you really couldn’t tell anyway what was lighting the letters. When LEDs came on the scene they were originally more expensive than neon, so many continued with the cheaper option and stuck with neon.

Example of an LED sign

Today, LED and neon generally cost the same amount. That is they cost the same to manufacture and install the sign, but which is the better option. Here are some differences that will probably make this sound like a no brainer.

• LED lights are low voltage lighting, so they consume about 1/6th of the electrical consumption of neon. That can make a big difference over time in your electric bill.
• As you probably know from all the new LED light systems coming out, LED lights last a long time. They are going to be more reliable over time. Neon lights will require more maintenance sooner.
• The power supplies for neon are very heavy and need to handle the higher voltages for the neon signs and they tend to need replacement sooner than the transformers in the LED signs.
• LED lights maintain a bright consistent light over time. Neon signs will start to go dimmer over time, especially in colder weather.
• When LED lights go out it will generally be an individual light and it’s barely noticeable. It doesn’t take out the whole string of lights. When the neon lights go out it can take out the lighting in multiple letters at the same time.
• Neon and LED can both come in multiple colors now. LED used to be somewhat limited, but there are advances in additional colors now.

Now neon is not all bad. Neon has a certain look that can draw people’s attention, especially when it stands alone outside of the channel letters. It’s also excellent for what’s called open channel letters. These are letters with either a clear acrylic face of no face so you can see the neon tubes. What’s fun with LED now is that you can get LED light tubes that look a lot like neon tubes, yet they have the same advantages of LED as listed above.

Example of a Neon Sign

 

You also have the environmental issue. LED is a lot smaller and safer on the environment than neon tubes.

As you look for ideas for you sign lighting solutions we will be glad to work with you on your options. That’s one thing that sets us apart as a sign business. We listen to your desires, we will help educate and give you what you need to make an informed decision. Give us a call and we will gladly work with you to create the best signage solution for your business in either LED or neon.

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Ever Wanted a Custom Wall Design?

When you think of wall paper you probably don’t think about a sign company helping you out, but you should consider SignCraft Solutions for just that. You know we wrap vehicles, so it’s not a hard jump to see that a wall is just a simplified version of a vehicle wrap. What can you put on a wall? Here are some ideas…

1. Wrap a wall with a favorite location
Have you ever been to a beautiful location and either saw or took a picture of it and dream how wonderful it was? Maybe it’s a picture of a place you’ve always wanted to go to, but never could. Maybe it’s a famous bridge or a favorite city. Maybe it’s a ballpark where you saw a once in a lifetime game, or it’s just one of those iconic ball parks and you love the team. Want to put Yankee Stadium on your wall? As long as we have a good resolution digital image of the location we can blow it up and make a print that will go on your wall. How cool would that be?

2. Design Your Own Wallpaper
Can’t Find a Pattern in Wallpaper That You Like, but have some ideas of your own? We can take your ideas and create a pattern that can be applied to your wall. Think of it…you can be the next great designer. At least in your own home or office. It can be unique and creative and no one else will have the same wall design. How cool is that?

3. Display the People of Your Business
How would your employees feel about your business if they walked into the lobby and saw pictures of themselves on the walls. You see the glossy pamplets that corporations put out with their quarterly or annual statements. They show the people that make the business successful. How about taking those same glossy prints and putting them on the walls. We can even do them in a removable wall film (just like the Fatheads) so you can change them out from time to time. You can even show your customers to make them feel important.

4. Show the Signs of Success
I saw one business that had scanned a copy of some US money, then used that color scheme (not the denominations) to create the wallpaper for their showroom. It didn’t look like money, but the owner felt that subliminally it helped give the feel of success, just being surrounded by the color of money.

5. Create an Atmosphere
Nearly everyone likes to look at the atmoshpere of a restaurant and see how they have decorated the walls. These wall decorations can do just that. They help establish your image. Spend a little time reflecting on what image you want to portray. Once you identify it we can work with you to help develop the design and then put it to print.

6. No Limit to Your Imagination
What’s your idea? Maybe some of these ideas listed in 1 through 5 above have sparked your own ideas. The only limit is your imagination. See what you can put together. Whether it’s a more permanant adhessive or it’s done on removable wall film see what you can dream up. We’ll help you make it a reality.

Now, how cool is that? Give us a call or send us an email. We would love to work with you on wrapping your wall.

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Is There a Quality Difference Between Sign Companies?

You may often find you are in a hurry to get signs done. Sometimes because there is so much other stuff going on you don’t have time for it and then you realize at the last minute you need it. So, at the last minute you find yourself doing a search on the internet for nearby sign companies and you have no idea if there’s any difference between them. They probably all do the same thing, right?

 

You can quickly find that that’s wrong.  Not only may they not have the same capabilities, but they may use different printers and cheaper materials. We won’t go into it here, but they may also be limited on what type of projects they are capable of taking on (we can do all of types of signs). Here are a couple of examples of customers with bad experiences.

 

We were recently asked to give a quote to a customer for some printed vinyl on his windows. Before we could even get enough info from him to give a quote, he let me know that he just decided to go with a company he had used previously since they already had his designs. He was going to cut costs and install it himself, but the sign company gave him “a great price” on the vinyl. His grand opening was on Saturday, so he called us and asked if we could install it for him on Friday because he was running out of time. When we went to install it we quickly found that the vinyl they used was a cheap vinyl. The material we use is a good quality, air release vinyl. What that means is that it can be installed easily and allows the air to breathe through it so you don’t have air bubbles under the vinyl. We were able to install the vinyl using a wet method, but the customer would have had a horrible time trying to install it on his own. We also found they had some mistakes on a couple of letters in some cut vinyl letters. Parts of letters were removed and thrown away when they shouldn’t have been.

 

We are currently replacing the vehicle lettering and graphics on several vehicles for a customer. These vehicles were done two years ago and the red ink is fading to almost nothing. When we pulled off the vinyl we found that the original sign company had used a yellow vinyl and printed over it for the red stripes. It wasn’t even laminated, so the red colors faded quickly. Needless to say the customer is not very happy with that sign company and won’t use them again. Even the stripes were unevenly applied and they seamed some of the stripes in the middle of a door. That just doesn’t need to be done that way. He even contacted them to see if they would help him redo the vehicles and they never called him back.

These are two examples, from two different sign companies, both well known in the area. One is a large existing sign business and the other a large franchise. Make sure you ask what you’re getting. We’ll show you the materials, what you’re getting and explain it to you. We will only give you quality results and we stand behind our work and our materials. We have many satisfied customers that will confirm the quality of the work we provide, our excellent design work and our customer attention. Remember that many times when you get something that’s too good to be true, it probably is. Get the quality work done you deserve. It represents you and your business and if you don’t do it right now, you will have to redo it later. Check out SignCraft Solutions. We are your solution for quality signs. Contact us at www.signcraftsolutions.com or at 919-556-2672.

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Signage FAQs – What’s the best kind of signage to advertise my business?

What’s the best kind of signage to advertise your business?
Whether you are a retail business, a manufacturing business, a personal services business or something else you want your customers to be able to find you and you want to create a good first or lasting impression. Even a subdivision sign makes a statement about the homes in the neighborhood.

Your sign should be tasteful for the type of business, but not so conservative that it isn’t noticed. A retail sign needs to stand out, it needs to make a statement and grab someone’s attention. That’s why many retail stores have electrical signs of one kind or the other. Electrical signs can come in a variety of styles. Individual lighted letters are called Channel Letters - I guess because they have channels within the letters that house the lights. Lights within channel letters are either LED or Neon. LED lights have many advantages and are more economical to operate and will last longer, but Neon can have its place as well for certain looks. Here are a few different types of channel letters:
Front Lit – These letters usually have an aluminum frame for the sign with an acrylic front. The lights project forward and light up the acrylic. The acrylic can come in several different colors. Here is one example from our website – http://www.signcraftsolutions.com/products_services/product_gallery.html/item/3321924/title/untitled.
Back Lit – These letters usually have an aluminum frame, but they are solid on the front. The lights project backward against the building and provide a halo effect. This can be a very classy looking sign. See the example on our website – http://www.signcraftsolutions.com/products_services/product_gallery.html/title/channel-lettering.
Front and Back Lit – You can combine the two methods and have a sign that is both back lit and front lit. This is a sign that can set you apart from others and get you noticed.
Open Faced – These channel letters are similar to a front lit sign, but they don’t have an acrylic face on them. Often these have neon tubing in them or a style of LED tubing that now looks like neon.

Other electrical signs may include a light box, which is usually an aluminum frame with an acrylic face on the front and possibly on the back as well. It is lit from within the frame by either tube lighting or LED lights. Another common style of sign is an aluminum pan signs with lights projected onto it using a goose-neck light or up lighting.

Other types of signage that will get you noticed can include LCD panels, large digital prints on your windows, a vehicle wrap, banners, tear-drop or flag style banner displays. Even inflatables can be used as signage to attract custoners to your business.

What a sign professional can do is look at your business with you, help you come up with some ideas and lay out a possible design concept with you. We can provide you proofs showing what it would look like on your building. That can help make the process easier for you to see and to understand the look and feel of the colors and choices you are making. Future blogs will help detail many of the different kinds of signs available.

At SignCraft Solutions we would love to help you in the process of developing your signs to ensure you get the product(s) that meet your needs and desires. We look forward to working with you. Give us a call or stop by our showroom.

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Signage FAQs – What kind of sign will work for my business?

At SignCraft Solutions we are a full-service custom sign manufacturing business. What that means is we can do almost any type of sign you need.

Identification/Workflow Signs
Signs can serve multiple purposes. You may need signs that provide direction or work flow within your business. A manufacturing or distribution facility may need signs to identify work areas or to direct traffic flow. We can manufacture signs that are of aluminum, PVC, acrylic or other materials that can hang from the ceiling, mount on walls or on floors. We have many types of office signs for rooms, cubicles, etc that can identify the usage of the office, conference room or space. You can be conservative or creative and we can help you with that.

Cutomer Attention Signs
If you want to get the customer’s attention we can help you with signs for that as well. Window signs that show sales or advertise product can be reasonable priced to show specials or seasonal ads. We can cover your window with large digital prints that allow you to still see out the window and put up a message. We can provide electronic signage for you on LED screens or lighted displays with translucent digital prints.

Vehcile Wraps
In our previous blog we discussed the value and visibility of vehicle wraps. Dollar for dollar there isn’t another method that gives your business more impressions at a cheaper price. We can do vehicle lettering or partial wraps at economical prices or full wraps that cost a little more, but can provide a 97% rate of customer memory on your business. Check out examples in our product gallery on our website.

Exterior Building Signs
We recently did a reverse channel letter sign that has received a lot of attention. With a reverse channel letters you have a solid aluminum letter with LEDs inside the letter that project the light back on the building. It gives a halo effect that looks really nice. Channel letters can be front lit, which has the lights inside an aluminum letter with a white or colored acrylic face. You can do both or open face letters also work well with neon tubing. Another option, is a sign cabinet with a full acrlic face that can be lettered or painted. Non-illuminated signs also can work and be more economical. They can also be lit with gooseneck lights or other types of lighting. Many times what is allowed for buildings depends on the criteria for the center you are in or the city requirements.

This just touches on some of the signs that can work for your business. We can work with you and advise you on requirements, durability and design criteria that may work best for you. Give us a call. We would love to work with you and provide the best solutions for your business.

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Signage FAQs – How much does a vehicle wrap cost?

The first questions are what is a vehicle wrap and why should I wrap my vehicle? Think of a vehicle wrap as a large moving billboard for your company. It is basically a large decal printed on an adhesive vinyl and laminated to seal in the print and protect the vinyl from moisture, oils and other damage. A vehicle wrap is by far the most effective form of advertising per impression that you can do. Outdoor Advertising Magazine said that outdoor mobile media billboards have a 97% recall rate, and 96% of survey respondents thought mobile advertising is more effective than traditional outdoor advertising.

Now, how much does a vehicle wrap cost? A partial wrap can be as little as a couple of hundred dollars or less. Most wraps are going to run around $2000-$3000 for a car or small van. Box trucks and specialty wraps can cost much more depending on the size and detail required. When you take into account how many people will view your vehicle as a moving billboard the cost per impression for a vehicle wrap is about $0.35. The next most cost effective is a billboard add at $3.35 per impression. Newspapers, magazines and TV are around $20 or more per impression. So, the cost of a vehicle wrap really is a great value to drive your brand image for your business.

Much of the cost of a designer wrap can actually be due to the time involved to design the layout of the wrap, but did you know you can actually just wrap a vehicle to change it’s color? A vehicle wrap can actually protect the original paint of your vehicle and it can be removed and replaced if needed. There are different types of material used on a vehicle wraps. Some have more durability than others. Most will last at least 3-5 years. Other materials can last 5-8 years. Sometime vehicle wraps are even done on a very short term basis to advertise a specific event. A material that’s not meant to last as long will usually cost less. Be careful though if you are getting quotes on vehicle wraps for great prices. You get what you pay for. I saw one wrap done with a printer that couldn’t have been more than 30″ wide. It looked like it had been pieced together like a bandaid because it couldn’t cover a single complete surface. We print on material 54″ wide so we can cover most surface with very few overlaps needed, which gives you a much cleaner wrap. Next time you consider how to spend your marketing dollars, give us a call. We’d love to discuss how a vehicle wrap can help your business.

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Signage FAQs – What kinds of signs do you do?

At SignCraft Solutions we are a full service, custom sign business. That means that we can handle all of your signage needs. Here are the key types of signage that we can do:  signs, banners, vehicle lettering, vehcile wraps, LED signs, neon signs, trade show displays, yard signs, real estate signs, traffic signs and posts, monument signs, sub-division signs, magnetic signs, engraved signs, canvas prints, digital prints, laminating, construction signs, channel letters, architectural signs, awnings and ADA signs. Basically, we can do all interior and exterior signs, whether they are lighted or not. Also, because we are a custom sign business we have many options for the type of signs we can do for your needs and price range. Stop by our showroom for some ideas of different signs or check out our product gallery on our website for examples of signs. There are things we do that many of our customers don’t think of as a capability of a sign business. For example, we can take your nice digital pictures and print on canvas and mount it on a stretcher frame. We can create “Fathead” type of pictures of the kids playing sports or just being themselves and you can put it on a wall with a low tack material that can come off. We can print on a perforated window film that can go on windows to place a nice picture on the window that can be seen from the outside, which gives you privacy and promotes your business or event, but still allows you to see through it and gives you some sun protection. That’s the fun of the sign business. Let your imagination run and we’ll see what we can do to create a sign that fits your vision.

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Signage FAQs – Where are you located?

We are located in Wake Forest in a convenient location to service the Triangle area. Our address is 4154 Shearon Farms Ave, Suite, 109. We are just 3 miles north of I-540 just off of Capital Blvd. If you are heading north on Capital turn right just after the American Self Storage (with the Red Boat out front). If you are coming south on Capital take your first left after Burlington Mills. We are on the south side of the golf driving range. We work with all customers, but our location is not in a retail center for a couple of reasons. It helps keep overhead costs down and we are a manufacturing business dealing with a lot of businesses. In many cases we are going out to our customers to meet with them and discuss their signage needs. Many sign businesses won’t do that. They expect you to come to them. Our focus is to serve our customers and provide the best signage options to meet your needs. Come visit our showroom and see what we can do for you. We look forward to seeing you.

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5 Common Signage Questions – Raleigh, North Carolina

To start off our CityScoop column we’re publishing a short series on 5 common questions that we get.  Over the next few weeks we’ll be answering each of these questions below in detail.  When we’re finished we’re going to build a FAQ page and add them to the page.  Over the course of the year we’ll be building out our FAQ page to help provide the answers you’re looking for.

• Where are you located?
• What kinds of signs do you do?
• How much does a vehicle wrap cost?
• I don’t know what kind of sign I want. What kind of sign will work for my business?
• What’s the best kind of signage to advertise my business?
   

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