Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills, one of their many memorial park locations, reached out to us for exterior signage to be installed around their property. They were looking for “Caution” signs to go around the property to warn visitors of uneven ground and wildlife. They needed 15 signs that could be installed into the ground easily and something relatively inexpensive as they needed so many. We decided to make them digital prints mounted on aluminum that were mounted into double stake frames.
The reason we digitally printed the artwork as opposed to using cut vinyl was due to the fact that they have a specific company color that they use for all of their marketing. If we digitally print the color, we can match the color exactly based on the CMYK called out in the art file. If we were to use cut vinyl, we could only find a color that is close, we would not have a way to match it exactly so when a custom color is involved, it’s better to digitally print to make sure that we are using the client’s exact colors.
The artwork was printed on 3M vinyl. 3M is one of the leading brands in adhesives and when it comes to opaque vinyl, we’ve continued to use 3M as we are confident in the quality of their materials. The prints were then laminated with a glossy Oraguard laminate. Oraguard is an Orafol brand of laminate that we use for most of our digital prints for UV protection and to create a nice gloss finish.
The prints were then laid onto 18″ x 24″ sheets of 0.63 white painted aluminum. We used painted white aluminum because the background of the prints was going to be white, and the signs are only one-sided so this way the backs would match. When it comes to exterior signs, we use thicker aluminum, .080, if the sign is being installed on a post where wind shear could effect it, However, these were going into a frame so .063 worked just fine.
We installed the signs into the double stake frames at our shop and shipped the signs to Hollywood Hills so Forest Lawn could install them wherever they needed.
