The Modern LA is a new luxury apartment complex in Silver Lake, California that we assisted with some interior and exterior signs. For the exterior signs, we made a reverse-lit channel letter sign for the entrance and aluminum dimensional letters for the address sign. Both signs were initially going to be illuminated, but due to permitting issues with the city, the address sign was left non-illuminated. The motivation behind an illuminated sign is to make sure that the information on the sign is seen both in the daytime and at nighttime. There are some businesses that will not get an illuminated sign because it is not important for them to advertise after sunset, but an apartment complex is always open so light up signs can be useful.
For the entrance sign, we made a reverse-lit channel letter sign that was painted white. This is because the client wanted the apartment name to be white in the daytime and have reverse lighting at nighttime. The reason we made channel letters is that the sign was to be illuminated. Channel letters are fabricated metal letters that are hollow so they have a “channel” for LEDs. Reverse-lit channel letters have clear backs so the light comes out the back, and the letters are mounted spaced off of the wall. The aluminum is just a mill finish so we either paint it or give it a finish if the client wants a metal look. A very high-end option is to anodize the aluminum which helps strengthen the material and adds color while keeping the metal texture.
The address sign was originally supposed to be reverse-lit channel letters also, but since we couldn’t have it illuminated we used aluminum dimensional letters so the letters would still be metal. The characters were flat-cut from 1/2″ thick aluminum, and also painted white.
