There are many different signs that we manufacture based on the sign type, location, and purpose. Common exterior signs include channel letter signs or dimensional letter signs that have large, 3-dimensional letters. Channel letters are great if the sign needs to be illuminated, and dimensional letters work well if you don’t need the sign to light up, but you want large letters that can still be seen from far away. But sometimes, you need information displayed and it is not necessary for it to be seen from far away. In cases like this, we can make smaller signs where the information is applied onto a backer panel. The lettering is typically made from vinyl so it is flat, and we can use different materials for the backer depending on the look we’re going for.
Metal is a very common choice, specifically aluminum because it is lightweight. Most exterior signs you see that are screwed into walls or posts are aluminum that is painted white. For this sign that we made for Chelsea Court, we used brushed aluminum for a classy look. The material we used was .040 aluminum, which makes the overall sign .040″ thick. The aluminum is horizontally brushed because that is the direction in which the letters are read. If the wording is going vertical, we would use a vertical grain.
The lettering is made from black vinyl, we use Oracal 751. Vinyl comes in many different colors, but black is pretty standard and looks great with brushed aluminum. This sign was just meant to display lettering so it was pretty simple, but if you want to include a logo with many different colors, we can also digitally print different artwork or colors onto vinyl and apply it to the backer panel.
