When the call came in on Wednesday morning, to say that our customer was in a bit of a panic would be an understatement. The Aeropostale store in Brookfield Square Mall was being closed for a complete rebranding and everything had to be complete so that they could reopen by 10am on Friday and someone forgot about the wall sign at the back of the store.
Talking to our customer it was obvious that they were in a pinch. Our production board was full through the next week and this install was a 3-4 hour install, even if everything went perfectly. We still felt like we needed to find a way to help. One of our install crews offered to do the install before their normal start time and agreed to start at 6am Friday morning. Which was also a good thing as the customer had already given the sign to the UPS driver to deliver to us the next day! When the sign arrived at our studio, we unpacked it and did a quick inspection of the pieces and it was obvious that the sign had been packed and shipped while the letters were still wet. Most of the edges had peeled up and a number of letters had visible scuffs on the faces. So our crew took to cleaning up the letters with torches and razor knives as we will never install a sign that doesn’t meet our quality expectations.
The morning of the install we arrived promptly at 545am and met the store manager. He was surprised that we showed up on time as he had made a bet with one of the other store managers that we would be late. Never bet against us! Our team of three installers went right to work. One person was measuring the wall and comparing the measurements to the design, one was setting up the equipment needed, and the third began to epoxy bond all the studs into the back of the letters/design pieces. 30 minutes later, the full sized template was taped to the wall and double and triple checked for accuracy. Out came the cordless drills and they went to work. The wall was simple drywall so drilling all the holes went very quickly. We removed the template and test fit all of the pieces to make sure that everything lined up. And it did. By removing each piece and placing a bonding agent on each stud, then replacing the piece, we made sure that the design stayed perfect. After the final piece was placed, we taped the top of the piece to the wall just to make sure the piece stayed in place. Now came the toughest part, waiting for the epoxy to set up. In an hour, we were able to remove the tape and finish cleaning up.
If you are considering rebranding a retail establishment or just looking for a local sign studio to complete an install for you, please call Optimum Signs at 262.289.9481 or email us at info@optimumsignswi.com.
