Waterstone Mortgage is in the process of building out their network of business offices and areas that they are licensed to offer mortgage services. Chicago seems like a logical step for expansion given the large amount of real estate in the surrounding communities.
When the design team from Waterstone came to us, they had a few items that they really needed us to pay attention to. The first requirement was that the lobby sign reflected the Chicago address. The new office is located on the 14th floor of a high rise located in the heart of Chicago right on LaSalle Street. They were looking for upscale, prominent, and very upscale. Second, they had no idea what they wanted so it was going to be up to us to show them what they wanted.
When it comes to lobby signs you really only have two characteristics that need to be decided on to direct the design process. It’s material and mounting. Everything else is derived from one of the two. Metal or foam. Wood or plastic. Acrylic or glass. For this application, the customer was very clear that it had to be an upscale sign, something that really pops off the wall. Given what their logo looks like, I definitely was thinking metal or glass. We showed our customer samples of both options and they were immediately drawn to metal. One down, a few to go. Next, we had to determine the finish of the metal. Again, back to the samples. When we showed them a letter that we cut out of non-directional aluminum, they made a quick decision. So know we had the material and the finish, just one issue left.
Waterstone Mortgage’s corporate office has the logo mounted off the wall on standoffs. So they wanted to see what that looked like. So we showed them and they really weren’t impressed as it looked like any other lobby sign. Our designers came up with the idea of flush mounting the “Mortgage” portion of the sign to help create a dimensionality to the sign. That did it. It completed the sign.
When we were finishing up the install, the branch manager said that ‘you guys rock’ and that the sign ‘was worth the wait’. Overall, a very successful and happy customer! And that is what the Optimum Signs difference is. We strive to create very happy customers. If you have a project that you are working on and would like some assistance, please give us a call at 262.289.9481 or email us at info@optimumsignswi.com.
