Our friends at ETE Reman had their exterior sign pulled off the wall during one of Wisconsin’s summer storms. The wind conveniently dumped the old sign in the middle of the parking lot while everyone was at home. When we checked over the damaged sign, it looked like someone had put the sign in a blender. Not much left.
Our new design was going to look the same as it was a direct representation of the company’s logo. The questions started with what material to make the sign out of. The desire was to make something that was at least 10’ in diameter. The size required certain materials to support the size. We started with 2” aluminum tubing. At 10’, we would need more than just a frame so we designed the circle with cross members to support the sign. Even though we were constructing the sign out of structural aluminum, it was still going to weigh over 300 lbs. We welded the frame together and included a lift point so the sign could be lifted into position without damaging the sign. The second circle for the blue section was made exactly the same way including the lift points.
Once we had the sign built, we sent it to the paint booth for two coats of exterior grade sign paint. Again, because the colors for the company’s logo was very specific, we used PMS colors to match. After 48 hours of drying, we laid out the template for the high impact 1” thick plastic letters. It was fun reaching 4’ to attach the ETE to the blue face. The letters were stud mounted so we had to fasten each stud with a nut to lock it into place.
After getting the sign to the customer’s location, we noticed that the slight damage to the face of the building that the old sign had done when it came off the wall. My team went up to the top of the façade and noticed that the wall would never hold the weight of the new sign as it was ¼” plywood, plaster and some chicken wire. No chance that this sign would stay put. Our customer decided to reinforce the façade themselves and give us a perfect surface to mount the sign. We used ½” lag bolts with pressure tightened bolts. This sign will be there until the day that they take the building down.
It took us a little over 5 months to complete this build and install but we had to do this the right way. And that is one of the prime reasons most of our customers come back to Optimum Signs. We do it right. If you need a custom built exterior sign for your building, please give us a call at 262.289.9481 or email us at info@optimumsignswi.com.
