Visual Communications, Archetype, Other Firms Collaborate on Compelling Sign Program for St. Paul Saints

The St. Paul (MN) Saints, an independent, minor-league-baseball team, might play in the shadow of MLB’s Twins in Minneapolis, but the Saints’ stadium, the 7,000-seat CHS Field, takes a back seat to none. Built at a cost of $63 million via a joint investment by the team, the city and the state, CHS Field (a Minnesota-based, farmer-owned food and energy cooperative bought the naming rights) touts itself as “The Greenest Ballpark in America”: it draws a significant portion of its power from solar panels, uses a rainwater cistern and incorporates energy-saving light and plumbing fixtures.

Naturally, such a state-of-the-art facility demands equally excellent signage. This gallery proves positively that the design consortium of environmental-graphic-design firm Visual Communications (St. Paul), Snow Kreilich Architects (Minneapolis), Ryan Construction (Minneapolis) and CHS’ branding firm, Franke and Fiorella, collaborated beautifully with fabricator Archetype Sign (Minneapolis). The naming-rights signs comprise 5-in.-deep letters, whose black returns and trimcap contrast nicely with white, high-impact-acrylic faces. They’re illuminated with 440 ft. of SloanLED VL Plus 2 modules powered by nine, MODW 60 drivers. Sleek concession signs entail letterbox, trimless channel letters with white-acrylic faces, mechanically fastened to the brick wall and illuminated with SloanLED modules.