3 Contemporary Channel Letter Sign Solutions

Signs and Secrets

Things aren’t always as they seem. You think you know a sign, but signs have their secrets. Roxie’s is one of them. A restaurant from the owners of the well-known Salt Lick BBQ, Roxie’s is located in Buda, TX, a small city with a rigid sign code. After being recommended by a branding and design agency that often partners with them, Studio Dzo (Austin, TX) pitched the project.

PHOTO: WOOLSEY DESIGN AND BUILD

Installing a wall sign on an all-glass storefront proved challenging from the beginning. “Per code, the allowance for a hanging or awning sign was very small, so to have a size that was relative to the storefront, we needed a wall sign,” says Russell Toynes, partner | creative director for Studio Dzo. Set on finding a way to satisfy the city and client, his team worked to accomplish the goal within the code, looking as they often do for a loophole — and they found one.

To be considered a true wall sign, the sign needed to touch or at least have the appearance of touching the wall. It didn’t have to be anchored to the wall, so Roxie’s letters could functionally hang from steel-bracket arms, with two legs on the back of the sign touching the mullions on the storefront. “And that makes it a wall sign, at least for this city office,” Toynes says.

PHOTO: WOOLSEY DESIGN AND BUILD

The sign measures 15 ft. x 5 ft., 3.8 in. The letters measure 15 ft. x 2 ft., 7.2 in. on a scaffold backer that’s 16 ft., 6 in. high, with 2 x 6-in. steel-bracket arms constructed of 1.5 x 1.5-in. rectangular steel tubing. The tubing also acts as a wireway to conceal the wiring for the channel letters. The returns are 6 in. deep and painted PMS 185C on all sides. The letters feature ½-in. deep, with a ½-in. stroke, frosted clear acrylic push-through with a 60% diffuser vinyl applied to the second surface. “The faux neon open-face channel letter design delivers the impression of open-face neon signs without the cost, fragility and maintenance of neon,” Toynes says.

PHOTO: WOOLSEY DESIGN AND BUILD

But permitting the sign still still proved illusory. City lighting requirements changed during the sign-approval process: Now the sign had to dim to the nit level of a single candle, which is almost non-illuminated, according to Toynes. After making certain the letters could dim to that level, the city approved the sign, making both client and city happy, he adds.

“As with all projects, our biggest takeaway is that the city permit department typically wants to work with you,” Toynes says. “You just have to approach them from the angle of wanting to work with them and finding a way to work together.” — Josie Zimmerman

Vantage Signs has been getting more requests for day/night channel letters like these.

Night & Day

A vendor of Vantage Signs (Troy, OH) saw an opportunity to connect the shop with a large project as it was being built, according to owner Trevor Lavy. Westrafo America in Trotwood, OH, a manufacturer of transformers for the data center industry, was in the market for new exterior wall signage.

The customer’s standard logo is black and green, which would naturally stand out during daylight hours on the white band of the building, but not at night. “Illuminating black letters to make them as noticeable as possible at night obviously presents some challenges,” Lavy says, “and that’s where the day/night film solved our design challenge.” The customer loved the day/night idea and was pleased that Vantage Signs could maintain their brand consistency by day, while also making their logo highly visible after dark.

This sign maintains brand consistency by day (inset left) and visibility by night.

A mere dozen miles to the north in West Milton, OH, Randall Residence, a senior living community, also needed new exterior channel letter signs for their facility. They found Vantage Signs online during the build process and reached out to the “sign company near me.”

This customer initially wanted all white letters, Lavy relates, but due to the light-tan building and surrounding accent colors, white letters would easily get lost in the daylight. “So we suggested a darker color the letters on the wall to increase daytime visibility, and they chose black,” Lavy continues. “The most practical way to achieve the black letters during the day and bright, noticeable letters at night was to use day/night film, and our customer quickly loved the idea.”

Both the Westrafo and Randall Residence projects use perforated black vinyl applied to white acrylic channel letter faces to achieve the day/night functionality. Because both signs are mounted fairly high on the buildings, the perforated material is not noticeable, Lavy says. On signs situated closer to the viewer, Vantage Signs has used ACRYLITE LED color-changing backlit black/white acrylic sheets with fantastic results, he adds.

On channel letters such as these, the shop uses their CLN of South Florida Graphics Finisher router and CLN Fusion channel letter bender for production. Zlight Technology LED modules illuminated by Keystone Technologies power supplies provide the lighting.

Several car wash signs with day/night signs in 2022 were Vantage Signs’ first experience with them. “While it’s not becoming our top seller, we’ve definitely noticed it being requested/discussed more often,” Lavy says.

That said, he goes on to say they are always very upfront with customers that as cool as this functionality is, there is a period of time during the transition from daylight to darkness that day/night film can appear slightly odd and muted while the visibility transitions from the exterior color of the letters to the LED light showing through.

As for the Randall Residence sign, “it appears that they have already sold the facility to another company, so I’m not sure if the sign is still up or not — lol,” Lavy says. Westrafo America’s fared better: Deadline day was also the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Vantage nailed it and joined the well-attended reception that included Ohio Governor DeWine and other statewide representatives. Best of all? “They had a beer tap that was made from one of their transformers — very much sign-guy approved creativity,” Lavy says.

Wireways

Mize CPAs Inc. (Topeka, KS) reached out to hometown EnLightening Designs by DnJ on a recommendation by a partner within the firm that was a prior customer — the job being two channel letter signs with halo-lit lettering. The shop recommended edge-lit letters instead, providing samples and past project photos. “The edge lit is what they ultimately chose due to clean lines and finished look,” says co-owner Derrick Weinbrecht.

Using the company logo, EnLightening Designs by DnJ opted to hand-fabricate the lettering from .080 aluminum faces and .040 returns, using a jigsaw, bandsaw and a Cut-All Waterjet Cutting tool for the centers. “I use a series of different-sized aluminum tubing mounted to our 10-ft. brake to bend the returns to shape,” Weinbrecht says. “The returns are welded to the back of the faces. The letters are then prepped (sanded a lot) and painted to match brand-standard colors.”

The lettering/logo presented a bit of a challenge due to the serifs and the size of some of the interior lettering. “At least with edge-lit, the returns can be smaller to ease forming,” he says. The shop chose HanleyLED modules and power supplies from Principal Industries. “They have been a very dependable product line for us,” he says.

The interior set features 12-in. and 5-in. lettering mounted to a 38 x 84-in. wireway constructed of .080 aluminum sheet and 1-in. square tubing. “We had to fabricate the 1-in. wireway to fit within the wood-accent wall space to look seamless and flush to the front,” Weinbrecht says, so they mounted this sign using 5/8 x 1-in. barrel standoffs, which were the perfect depth, rather than screws with finish washers. Because this sign hangs at eye level in the main entrance, they installed the lettering flush with the wireway for a finished look. “The wiring challenge was tearing out sheet rock next to a metal stud to mount the custom-made service box flush with the sheet rock,” he adds.

Designs by DnJ’s customer chose edge-lit letters for both their wall and lobby signs.

The exterior set comprises 28-in. and 12-in. lettering mounted to a 5 x 10-ft. aluminum wireway fabricated from. 080 aluminum sheet and 1-in. square tubing. The placement was not crane accessible, so EnLightening Designs’ team of two installers used a 42-ft. scissor lift and fabricated aluminum brackets to hold the completed 5 x 10-ft. sign while wiring and mounting to the fascia. They also installed the lettering on ½-in. sleeves to emit more illumination.

The other accessibility issue was running the low-voltage wire through a small gap above the stairway. “We ran a 1-in. x 10-ft. piece of PVC conduit to push the wire to above the ceiling tile in the office, where we installed the service box,” Weinbrecht says. “Those are the reasons we used the wireway rather than remote mounting: no behind-fascia accessibility.”

Wireways aid in difficult installations and also can be fabricated to fit many fascia and design aspects, he advises. These can be kept invisible if planned and built in during early stages of remodeling or new construction. They also act as a bird’s-nest deterrents, he adds.

Speaking of which, wings may have helped during the installation. “The lift would strand us when it was extended,” Weinbrecht says. “Three times we had to climb down.”

PHOTO GALLERY (16 IMAGES)