5 Residential Signs Lead Back Home

A RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY with uniform buildings in muted colors might be easy to overlook, its signage less so. When design for residences prioritizes function above all, visitors and prospective tenants look to the signs to locate the property, learn its name, and gauge its aesthetics and values. “The monument design is typically how we begin a complete sign package,” says Russell Toynes of Studio Dzo (Austin, TX). Close collaboration allowed these shops to realize their clients’ visions and deliver signs that bring life into living spaces.

Multi-Part Wrangler

Legacy Sign Group’s (Westville, IN) recent project for the city of Valparaiso involved a gateway beautification program. The shop used veneer granite slabs for the bases set on cast-in-place concrete pedestals, with an AXYZ 6 x 12-ft. router, CIDAN 12-ft. CNC folder and powder-coated faux Corten steel figuring in fabrication. Enlisting Midwestern Electric (Indianapolis) as union installation workers, Legacy Sign delivered the signs to each client site. According to Marketing Director Megan Swick, the main challenges centered on the project’s many moving parts that required working with contractors, city and state officials to meet compliance and deadlines. “With our shop being so close in proximity to a project of this size, we found our employees extremely invested and excited about this opportunity, seeing their hard work out in the wild,” she says.

Rainbow Prism

When Schmidt Studio contacted Sign Shop Illuminated (SSI; Colorado Springs, CO) to help create three identical signs for a new local community project, they shared a multicolored concept that the shop incorporated into the final design. The structure was built from aluminum framing with second-surface printed vinyl, CNC router-cut faces for the recessed acrylic lettering and logo, and Principal Sloan LEDs provided the illumination. The sign was mounted atop a custom-formed concrete base using epoxy bolts, then lifted into place with the shop’s Altec truck. “It was equally important to achieve proper illumination that enhanced and showcased the full range of colors as intended,” says SSI Managing Partner Louis DeSantis.

Community Bid

The city of Troy, MI forwarded a winning Troy Community Center design to hometown Signarama Troy | Metro Detroit, who built the main cabinet from aluminum: ⅛-in. sheets mounted on a frame supported by a skirt. The cabinet face was routed to accommodate ½-in. white acrylic push-through letters. RGB LED modules illuminate a side-mounted cabinet forward and upward through 1-in. green and orange vinyl-covered acrylic pieces. “This was my first time fabricating with 1-in. acrylic material. We knew we had one shot to route the piece,” says Lead Fabricator Krystal Hoover. A 48-ft. Altec crane was used to hoist the cabinet, with everything installed and wired in less than one hour.

Amber Hearth

Studio Dzo (Austin, TX) has been working with Sparrow Living, a senior community developer, for years, with Amberlin Pflugerville one of the properties the shop has created signage for. The monument sign’s primary structure is a painted aluminum cabinet that houses power supplies. The wraparound collar, also aluminum, contains internal LEDs to deliver a reverse-lit effect around the secondary cabinet. The Amberlin logo is routed-out show-through, backed with white acrylic and first-surface printed translucent vinyl for the orange and yellow geometric pattern. The tagline and address numbers are painted acrylic.

Full-Kilt

Bakers’ Signs & Mfg. (Conroe, TX) was contacted by longtime client Ellison Development, who supplied their own design for the McCrorey Trails project. The shop used two steel pipes to support the aluminum box wrapped in 3M vinyl printed on their HP Latex 560 and illuminated with Principal Sloan LEDs. The aluminum channel letters were created using SDS Automation’s channel bender, their backsides coated with green Matthews paint. Bakers’ Signs then used a Ford truck and Altec lift to install the sign into the wet, soft dirt soil, which presented an issue when installation started. “The entire neighborhood as well as the park are all done with a Scottish theme,” says Bakers’ Signs Creative Director Mark Marshall.