Business Management

Best Electric Freestanding Signs of 2012

These International Sign Contest winners look on the bright side

Published

12 years ago

February 29, 2012

Steve Aust Signs of the Times March 2012 Issue

First Place
Fabricator
GableSigns
Baltimore
(410) 255-6400
www.gablesigns.com

Designer
Curtis Arbaugh
GableSigns

Client
Chesapeake Amusements

Chesapeake Beach has become a popular summertime destination along Maryland’s eastern shore, and Chesapeake Amusements wanted to boost its charter-fishing business with an iconic sign. The sign spans 26 x 19 ft., and the cabinet comprises aluminum over a steel substructure. The rod-and-reel logo is lit with LEDs. The letters are illuminated with various neon varieties: “Charter Fishing” is lit with exposed, teal, double-tube neon; “Chesapeake Beach” is brightened with 6,500K white, skeleton neon; teal-blue tubing runs vertically up the pillars’ light fixtures, and the entire border is ringed with a 4,500K, white-neon outline.
The “Capital of Maryland” cabinet is internally fluorescent-lit and decorated with ½-in.-thick, black acrylic letters. All faces were painted with Akzo Nobel’s automotive-finish coatings. The 16-ft.-long, striped bass – better known as a rockfish in Maryland – was carved from fiberglass resin and welded with vertical studs to attach to the pole; it was also painted with an automotive coating.

Second Place
Fabricator
Pacific Neon Co.
Sacramento
(916) 927-0527
www.pacificneon.com

Designer
GNU Group
Lafayette, CA
(925) 444-2020
www.gnugroup.com

Client
Fallon Gateway Shopping Center

This 99-ft.-tall, pylon display serves as the centerpiece of the Dublin, CA shopping center’s signage and wayfinding program. GNU Group devised the sign using Adobe Illustrator with CADTool plug-ins. The sign cabinet, constructed from 0.125- and 0.90-in.-thick aluminum, was welded to the steel frame. The 82-ft.-tall fin was constructed from American Acrylic’s Lumasite® shatterproof acrylic sheets and backlit by Voltarc and GE T12 fluorescent tubing. The channel letters comprise reverse-pan, second-surface aluminum that’s halo-lit by SloanLED VL Plus modules. Pacific Neon also fabricated the logo sign at the base from an aluminum pan face with a digitally printed graphic.

Third Place
Fabricator
Signature Sign & Image
Niagara Falls, ON, Canada
(905) 357-0865
www.signaturesigns.ca

Designers
Elaine Wallis
Mark Wallis
Signature Sign & Image

Client
Magnolia Chinese Cuisine

Every restaurant should benefit from such a distinctive pylon sign. The sign’s structure was built from welded 0.125-in.-thick aluminum sheet and 2 x 2-in., aluminum angle. The twin, 36 x 97-in. aluminum faces were custom fabricated from 0.040-in.-thick aluminum sheeting, and sheets of Sabic Polymershapes’ Lexan® polycarbonate (PC) were jigsaw-cut and fitted within a custom-extruded, x-12 aluminum retainer. The flower and stem were formed from ½-in.-thick, push-through acrylic. SloanLED’s V-Series modules illuminate the sign.

HONORABLE MENTION
Fabricator
Ortwein Signs
Chattanooga, TN
(423) 867-9208
www.ortweinsigns.com

Designer
Cedar Fair Entertainment
Sandusky, OH
(419) 627-2233
www.cedarfair.com

Client
Cedar Fair Entertainment

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