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