Best Electric Monument Signs of 2013

First Place

Fabricator
Brooks Signs Ltd.
Brantford, ON, Canada
(519) 753-6106
www.brooks-signs.com
Designer
Sun Signs
Stratford, ON, Canada
www.sunsigns.ca
Client
Regional Municipality of Waterloo Intl. Airport
Selling Price
$43,000 (Canadian)

When people hear the term “regional airport”, they probably think of a sleepy, backwater airstrip, such as the one depicted in the ’90s TV show Wings. I once flew into Rhinelander, WI’s tiny airport, where one poor, overworked individual seemingly served as gate agent, baggage handler and air-traffic ground crew. Waterloo airport officials wisely invested in a sign that gives air travelers confidence they’ll receive much more professional service.

The sign’s support structure implements two, 10 x 10 x 3/8-in. square steel posts, anchored in 12 places to a concrete base. Construction required various aluminum angles, channels, and 0.125-in.-thick aluminum, router-cut profiles. The aluminum skin’s fabrication involved a combination of welding and gluing to the structure, which created a seamless finish to the monument’s 20-ft.-tall wing. The shop fabricated aluminum components with an AXYZ Automation 6010 6 x 10-ft. CNC router. The sign’s logos and text were illuminated with US LED’s Quasar modules, and all halo lighting is achieved with US LED The Point diodes.

Push-through letters were laser-cut from ¾-in.-thick Plaskolite cast acrylic. The airplane logo, a 5-in.-deep, fabricated can, comprises a 2447 white acrylic, trimmed face. 3M 3630 translucent vinyl covers the airplane logo and push-through letters. The Region of Waterloo logo and plane incorporate various items, which were produced with Oracal and Avery translucent vinyl on the shop’s Roland DGA VersaCamm VS-540 printer.

Second Place

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Fabricator
DeNyse Co.
Douglasville, GA
(770) 942-0688
www.denyseco.com
Designers
Mike Butler
Chris Craig
DeNyse Co.
Client
Cortland Partners

According to Amy Florence, DeNyse’s director of marketing, this sign, which identifies a Roswell, GA apartment complex, had to comply with a strict ordinance that dictates all monument signs must conform to one of 19 permitted shapes. The sign had to be built integral to the monument to create effective square footage and meet code. The aluminum face – all faces were machined with a MultiCam 5000 CNC router – features 1-in.-deep, push-through letters made from ¾-in.-thick Plexiglas acrylic. The commanding illumination was achieved with Agilight LEDs paired with 3M diffuser film to eliminate hotspots. The letters were painted with Akzo Nobel’s Grip-Gard paints and protected with Matthews clearcoat. SABIC Polymershapes’ Lexan® polycarbonate spans the cabinet’s rear perimeter and enhances the lighting effect.

Third Place

Fabricator
DeNyse Co.
Designer
Mike Butler
Client
Jones Lang LaSalle
Like the Univ. of Georgia’s football team, DeNyse Co. may have come up short of the top prize, but it has done the Peach State proud with a double award in this category. Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the top real-estate developers in the U.S., ordered this sign for a bustling office park in a prime location. The fabricated-aluminum monument, which measures 13 ft. 3 in. x 14 ft., features halo lighting provided by Agilight LEDs and enhanced with 3M diffuser film.
The 2-in. deep “H” and the 5-in.-deep “swooshes” were routed on the shop’s MultiCam 3000 CNC router and decorated with custom-color Akzo Nobel Grip-Gard primer and paint.