Best Sign Systems of 2010

FIRST PLACE/BEST OF SHOW

Fabricator
GableSigns & Graphics Inc.
Baltimore
(410) 255-6400
www.gablesigns.com

Designer
Merje Design
Philadelphia
(484) 266-0648
www.merjedesign.com

Client
City of Miami

Given its status as one of the premier U.S. vacation destinations, Miami Beach needed a vital wayfinding system. The program entails one, 6 x 7-ft., main-ID, aluminum sign and channel letters spraypainted with a metallic-silver finish and dark-blue and dark-gray accents; 16-ft.-tall directory IDs with changeable-color floodlighting; 9-ft.-tall directories that mimic the primary monument’s design accents; and 2-ft.-wide, pole-mounted, directional icons located streetside throughout Miami Beach that help guide the area’s affluent residents and tourists.

 

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SECOND PLACE

Fabricators
(banners)
Dimensional Innovations
Overland Park, KS
(913) 384-3488
www.dimin.com

(exterior signs)
Don Bell Signs
Port Orange, FL
(800) 824-0080
www.donbellsigns.com

Designers
JC Hendricks
Sara Deuel
Dimensional Innovations

John Lutz
Selbert Perkins Design
Arlington, MA
(781) 574-6605
www.selbertperkins.com

Client
AMC Theatres

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Selling Price
$380,000

Although media observers constantly cite cable TV, proliferating mobile communication, the lack of unique films and myriad other entertainment options when writing epitaphs for the movie-theatre industry, opulent properties such as Kansas City’s AMC Mainstreet emerge and thrive amidst even rough economic times. Outside, the theater attracts patrons with a 68 x 6-ft. marquee that features an EVIDA 10mm LED motion-graphics board that curves to fit the façade. The 60 x 11-ft. blade sign features channel letters illuminated with GE Lumination’s red Tetra LED strips and faced with red Acrylite® acrylic. The marquee’s lower portion incorporates GE Lumination white Tetra LED strips behind Plaskolite Optix 7328 acrylic faces.
For the lobby, Dimensional Innovations produced six, 3 x 20-ft. banners that feature Oscar-winning actors and actresses from various generations. Dimensional Innovations reverse-printed the displays on 3M clear vinyl on its Mimaki JV-4 160 printers. Once these were printed, the shop applied white vinyl to the second surface with “milk” Plexiglas® applied next. Vibrant, LED lighting provides a glow to the aluminum-channel frame that encompasses the “plex” layer.

 

THIRD PLACE

Fabricator
Appleton Sign Co.
Neenah, WI
(920) 734-1601
www.appletonsign.com

Designers
Jan Lorenc
Chung Yoo
David Park
Lorenc+Yoo Design
Roswell, GA
(770) 645-2828
www.lorencyoodesign.com

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Client
Potawatomi Casino

The $240 million renovation to Milwaukee’s Potawatomi Bingo Casino underscores how the gaming industry now reaches far beyond longstanding meccas. Lorenc+Yoo Design collaborated with Hnedak Bobo Architects to create an environmental-graphic vision – “Keepers of the Flame” – with a color scheme, lanterns and other accents that reflect the “great wide open.” Appleton Sign Co. fabricated the program, which comprises a monument sign, numerous wayfinding elements and distinctive architectural pylons. Appleton fabricated the signfaces using Sabic’s Lexan® polycarbonate and Chemcast SG acrylic, and illuminated the program using Agilight LEDs, Westinghouse fluorescent lamps, and custom-built lanterns brightened with Hydrel and Bega HID spotlights and steplights.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Fabricator
GableSigns & Graphics

Designer
Jacobs Carter Burgess
Denver
(303) 820-5240
www.jacobs.com

Client
Towson Town Center