Multi-States Team Assembled for Braselton Monument Sign Project

WHEN TED NEELANDS, owner of DBM Signage & Branding (Chattanooga, TN) gave a cold call to Carl Baker, vice president of development for Branch Properties (Atlanta), he was given an opportunity about the upcoming Braselton Village Community project in Braselton, GA that would see a team assembled from four states.

Branch Properties sent Neelands their concepts and site plans for placement of the signs. Using CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator, DBM Signage put together drawings and a proposal for RW Smith, Branch’s general contractor on the project, and the client to review. Once the plans were approved, the shop sent their install team to start on permitting the project’s three monument signs, which turned out to be a particularly frustrating process.

The signs were originally envisioned as internally illuminated sign cabinets with flat polycarb faces. However, the city of Braselton said they would not allow internally illuminated signs and sent DBM Signage drawings that showed the HDU signs they required on buildings. “We redesigned the signs several times to accommodate height and square footage issues, and went for HDU panels that were routed to look like sandblasted wood signs,” Neelands says. The city eventually approved the signs with some assistance from Branch Properties.

The sign cabinets were fabricated by Identity Custom Signage (High Point, NC) using Miller welders, hand-cut and hand-formed; while the HDU panels were made by CARV Wholesale Dimensional Signage (Valparaiso, FL), which began as 2-in. 15-lb. HDU routed down half an inch on DBM Signage’s 4 x 8 MultiCam router. The shop then routed through the blast stencil and created the wood grain texture using a 20-year-old frame that had been restrung many times, Neelands says. The paint finish consisted of two coats of high-grade water-based primer and three coats of background color finishing, plus two coats on the graphics. The background and graphics were both painted with Sherwin-Williams exterior satin latex paint.

A monument sign being assembled for the Braselton Village Community project. Photo provided by Ted Neelands.

DBM Signage contracted Supreme Sign Services (Buford, GA) to handle the permitting, sign foundation, steel setting and concrete foundation pours, as well as installing and wiring the sign cabinets. They used Elliott L65 HiReach crane trucks and a mini excavator to dig and set the foundations, while Olympic Masonry (Erin, TN) set and placed the masonry bases for the signs.

“We were so proud of how great the execution of our designs were and the fabrication teams’ excellence in producing the signs, along with the install and masonry teams’ amazing craft work,” Neelands says. “It’s important to assemble the right team for the job!”

Concrete being poured for the sign foundations for the Braselton Village Community project. Photo provided by Ted Neelands.