Royal Sign Co. (Phoenix) has fabricated signage in the Valley of the Sun for more than 50 years. As Raymond Owens, the company’s business-development manager and a member of the Intl. Sign Assn. steering committee, can attest, fabricating signs in one of hottest, most arid U.S. climates sometimes proves challenging.
However, Phoenix does provide an attractive market; the city’s recovered nicely from the downturn and is again one of the fastest-growing U.S. urban areas. And, because some municipalities favor horizontal, roadside signage, monument signs remain a fruitful signmaking avenue. Owens also credits the Arizona Sign Assn. for providing Grand Canyon State sign companies with valuable resources.
“The association has done a great job of creating best-practices procedures in terms of materials, foundation, coatings, structural support and other, key details,” Owens said. “It’s helpful to have clearly articulated standards. We live in a harsh climate, and a resource that helps us create signs that will last is invaluable.”
He also noted that Phoenix officials have become somewhat more flexible in their sign-code administration. He said the city has established a design-review board that charges $250 to review plans; if a sign meets with the board’s approval, more square footage is awarded.
Royal and project manager Dane Alvord completed an expansive, 38-ft.-wide monument sign for The Sydell Group, a NYC-based hotel developer, and its Scottsdale, AZ upscale hotel, The Saguaro. The Sydell Group’s architect, Stamberg Aferiat Architects (NYC), submitted the artwork.
The face comprises perforated metal obtained from McNichols Co.’s Phoenix office. A subcontractor subsequently corrugated the panels to match the job’s custom specs. Then, Royal’s fabricators hand-cut the panels with a skill saw. The sign’s interior illumination entails T12 fluorescent tubing; the channel letters’ brightness emanates from CAO Group LuxemBright Inferno white LEDs.
“It’s easy to find corrugated aluminum, and it’s easy to find perforated aluminum,” Alvord, Royal’s vice president, said. “However, it took some creative thinking to find a vendor who could produce perforated and corrugated aluminum for the job.”
He added, “During the recession, we produced fewer monument signs. A lot of our work shifted to tenant-panel conversions and sign refurbishments. Now, I’m happy to say the monument-sign market has heated up again.”
The Madison Improvement Club, a Phoenix yoga and cycling facility, hired Royal to create a sign for a slate wall at the club. Following consultant Tom Martin’s artwork, Royal crafted the letters from 0.09-in.-thick aluminum with a Miller Weldmaster MIG-welding system. Royal spraypainted the forms with Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint, and secured the letters to the wall with 1-in., coupler standoffs.
Gateway 101, a Scottsdale strip mall that’s operated by Citation Developers LLC (Coronado, CA), gained curb appeal from a large, 5 x 10-ft. monument sign and several, complementary, 5 ft. 2 in. x 5 ft. 2 in., smaller cabinets. Alvord worked with Butler Design Group to handle the sign design and fabrication
call-outs. Royal manufactured the cabinets from MIG-welded 0.09-in. aluminum and Wonderboard fiberglass-mesh, cement boards; slate tiles clad the cabinet. Fabricators built the letters from aluminum, Plexiglas® acrylic faces and 0.063-in. returns.
Approximately 90 linear ft. of T12 fluorescent lamps brighten the large monument, and 18.5 ft. of internal fluorescents light the smaller cabinets. The channel letters were lit with Lumificient Technologies Hyperion R-Lite modules.