such other online services as building smartphone applications and developing custom, private social networks, was recently permitted to install exterior signage to highlight its presence as the anchor tenant inside a Bay Area high-rise. The building’s architect, Pollack and Assoc., hired Toll Architectural Graphics Inc. (Emeryville, CA) to develop the project.
Appropriately for a company that implements state-of-the-art business services for the digital age, its sign program implemented cutting-edge technology. First, using Sign Arts Products’ Sign•Foam 3 high-density urethane (HDU), Toll created a model for the logo sign on its MultiCam 3000 CNC router.
Then, the shop contracted Kreysler and Assoc. to create a mold using the original model. Using a 3-D scanner and a heavy-duty milling machine, Kreysler Assoc. digitized and enlarged the original graphic and created a mold to cast the signs from fiberglass. Kreysler fashioned the fiberglass pieces on a MotionMaster 5-axis gantry router with a bed for machining materials up to 65 ft. long, 19 ft. wide, and 10 ft. tall.
Toll Architectural Graphics Inc. decorated the signs with Akzo Nobel’s acrylic-polyurethane paint, which was followed with several coats of Akzo Nobel Grip-Gard® Plus urethane clearcoat. For the red “buster” logo that underscores the company’s software-free solutions, Toll Graphics applied 3M vinyl painted to match the customer’s color requirements.
Following the specs of Patrick Buscovich, the building’s structural engineer, Kreysler cast the cloud logos with integral, threaded bosses (raised, round hardware) to provide the necessary support for installation. Each mounting plate contains four, ¾-in.-diameter bolts, and each cloud’s hardware includes 16, ¾-in.-diameter bolts through-bolted to gusset plates and nuts inside the building wall.
Dean Toll, who founded the company in 1979 and has worked in the sign industry more than 40 years, said, “Permitting wasn’t a problem, but we had to work during early-morning, weekend hours. Salesforce.com is located within a Class A office building; the hammer drilling the job required would’ve disturbed the tenants. We’ve provided smaller signage to Salesforce offices worldwide, and we verified that these larger signs otherwise replicated these earlier signs to provide branding continuity.”
JB Signs (Union City, CA), which regularly serves as a Toll Architectural Graphics Inc. contractor, installed the signs.