Signs of the Times - April 2013 - (Page 22)

STRICTLY ELECTRIC What type of sign says “Americana” more emphatically than an exposed-neon blade sign – particularly an arrow sign that tips it’s hat to Googie architecture? Three colors of EGL 13mm luminous tubing point the way to bacon-wrapped BBQ shrimp and New York strip steaks. the wall with 6 x 6-in., steel tubes, which we paired with matching components that connect to the stub-outs that were already welded to the building’s steel structure. We MIG-welded the sign’s frame together from the 4 x 4- and 1.5 x 1.5-in., steel skeletons, and covered the structure with an 0.080-in.-thick, aluminum skin. The client very clearly wanted the arrow to look like an old-school, Equipment and Materials Coating: Grip-Gard two-part, acrylic-polyurethane paint, from Akzo Nobel (Norcross, GA); www.signfinishes.com Equipment: Sheetmetal flattener and MIG welder, from building-supply and home-improvement stores Lighting: Noviol-gold, ruby-red and tri-phosphor white, 13mm, 120V neon luminous tubing, from EGL (Berkeley Heights, NJ), (908) 508-1111 or www.egl-neon.com; white LED modules, from SloanLED (Ventura, CA), (888) 747-4533 or www.sloanled.com; electronic, 60mA transformers, from France (Fairview, TN), (800) 753-2753 or www. franceformer.com Messageboard: Stackable, 10mm, modular display, provided by D3 LED Systems (NYC), (888) 992-3533 or www.d3led.com Metal: Galvanized-steel, perforated, 16-gauge, diamondplate-steel mesh, aluminum sheet and aluminum support tubing, from buildingand sheetmetal-supply shops Printer: Stylus Pro GS6000 solvent-ink printer, from Epson (Long Beach, CA), (800) 463-7766 or www.epson.com Router: AXYZ Series 8000 CNC router, from AXYZ Intl. (Burlington, ON, Canada), (800) 361-3408 or www.axyz.com Software: CorelDRAW!, from Corel Corp. (Ottawa, ON, Canada); www.corel.com; Adobe Creative Suite, from Adobe (San Jose, CA), www.adobe.com; Rhino 3-D, from Robert McNeel & Assoc. (Seattle), (206) 545-7000 or www.rhino3d.com Vinyl: Panaflex flexible-face material, from 3M Commercial Graphics (St. Paul, MN), (888) 364-3577 or www.3mgraphics.com 22 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / APRIL 2013 / www.signweb.com urban blade sign; thus, it would feature exposed neon. We implemented a combination of EGL 13mm, ruby-red, noviol-gold and triphosphor-white luminous tubing. We painted the sign – as we did all of this job’s components – with Akzo Nobel two-part, acrylicpolyurethane paint. Demand for neon has certainly waned with LEDs’ continuous evolution, but there’s still a market for it on certain projects, such as exposed-tube signs, where the customer wants a specific, retro look. We powered the sign with 9000V, 60mA France electronic transformers. We built the 16 ft. 9 in.-diameter, medallion sign from 0.080-in., aluminum sheet, which we cut to shape on our AXYZ Series 8000 CNC routers. We secured it over 2 x 2 x 1/8-in., aluminum-tube support frames in two pieces for shipping. We crafted the medallion’s eagle from a sculpture of flattened beer cans and license plates. Niemitz’s original design called for crushed beer cans, but mounting them without water and dirt accumulating inside them could’ve proven problematic. We reviewed the concept, and determined that flattening them instead would prevent water from penetrating the surface. We tiled the beer cans and license http://www.signfinishes.com http://www.egl-neon.com http://www.sloanled.com http://www.franceformer.com http://www.franceformer.com http://www.d3led.com http://www.epson.com http://www.axyz.com http://www.corel.com http://www.adobe.com http://www.rhino3d.com http://www.3mgraphics.com http://www.signweb.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - April 2013

Signs of the Times - April 2013
Contents
ST Update
Cut Your Ink Costs
Technology Update
Vinyl Apps
Strictly Electric
LED Update
Software Update
Technology Review
Technology Review
Sign Museum News
New Products
The 2013 International Sign Contest
Leasing Equipment
The ISA Sign Expo 2013 Preview
Industry News
Advertising Index
Editorially Speaking

Signs of the Times - April 2013