Sign Builder Illustrated - October 2008 - (Page 70)

its performing arts auditorium honoring its prized educator Arthur L. Hanson III (see photo on page 63). “[Exeter] had just built this brand-new, beautiful high school,” says Vitous. “[Hanson] was retiring in two weeks (after serving thirty-plus years), and they wanted us to design, fabricate, and install a fitting commemorative sign for the auditorium that was going to be dedicated in his name.” Vitous and Arnold fabricated a pan sign that’s basically halo-lit, while the sign’s back panels are sheets of MDO that had been painted matte black. “We put it off the wall, pan-fabricated a box to hold the SloanLED modules, and experimented a bit to get the spacing and the lens right,” explains Vitous. “The LEDs are in a can smaller than the sign [about an inch all the way around].” Vitous and Arnold decided to put the pan sign on a French cleat for maintenance purposes. “This way, the whole sign can be pulled away, if needed,” says Vitous. (The actual can that holds the LEDs is mounted to the wall, while the plaque was then lifted into place.) They next stud-mounted Gemini prismatic letters to the panels. Because the school needed the finished sign in two weeks, Custom Designs only considered using bronze letters from Gemini. “We couldn’t consider other suppliers,” explains Vitous, “because they can take six to eight weeks to ship out on a good day. Gemini was able to get the letters out to us in eight days. The letters were just pristine. They made the whole plaque sparkle!” Vitous and Arnold encountered a bit of a surprise at the beginning of the installation process: Since the school wanted to surprise Hanson with the sign, everything related to it had to be kept under wraps until the last possible moment. “We had to go up the night before and install everything under wraps,” Vitous says. “We ended up working on it up until about nine o’clock at night. However the sign was beautiful, and the ceremony turned out really nice.” Custom Designs’ high-quality work in this area has led to a special relationship with Brooke’s School—especially when it comes to completing similar signage programs for them. For instance, the shop is currently in the middle of another donor sign project at press time: a new science center that’s being built on campus. The school has been around since 1938, and to complete this new facility, two old 70 Sign Builder Illustrated October 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sign Builder Illustrated - October 2008

Sign Builder Illustrated - October 2008 Contents SBI Agenda Quotes & Comments Contributors Revving Up for WrapQuest Dispatches Sign Show Sandblasted and Dimensional Sign Rescue, Part Three UV Ink and Printer Update, Part One Black is Black! Makin' Money With Molded Letters Making a Monster A Custom Built Sign Shop The Evolution of Architectural and ADA�Signage Finishing That Makes the Cut Maximizing In-store Signage and P-O-P Displays Wide Format Opportunities Panel Saws: A Precise Cut SBI Marketplace Q&A

Sign Builder Illustrated - October 2008

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