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North Carolina Signshop Tackles 7,500-sign Military Contract

Blashfield Sign Co. completes project at Ft. Bragg

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Military brats, per Wikipedia, are an official U.S. subculture. (With Wikipedia being about as accurate as Encyclopædia Britannica these days, we’re inclined to believe them.) Characterized by a life of constant adjustment, broad cultural exposures and a strong dose of military culture, brat life is more than a strict upbringing.

As kids, military brats are exposed to significant authority. As adults, they tend to be resilient, culturally aware and proficient in foreign languages. In the workforce, they gravitate toward careers that allow independence, including creative fields and self-employment.

Matt Blashfield fits some of these stereotypes. His dad was a major with the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam. Like many military kids, he moved again and again before settling down in North Carolina. He opened the Blashfield Sign Co. Inc. there in 1988.

Matt has 10 full-time employees, and the company is so busy, he schedules an annual, mandatory, weeklong vacation. When I caught him at lunch one day, he was at the airport. Still, he checked facts with his mom, hugged his sister goodbye, and talked to me about sign installations without a hitch.

Clearly, Matt doesn’t want to give away all his secrets, but his perseverance is obvious. He won a six-figure contract to install more than 7,500 signs at Ft. Bragg by knowing the right people. He followed the bidding process for months online and in newspapers, and offered his services when the contract was awarded. He visited the base quarterly, made calls and sent emails. Most importantly, he showed up often, sometimes just to chat; he wanted the advantages of contracting with a local sign company to be obvious.

The building itself was part of a $290 million contract won by Hensel Phelps Construction Co. (Greeley, CO). Completed at the end of June, the final structure is six stories and 700,000 sq. ft.

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Getting the job, it turned out, was the least of Matt’s headaches. Working for the government is every bit of the bureaucratic nightmare you’d imagine: round after round of suggestions, revisions, sketches and samples. Multiple layers of approval for the tiniest detail.

The upside? Once everything was approved, revisions ceased. Matt kept meticulous records of every installation detail. If there was a complaint, he whipped out a photo and combed through his notes.

Another positive was guaranteed paydays. Matt billed everything through Hensel Phelps. Of military contracts, he explained, “A lot of people complain about it, but I love it. You’ve got to go through some red tape. You’re going to get paid, though; it’s guaranteed money. The checks don’t bounce.” Unlike his policy with civilian customers, he did not collect a 50% deposit upfront, but was paid monthly and for stored materials.

Working with the brass: Layered military leadership
Daily, Matt carefully respected the Army’s layered leadership. As sign designs were offered and discussed, he kept logistics in mind. A giant, green star suspended from the third-floor ceiling shouldn’t be lit with fluorescents, he counseled, and he suggested LEDs instead. Details like these kept the generals happy, and ensured that they would look good pitching decisions to their own bosses.

“You need to be a problem solver,” Matt said. “If you’re an asset, they keep you.” For the star, he suggested LEDs be installed on sliding trays, so worn units could be easily replaced without dismantling the entire fixture.

Any big job involving an architectural firm involves some compromises. Sign companies usually side with logistics, while architects tend to lean toward looks. And Army generals, well, they’re just trying to get the job done and garner positive PR.

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“It’s like a movie star walking the red carpet,” Matt said, describing the generals’ visits and inspections. “They come in and look at everything. . . If they see something blatantly wrong, that they were told would be one way upfront, they’re going to say something.”
When the Army asked for a painted replica of its official seal, Matt must have winced before he advised a more professional product. His final fabrication, a 9-ft.-diameter, 3-D crest, comprises six pieces of high-density urethane base bonded with epoxy, then primed, painted and integrated with heat-formed, CNC-routed, polycarbonate sections. In other words, a home run versus a pop fly.

The crest sits at the base of two stairwells just inside a main entryway, and Matt used laser and router-cut acrylic sections to create the crest’s finished detail. It decorates the base’s new FORSCOM/USARC headquarters that serve the U.S. Army Forces Command and the Reserve Command. The Army crest decorates a grand entrance for both branches.

A bomb-proof install
Typical government-contract hassles arose. All materials had to be American-made. The ceilings and floors had to be shockproof, with a ½-in. vertical give, so nothing could be directly mounted to them; architectural plans called for a star-shaped light fixture, 20 ft. in diameter, suspended from the third-floor ceiling.

Matt brainstormed with architects and engineers for two months to design the green, 1,500-lb. star that is suspended by 30 couplers, each rated at 400 lbs. The couplers were hung with eyehooks and attached to the ceiling with custom-made quick links. Even if a bomb hits the building, Matt’s star will hang steadily from the ceiling.

Installing the star was quite stressful. “I get heartburn just reliving it,” Matt laughed. Construction had to stop during the installation to accommodate the scaffolding Matt’s team used for the installation. With the install nearly complete, aesthetic problems arose when he discovered a third-floor walkway would give visitors an up-close look at the star. Tension mounted. As his team rushed to complete the job, Matt waded through layer after layer of approvals.

Every change required someone to review the alteration and accept it. “We couldn’t move an inch without 50 people approving it,” Matt said. For interior signage alone, his VP (and wife), Stacey Blashfield, combed through hundreds of pages of plans to find some 6,000 wayfinding, door ID and LEED-certified signs, and created schedules for each floor. To organize manufacturing and installation, Stacey broke the building into 18 sections, and ultimately met with architects, engineers and Hensel Phelps representatives 25 times over 14 months. Art director Rob Walkowiak produced artwork and shop drawings for each sign in the package. Logistically, interior signage was the most difficult part of the contract.

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Each submittal had to include samples of every material to be used, as well as digital prints, 3-D prospective renderings and an assembled sample. Interior signage alone required 40 prototypes. For the star, Matt brought eight vinyl samples before a final green was selected. Matt printed a large, vinyl banner to create a template for the star’s aluminum frame. Within the frame, he hung two pieces of clear acrylic to cover four rows of LED modules. On the star’s outer surfaces, a translucent vinyl provides a green tint, while the star’s interior is opaque. Matt also created a removable tip for each point of the star, so that trays of LED modules could slide out easily when a module needed to be replaced.

With any government contract, recordkeeping is vital. “Anticipate the process,” Matt warned. He used notes and photographs, and recorded memos to justify everything – what he did, why he did it and how much it cost – to save work during the final billing process.
Matt and his crew aren’t propping their feet up, though the Ft. Bragg project is finished. In true military-brat style, Matt wrapped up one project and immediately moved on to the next, a signage install for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

 

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