Design

Best Electric Building Signs of 2014

Solid as a rock

Published

10 years ago

April 3, 2014

Steve Aust Signs of the Times April 2014 Issue

FIRST PLACE

Fabricator
Security Signs
Portland, OR
(503) 546-7117
www.securitysigns.com

Designer
Jennifer Ford

Client
Portland Rock Gym

Rock-climbing gyms have become a trendy way to get fit, and this animated-neon and LED sign captures the toughness and resourcefulness required to navigate a vertical wall. Security Signs formed the aluminum-angle-frame structure with a Miller Electric Thermal Arch Pulse 350 welder with Cobramatic wire feed. To form the mountaintop returns, they used a RAS TurboBend Plus, and they cut ¾-in.-thick, acrylic push-through faces to shape on a MultiCam 3000 CNC router. Fabricators decorated the acrylic faces with 3M opaque-vinyl overlays, which were cut on a Mimaki CG-130 FX cutting plotter. The ¼-in.-thick acrylic “climbers” are framed with EGL 15mm, clear-red neon, with a Rocox flasher that controls the animation. GE Tetra Max LEDs illuminate the cabinet, and Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint protects it from Portland’s often-soggy climate. A 78-ft.-reach SkyHoist crane elevated the blade sign into place.

SECOND PLACE

Fabricator
Blackout Signs
San Marcos, TX
(512) 738-6715
www.blackoutsign.com

Designer
Jay Gordon

Client
Atomic Tattoo

They like to keep it weird in Austin, and no place invites outside-the-box signage like a tattoo parlor. Whereas most veer towards window lettering and sandwich boards, Atomic Tattoo – a 22-year-old parlor with six locations – opted for a neon extravaganza that explodes with color.

Blackout proprietor Jay Gordon and his crew MIG-welded the aluminum frame, skinned the signs with aluminum sides and faces, and painted it with 1Shot lettering enamel. Neon bender Kirk Tunningsley of Big Dog Neon (Lockhart, TX) bent a multi-colored array of 15mm Voltarc tubing that emits a carnival of light that harmonizes with multi-color, 11W incandescent bulbs. France transformers fuel the sign’s luminescent explosion.

THIRD PLACE

Fabricator
Sign Effectz Inc.
Milwaukee
(414) 264-5504
www.signeffectz.com

Designer
Don Nummerdor

Client
Divino

When the owners of Milwaukee’s Palermo Villa Italian restaurant rebranded and reinvented their establishment as Divino Wine and Dine, they hired Sign Effectz to build a 4 x 8-ft., retro-style neon sign that creates a bacchanalian flavor. After the design was completed with the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite software and approved by the client, the shop built the cabinet using a Miller Electric MIG welder, pneumatic press brake and hydraulic shear, and formed the letters on its Gerber Sabre 408 CNC router. Exposed neon built from EGL tubing, and powered by France electronic transformers, outlines “Wine and Dine” and “Open”. US LED modules provides a warm backlighting glow for “Divino”, which is clad with 3M translucent vinyl.
Sign Effectz installed the sign with a Spanco SR62 crane, Werner extension ladders and Bosch hammer drills.

HONORABLE MENTION

Fabricator
Thomas Sign & Awning Co. Inc.
Clearwater, FL
(800) 526-3325
www.thomassign.com

Designer
Thomas Sign & Awning Co. Inc.

Client
USAmeriBank

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