Hunt Design, YESCO Embellish Orange County, CA With Landmark Gateway Sign

Helmed by partners Wayne Hunt, John Temple and Jen Bressler, Hunt Design (Pasadena, CA) has focused on EGD since 1977. Civic-wayfinding projects, resorts, theme parks, airports and other properties with high-volume public traffic comprise its core business. The company derives most of its work through requests for proposal (RFPs), although Hunt professed a preference for requests for qualification (RFQs).

“I think RFQs provide a more thorough approach for determining qualified applicants, because we’re first demonstrating a portfolio and not estimating costs until a second round of reviews,” he said. “This extra layer of review ensures an applicant’s compatibility and competence for a project, rather than fixating on a price tag.”

Among emerging, sign-industry material and production trends, Hunt cited LEDs, because of their ease of use and lower energy costs than early-generation lighting technologies; digitally printed, high-pressure laminate projects, because of their outdoor weatherability and printing enhancements that have yielded better projects; and waterjet cutting, because of the technology’s gradually declining costs, and for the precise finishes the process provides.

One negative emerging trend he cited was increasing client reliance on building-image modeling (BIM). Although BIM software enables building designers to outline projects to exacting detail, Hunt views the process as extremely time-consuming, and the details provided are of little use for specifying, designing and fabricating signage.

The firm developed a bold entry statement for the Anaheim Convention Center’s Grand Plaza, which also serves as a gateway to Disneyland and other prominent destinations. Bressler said, “At first, the sign was just supposed to be a modest sign welcoming motorists to the Grand Plaza. But, with its prime location – in the middle of a roundabout where it can be seen up to 200 yards away from Harbor Blvd. – it became a focal point.”

The Grand Plaza sign, for which Young Electric Sign Co.’s (YESCO) LA facility fabricated the sign and Studio K1 (Irvine, CA) designed the lighting, evolved into a 35-ft.-tall sculpture that reflects the Convention Center’s architectural character. Hunt Design worked directly for RJM Design Group, a planning and landscape, architectural-design firm initially engaged to reconfigure the area’s streets, curbs and infrastructure.

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“It was challenging to reference the surroundings, while devising a strong sign accessible to both motorists and pedestrians,” Hunt said. “Because it’s within a roundabout, we had to realign it. It required quite a few SketchUp iterations to perfect the illumination cycles.”

Another challenge he noted was engineering the project’s support structure; devising concrete footings sufficient to support such a ponderous, welded-steel construction became arduous.

YESCO decorated the sign’s black, aluminum channel letters with a day/night, backlit film that changes colors in nighttime conditions. Peter Maradudin, Studio K1’s studio director, said programming kinetic lightshows requires consideration of brightness, motion speed and scale in relation to the environment.
“Lighting design needs to engage and entertain in areas where large groups of people congregate, but it can’t be too garish in color or pace for its environment,” he said.

Maradudin referred to their overall concept for the Grand Plaza project as “The River of Light.” He noted the sign’s external illumination was a single piece within an intricate puzzle, but said they decided the color-changing pattern, which is provided by seven RGB LED floodlights that are maintained by a remote, centralized DMX controller, was devised to progress slowly within a tight color-palette range.