The Challenge: The shopping center sign criteria prohibits flat faced digitally printed cabinet-type wall signs and Kelly Martin, owner of Chepe’s Mexican Grill, a growing Mexican restaurant organization in the Atlanta area, has used cabinet signs at the previous locations. We have to create a design that meets the sign criteria.

 

As a huge gust of wind blew open my office door the phone started ringing. Resisting the urge to chase the papers flying off my desk I reached for the phone and checked the caller ID. It was Blanca and Alan Rohr from Reliable Signs in Roswell, Ga. Whenever they call, it usually means they have something very challenging up their sleeves. On this occasion, they didn’t disappoint me. They had an opportunity to help their client, Owen Brown at Retail Planning Corporation, by working with one of his new tenants at his Woodlawn Square Shopping Center, a Mexican restaurant named Chepe’s. The restaurant is very successful in the Cumming area and they have used box signs with flat acrylic faces and digital prints for their other locations. I had to convert their current logo into a dimensional sign that will adhere to the center’s sign criteria yet still carry the same “look and feel” of the logo.

 

Image 1: Placement photo captured at a significant distance from the building using the camera’s zoom feature to frame the photo.

Accuracy in details and dimensioning: Starting your drawing in scale

 

Communication of key details was critical, and Blanca and Alan were very good at extracting and organizing the details involved in this project. Step one was an accurate survey, and this is one area that Alan shines in. Alan took the steps up front to perform an accurate survey with plenty of measurements, scalable photos and details of the signs the customer is currently using. (See Image 1) One very important element is the placement photo. This must be scalable and without distortion to ensure accuracy in the placement on the building. Measuring brick size, as Alan has done, helps me determine scale. Bricks come in a variety of sizes, therefore a quick photo with a tape measure on the brick assures accuracy and eliminates further questions.

 

Creating the first set of concept drawings: How flexible is the customer?

 

How much of a change to the logo will their customer agree to? Of course, the objective is to make as few changes as possible, but sometimes elements have to be modified or eliminated to meet construction requirements. This was one of those great looking logos that required digital printing, regardless of application or process. It was decorated with highlights and fades that only a digital printer could reproduce. It was decided that these fades and highlights would not be the best option for this channel letter set. I recreated the logo in Corel X5 and matched the existing colors by way of the 3M translucent films catalog.

 

Image 2: Existing sign survey photos with close up of digital highlights and color breaks illustrates fabrication method.

Unique fabrication challenges: A dual-color LED channel letter

 

The logo contained a pepper as the apostrophe, which required some reworking of the design’s original layout. The customer agreed to using a whole pepper graphic rather than a partial pepper to keep it recognizable. I decided to create a partitioned channel letter, which allows for the use of red acrylic for the pepper while using white acrylic with a film overlay for the pepper stem. Partitioning this channel letter allows for lower fabrication costs on the larger red letters (red acrylic with no film overlay) while allowing for consistency in color between the pepper and the letters. Red film over white acrylic looks much different than red acrylic alone. The red acrylic pepper body is fitted and glued to the white acrylic stem, then green translucent film is applied to the white acrylic stem. A black film outline is added to hide the seam between the two acrylics, along with adding the black trim cap. A .040 aluminum partition in the channel letter isolates the red LEDs in the pepper from the white LEDs in the stem. Details such as these are best illustrated on the final fabrication drawings, once the general construction method is approved by all parties involved.

 

Dissecting the logo: Creating depth

 

The logo was provided in a PDF file, and although it was fine for digital printing, it required some reworking to clean it up for fabrication (See Image 2). The first obvious step was to separate the logo into individual color layers. As part of this process, I kept in mind fabrication restrictions such as material size and the weight of the finished sign. In stacking channel letters, it’s necessary to securely fasten the first layer (bottom) RPC letter-cabinet to the backer plate with hidden supports. The illustration was for conceptual understanding by the customer and landlord on how the sign would be fabricated, hence the color reference on the cross sections. The finalized fabrication drawing will show details like wall fasteners, clear polycarbonate backs and electrical requirements. 

 

The Presentation Pages: Show and Tell 

 

Once the redesign and construction was approved by the customer and the landlord, I created the placement illustrations for day and night view along with finalizing the construction illustration drawing. The customer was able to quickly understand the new construction method for their logo sign because of color-coded cross sections. The placement drawings illustrated how it would look during the day and at night, giving the customer and their landlord a lighted sign that met everybody’s criteria.  

 

The entire redesign process went smoothly because the customer understood that changes were necessary to take the design where it had to go; a result of Blanca’s professionalism in presenting these design and construction options (and the designer wasn’t too bad either!).