Xpressive graphiX: Lighting up the Sign Industry with LED Part 2

Have you considered the benefits of using Precision Board HDU to make a dimensional LED sign?  According to Xpressive graphiX in Zanesville, Ohio, the advantage of using HDU over a metal cabinet is that you can add textures and 3D elements and get a lot more creative. To get design tips and learn more, we talked to buisiness partners David Mattingly and Tony Rose. Their company has designed and fabricated some award-winning illuminated signs using Precision Board HDU and LED components.  In Part 1 last month, Tony told us about fabricating LED signs for a pizza joint.  In Part 2 he tells us about designing an eye-catching sign for a real estate agency using Precision Board and LED lighting.

Olde Town Realty is a business located on the main street in town. They asked Xpressive graphiX to make them an attention-getting sign. Tony incorporated their existing logo into the bottom half of the sign and then carved a three dimensional house into the top half.  He added LED to the sign, making the windows in the house and the company name all light up. Tony cut two pieces of PBLT-18 and fit them together like a clamshell, leaving a two inch opening inside to make room for the LEDs.  Using Precision Board HDU Tony was able to make parts of the house on top of the sign set back deeper, which added more character and depth.

“We follow UL code standards,” Tony said. “All Components are UL Rated, exterior grade, so they can be exposed to wet locations. The boxes to hold the power supply are on the outside, but hidden.  An LED cabinet sign would put all that stuff in the sign. We don’t do that with HDU. All that is in there is wiring and steel.”

Xpressive graphiX glued the sign over a steel frame, ran the wiring inside and down to a box on the bottom of the poles. They embed their wiring, but make sure that connections can be reached for maintenance or in case something goes wrong.

“One of the most critical things is access to the electrical,” says Tony Rose. “Olde Town Realty is a traditional sign incorporating LED and electrical components that are still accessible if you need to get in there and fix them,” he added.

Tony and his team do great work and we couldn’t be more impressed. Xpressive graphiX is a full service sign company specializing in all aspects of strategic visual communication. If you’re looking for creative dimensional signage using Precision Board HDU and LED lighting, give David and Tony a call at 740-452-6804 or visit their website at www.xpressivegraphix.com to see the other types of sign work they offer.

You can read Part 1 of our Xpressive graphiX spotlight here.

Xpressive graphiX: Lighting up the Sign Industry with LED Part 1

Have you ever wondered about the advantage of using Precision Board HDU with LED?  According to Xpressive graphiX in Zanesville, Ohio, you can get far more creative with Precision Board versus a standard aluminum cabinet.  Push-through letters can always be added, but it will be extremely hard to get something dimensional.  The advantage of using HDU over a metal cabinet is that textures and dimensional elements can be added. To get more information and design tips, we talked to Xpressive graphiX partners David Mattingly and Tony Rose. Their company has designed and fabricated some award-winning illuminated signs using Precision Board HDU and LED components.  Tony gave us the lowdown on a recent LED project they completed using Precision Board.

LED on HDU

This part of Russo’s pizza paddle sign is 8′ x 8′ and 20′ tall when fully installed.

Russo’s Wood Fired Pizza contacted Xpressive graphiX to design their graphics, including logo, menu boards, wall wraps, and signage. They created three different dimensional signs, including two exterior (one on the building, one on a pole by the street) and one interior. This business is on a main street and wanted a 3D illuminated sign to really stand out and draw customers in. Another challenge was that the sign needed to be built over the existing structure of the sign for the previous business. Tony created a giant wooden pizza paddle design based on the size of the pole and kept it within the square footage of the previous sign at 20′ tall and 8′ wide. They left the existing structure, but cut the cabinet off at the top and used PBLT-15 as a skin on the front.

“We built a square cabinet and covered it in Precision Board to get the shape of the paddle. To get it to fit over the pole we had to make it sixteen inches deep. We mounted aluminum to the steel structure and then machined acrylic brackets for each letter and added them as mounts for the letters,” Tony said.

The lettering on the logo is white acrylic. The center logo looks like a cattle brand burned into the paddle, and at night, the center glows orange.

Xpressive graphiX also designed an exterior wall sign for the building, using cantilevered barn style lights. The sign was built on a frame with a smaller pizza paddle and backlit with glowing LED lights.

We here at Coastal Enterprises think these signs are incredibly creative and appreciate the work of Tony and his team. Xpressive graphiX is a full service sign company specializing in all aspects of strategic visual communication. If you’re looking for creative dimensional signage using Precision Board HDU and LED lighting, give David and Tony a call at 740-452-6804 or visit their website at www.xpressivegraphix.com to see the other types of sign work they offer.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks when we highlight another amazing LED project from Xpressive graphiX using Precision Board HDU.

LED or Neon: Which Do You Choose?

Our friend John Dungan at T. Ham Sign Company, whom you may remember from our story a few weeks ago about 19 Precision Board Signs For The Price Of 9 Wood Signs, sent in pictures of a Precision Board Plus backlit LED sign they recently made. Because they use up to 75% less energy than neon signs, LED signs are becoming more popular today.

Consulting with John, the owner of Sesser Autobody in Sesser, IL wanted an interior sign for his shop that would stand out, have an automotive theme, and look impressive. This led to a design incorporating Precision Board Plus, diamond pattern metal, and LED lighting.

To start, John cut a sheet of 1″ PBLT-15 on his CNC router for the background, and bonded it to the diamond pattern metal using PB Bond-240. A channel routed into the back panel provided a resting sport for the red LED’s for a halo effect. He then routed the Sesser Autobody letters into a sheet of 1/2″ Precision Board Plus and bonded that to the other side of the diamond pattern metal (see how to bond Precision Board to a dissimilar substrate here). The sign was primed using FSC-88WB, and painted with 1 Shot Paints.

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According to John, this was a quick, fun sign to make and was very well received by the owner of Sesser Autobody. Additionally, it proved to be a great opportunity to show how LED’s can be incorporated into a sign instead of neon while still providing an eye-catching, visually pleasing look. Be sure to check out more excellent work by T. Ham Sign Company at: http://www.thamsign.com.

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Back-Lit PBLT-18 for the Ice Pond

Vital Signs, located in Verona, WI, recently sent us pictures of an innovative sign they crafted from Precision Board Plus PBLT-18. They designed a back-lit sign using a combination of Precision Board Plus, acrylic and LED lights.

This sign was built to honor the donators who sponsored the construction of a local ice hockey rink, known as the Ice Pond at Waunakee. It features a frame and logo routed from PBLT-18, individual acrylic components for the donor names, and electric LED lights, making it quite the eye-catching sign. Mike Chamberlin, owner of Vital Signs started the business in 1992, and was involved in the sign industry for many years before that. Operating with a motto of “We’ll Sign Anything!”, they are a full-service sign company that specialize in all types of high-quality signage. Look for them in our upcoming newsletter about the much respected “smalted” sign texture. You can sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.

Vital Signs can be contacted at: (608) 845-3766, and you can see more amazing signs at: http://www.vitalsignsverona.com/.