2D Routing the Precision Board Firehouse Signs

When Tony Rose and David Mattingly with Xpressive graphiX and Signs in Ohio created the signs for a local fire station, they used Precision Board HDU PBLT-15 with some exterior LEDs to give the building some pizazz. Tony tells us how he saved time 2d routing these signs and still made them look great.

“We built three signs. One is across the front of the building where the garage is. That one is 30′ long by 2′ high and 2” thick,” says Rose. “We also fabricated two logo signs, each one 3′ by 3′ and 2″ thick,” he added.

Tony used 2d routing to speed up the process. He carved in to a depth of ¾” to make the letters really pop off. He mounted an aluminum angle frame to the building and the sign sits on that with no fasteners showing. There’s a 2” angle on the back, mounted with 1” lags and PB Bond 240 so that he could skip clamping them. Rose put weatherproof exterior LED lights on the perimeter because it’s a wet location and the lights are exposed.

“I put about 8,000 coats of red Exterior Latex PPG paint because red doesn’t coat very well,” he jokes.

Tony used the same process on the smaller logo signs. “I did 2d routing with 3d routing for the logos done in combination with Z Brush and Enroute software.” He adds, “the lettering was routed in 2d with some 3d relearn appliqués to help speed the process.”

Tony adds, “Because of Coastal Enterprises’ outstanding products we were able to complete this job on time, on budget, and it has led to more work at three other stations as we speak.”

Machining time was 4 hours with a total project time of about a week to a week and a half start to finish.

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, give Tony a call at 740-452-6804 or visit the website at www.xpressivegraphix.com to see the all the types of sign work they offer.

Coastal Enterprises has large sheet sizes up to 5′ x 10′ and thicknesses up to 24″ in any thickness increment. Get free samples, request a quote or sign up for our newsletter to get more great content like this!

3D Modeling the Weasel Boy Brewing Co. Signs

When Weasel Boy Brewing Co. needed to replace their parking lot and building signs with something a little more noticeable, they contacted Xpressive graphiX in Zanesville, Ohio to do the work. Tony Rose used 15 lb. Precision Board HDU and 3d modeling to save fabrication time. He talks us through his creative process on updating the brewery signs and making them pop a bit with dimensional elements.

“These signs were done to replace the brewery’s existing PVC signs using the same brackets and frames,” says Tony. “There was a parking lot across the street that nobody ever knew was there because the sign was too small and had bad colors, so we replaced them all,” he added. Xpressive graphiX created a pole-mounted sign, building sign and four single sided signs on two existing frames from PBLT-15.

They had brewery signs, but wanted something a little bigger. Tony originally drew it up with a more traditional sign shape, but the brewery wanted to change it to show the beer. “We debated doing a keg for the signs, but the keg didn’t look right with the bottle cap logo, so we ended up doing the beer glass look with the logo over that,” says Rose. Their logo is a weasel holding a bottle cap.

Tony mostly used 3D modeling except for the tongue. “Being able to 3D model everything on the sign really sped it up because we didn’t have to hand carve anything.” He added, “There was very little touch up with hand carving, mostly on the tongue. We did sculpting on the fingers to top them off.”

He used FSC-88 to prime the signs and give them texture. He then used exterior latex paints and airbrushed the shadows and highlights. Tony clearcoated everything afterwards with an acrylic clear coat paint.

Tony did the 3D modeling using Enroute Pro and Adobe Illustrator. The Precision Board HDU was routed with their MultiCam CNC. The routing took about 12 hours. Start to finish, the project took about ten days.

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, give Tony a call at 740-452-6804 or visit the website at www.xpressivegraphix.com to see the all the types of sign work they offer.

Coastal Enterprises has large sheet sizes up to 5′ x 10′ and thicknesses up to 24″ in any increment. Get free samples, request a quote or sign up for our newsletter to get more great content like this!

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.

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.

Hogging the Spotlight with Xpressive Graphix: Perfecting the Multi-Material Display

Xpressive Graphix Gives a Master Course in Complex Dimensional Displays

Xpressive Graphix, a sign and display design group out of Zanesville, Ohio, recently got the chance to go hog wild on a job: Creating a massive, ten foot tall yellow pig display! Rittberger’s North Market needed an eye-catching installation that would promote their brand and bring in traffic from the busy main street. They approached the Xpressive Graphix team, who started putting together a memorable design. Over the course of the project, the team proved that Precision Board is perfect for a multi-material display– It’s versatile enough to work in tandem with other materials for a unique final product. Don’t forget to check out some of the other projects Xpressive has done with Precision Board, and take a look at their website here.

Assembling the pigpen

Step One: The pigpen. The team decided to go with concrete poured over a steel frame for reinforcement, a good choice for long-term durability. Since they didn’t own an industrial welder prior to this job, they had to buy one to weld the frame together. Plus, they had to learn how to use it! That’s what we call “on the job training”. Once the pigpen was assembled, they hand-painted it with PPG Sun Proof exterior latex paint in a deep brown shade, mimicking the appearance of weather-worn wood.

Painting the Pig

Step Two: After the pigpen came the star of the show: the big yellow pig. It needed to be lightweight enough to stand securely, but still be able to resist harsh weather and other environmental damages. Xpressive decided to use ultra-lightweight EPS foam, hand-sculpted into shape and coated with fiberglass resin for protection. Since the pig towered at six feet tall, even the lightest-weight Precision Board would have made it too heavy to stand. After coating, the team sanded it down, used Bondo putty for smoothing, and used PPG Sun Proof to paint the big pig.

Painting the Precision Board signs

Step Three: Next up were the “Rittberger’s North Market” signs, to be mounted on the sides of the pigpen. The crew used PBLT-15 for the twin signs, a good choice for outdoor dimensional signage. The signs were hand-carved to shape with a hand-held router and dye grinder. They used our FSC-88 WB primer to coat the signs prior to painting with a vibrant blue and yellow color scheme. Slots were added for variable lettering so the sign’s text could be changed as needed. This shows how Precision Board can fit in with a multi-material project– It’s versatile enough to complement other materials, and make for a varied and professional final product.

Transporting the Display

Step Four: Finally, it was time for assembly. The entire display was huge– So large that it needed to be transported in separate components by two large trucks, then assembled onsite. The Xpressive Graphix convoy rolled out with the pig in a pickup truck and the pigpen and signs on a large flatbed.

Finished!

Step Five: When the different components arrived at the market, it was a simple matter of putting it all together. Metal slats on the pigpen’s frame were bolted to the cement, securing the display. The Precision Board signs were already installed on the pigpen, so the big pig was bolted to the rest of the pigpen. Finally, the team added soil and potted plants to the recess of the pigpen display, giving the entire installation a natural flair. The entire installation stood at about ten feet tall, easily visible from the street and surrounding area.

This was a complicated, labor-intensive project, but Xpressive Graphix pulled it off with no sweat. The final result is highly professional and well designed, but also has some playful, personalized appeal. Don’t forget to check out the Xpressive Graphix website to see their other projects and commission a design of your own, or give them a call at (740) 452-6804.