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.