The below news is from Sign & Digital Graphics

A few weeks ago, a new client called and asked about making a raised-plate aluminum lettering or logo type for a small rock sign at a new housing addition he was developing. It was only a few miles away, but to visualize what he was talking about I asked him to snap a digital picture of his newly constructed entry sign, which was built out of rock.

His intention was to put black lettering, in a fairly delicate script font called “Savannah,” which was appropriate since the development was to be called “Savannah Hills.” When I saw the photo in my email, I knew we were in trouble.

First, I had never seen a rock sign structure that had as many random colors in the rock as his did. To a builder this might seem interesting and a good idea, but to a sign guy it was going to cause trouble. If you have a rock wall where some rocks are light, some are quite dark, and some are even a shade of red, what color of lettering will look good on that substrate?

The answer is… there is no one-color answer. A dark letter (satin black was his choice) will look okay against the light colors in the stone wall, but will contrast poorly against the darker rocks in the wall, and there were several. A light colored letter, beige or light gray, will have the reverse problem of contrast.

Also, his choice of fonts was already a problem because of its thin, delicate strokes. If it was boldened enough to show up better, the look of the font would change dramatically. Some of these illustrations show how faulty his assumptions were.  

The obvious solution was a shadowed letter, where the graphic artist has control of the contrast button. It would be easy enough to put a vinyl letter over a satin black plate aluminum shadow, but now we have taken a 30-year product and turned it into a 7-year one.

Now at this development, to the right and left of the sign itself, was a new wooden fence and the trim at the top of the fence was formed from flat sheets of pre-finished metal building material. This is a light gauge steel, but finished with a special 30-year coating, in this case an attractive copper color.

The copper color was the choice of the developer, but real copper turns green in a short period of time (think Statue of Liberty), so they were using coated metal building material with a metallic copper finish. So, it seemed logical to use the same material as a laminate over the satin black metal cutouts, which, instead of a having a cast vinyl lifespan, we might be producing a product that would outlast the developer and myself.

The thin double-sided tape used for hemming banners works very well as a permanent bonding adhesive for laminating two pieces of sheet metal together, and that was the adhesive we used for this job. Once pressed in place and let sit for a day or so, it is not coming off without destruction of the metal laminate.

The design, in two colors, was simulated in our graphics program, and a PDF file was emailed to the developer with pricing. Showing him a comparison of this look verses what he had asked for was convincing enough, and soon we were off to the races.

The plate metal we used was 3/8” thick 5052 aluminum, which was cut on a 4’ x 8’ Omax waterjet, then drilled and tapped for studs and powder coated satin black. The lettering, which would be laminated on top, was cut from one 3’ x 10’ sheet that we were able to buy locally from the metal building supply company that had supplied the same metal for the fencing contractor.

The one weakness in durability that I could see was the edges of the copper sheeting once cut to shape, since these steel edges would have coating on them. To give this exposed edge a bit of protection, they were hand-sanded with the lettering placed face down on a worktable. The edges were then coated with SuperFrog Clear from an aerosol can.

The job went together with no problems, and a pattern was made for the installation of the project. When perforating a paper pattern, we typically draw the design on paper using a plotter, then use shortened studs that have been sharpened to punch the pattern easily and cleanly. Using a full-sized stud for this hole-punching job will produce a less accurate pattern since the longer studs may vary further from being truly perpendicular to the back of the letter or cutout graphic. A handful of these shortened studs are easily made and worth keeping around the shop.

Out on location, the pattern is placed on the wall according to notes taken from our original drawing and double or triple checked, then secured in place with duct tape. We only want to drill these holes one time and as accurately as we can. Of course, drilling into a rough rock wall, with hard places, soft places, valleys and ridges can create real challenges for keeping the drill bit right where it needs to be and perpendicular with the surface.

Recently another sign guy advised me to try using corrugated plastic to back up a paper pattern because it doesn’t tear and will help keep the drill bit where it needs to be. Sounds like a good idea to me, but I did not get to try that method on this job.

After all the holes were drilled, I realized I had not brought my small compressor and generator for blowing debris out of each hole, but I did have a piece of plastic tubing, which does work for this task. The tubing is just long enough to give my eyes a little distance from the dust.

One hole had to be adjusted, and this was caught by pre-fitting all the parts in place without glue. After that one correction, it took just a few minutes to have everything well glued in place, and ready to start its 30-year lifespan.

In a couple of days a major home event called the “East Texas Parade of Homes” would take place and this new addition and one or two of its brand new homes were to be presented to the public for the first time. The landscapers finished their work, the sign guy did the same, and all was ready for the home buying public, and just in time.

It had started out a bit of a puzzle, but the builder was pleased to get the look he wanted (even if he didn’t know it to begin with), and we were glad we could produce something that was not only pleasing to the eye, but would be just about as permanent a feature of the landscape as the homes themselves.