Resources Revealed: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A Slightly Different Twist to the Standard Sign

We just finished and installed this new sign at Marymount California University's Kings Pathways Hall. Kings Pathway bring university preparation courses and English language training to students from all over the world.

Kings Pathways are based in some of the best and most popular destinations for international study - Boston and Los Angeles in the USA; London, Oxford and Bournemouth in the UK. You can learn more about Kings Colleges here: http://kingseducation.com

The sign was designed by the Head of Branding and Design at Kings in the UK.

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The sign construction is of a thin aluminum plate; cut, mitered and formed into a dimensional tray about 1-1/2" deep. The corners were sealed to reduce moisture intrusion. The sign measures 40" x 28" (1016mm x 710mm for my UK readers).

Once the tray was formed, we added an overall clear film lamination to protect the aluminum from the outside weather elements.
The 4 color prints were output and then film laminated for protection.
The prints were final trimmed, aligned and mounted to the metal tray.
Since the sign is in direct sunlight, a vehicle wrap material (with its matching lamination) was used for outdoor longevity.
A wood cleat system is installed against the wall and the sign is attached to the wood cleats.

I think this sign is very handsome and works well with the long term color scheme of the Kings College program. The all-around even aluminum border frames the message well. It's also of rather simple structural construction which makes for a cost effective signage program. And the construction is very weather resistant; Marymount is just a stone's throw from the coastline.

We also added several ADA signs to bring the hallway into compliance with current Americans with Disabilities standards. The raised braille isn't really noticeable in the photo, but its there. Pathways 1 is raised lettering which is also required.

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What do you think?

Saturday, October 12, 2013

DCH Toyota of Torrance Lot Pole Banners

DCH Auto Group built this new multi-million dollar Toyota/Scion dealer sales showroom across the street from their existing lot. The building is very handsome and DCH went to great measures to make sure it was energy efficient and comfortable for their customers. The new building has been open about 9 months. DCH Toyota of Torrance is located on Pacific Coast Highway within walking distance of Zamperini Field (Torrance Airport). This well-traveled stretch of PCH has several competing dealers (all AutoNation dealers) including Acura, Infiniti, Mercedes, Ford and Volvo. Porsche (LA Car Guys) is directly across the street. The local independent Chevy dealer is ½ mile away. A fair amount of local competition I’d say.

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I started having a banner replacement conversation with DCH about a year ago just before their new building was completed. Their existing banners at the original lot were long overdue for replacement and really showing their age.

They needed some basic layout; their company font wasn’t available and they only had some stock vector files from Toyota Corporate. I was able to pull the various elements together and started on a basic banner layout. The Toyota and Scion logos had to be incorporated into the banners. Their new building follows a common design theme popular with new auto dealership buildings and utilizes rectangular metal wall panels. I used this “style” as a background theme and presented DCH with a couple of layouts from which to select.

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Once we decided on the layout, all of the graphic elements were uploaded to the plant and an assembled PDF proof was made from my sketches. Elements were placed into position and we rendered the background theme with a very light gray and a darker accent line. A combination of new hardware arms and existing hardware arms were used to hang the single lot pole banners. Here are the results:

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