I got a request from my city to produce some interpretive signs. My first thought is screen printing or reverse digital prints on tempered glass or polycarbonate. Not sure on mounting system. I don't do many of these so I need some recommendations. Here is what they are asking for..but nothing is graffiti resistant to my knowledge, but cleanable.
1. Design, manufacture, and installation of five interpretive signs. 2. The City expects the final signs to be made of all weather and tamper resistant material. 3. Prefer graffiti resistant materials.
Thanks in advance!!
-------------------- Jeff Wisdom SignWorks info@oregonsignworks.com Posts: 450 | From: Oregon | Registered: Dec 2005
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IZONE, is a company in Texas, where I had this type of signs made.
Robert Durbin, (contact) 888-464-9663 ext.122
They can give you the lowdown on procedure & cost.
-------------------- Jack Wills Studio Design Works 1465 E.Hidalgo Circle Nye Beach / Newport, OR Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Jeff, how big and what quantity of information are they expected to have?
I've made up about 2 dozen interpretive signage signs or plaques for various historical sites & such things. They were permanently in the weather.
The smaller ones, I did by designing the plaque sized at 40 x 50 cm, with text, heading, border & photo which I then made a positive of, and then burned some screens, and then screenprinted them in automotive basecoat onto ivory alupanel.
There were issues, because you get ONE chance to print them, before the stuff dries in the screen & gunks it up. Flood coating doesn't help - it just dries way too fast. I then put a 2-pac catalysed clearcoat over that & mounted them and they looked great.
I did four at 8 x 4 ft, and mounted them inside a frame, and on posts with a big roof. They were digital prints. I thought about a polycarbonate cover sheet, but decided that redoing the print would be cheaper than replacing damaged polycarbonate. So far graffitti has not been an issue. (5 years?) The normal laminate has been fine.
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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P.S. I also have a few books on writing & designing interpretive signs.
It is a shame many people in charge of doing such stuff don't read & research the art of creating such signs first - I have seen lots of other interpretive signs all over the world, and some are well done, while some are truly terrible.
Some do not last (I know of a local organisation that spend a fortune on a lot that were dye-subbed onto aluminium. They have all faded beyond legibility, despite me warning them it would happen. They were done by a company 240 km away who cares not for their name in the local region.)
I've also watched tourists reading many, and some will engage them, while others just bore them, and they walk off without reading past the first coup[e of lines.
You need pictures, and you need to write in an engaging active way, and often with some subtle humour if possible, to help people enjoy reading the sign right to the end. They do not want to be fed a dry listing of statistics written like a legal dissertation...
[ September 10, 2014, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6714 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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You can make these yourself. Just use a laminated digital print adhered to a piece of DiBond or Alupanel, attach a piece of clear polycarbonate on top. I've seen them screwed down or you can use an aluminum frame around the perimeter.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5397 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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Thanks for all the great input. I did get a quote from IZone as was trying to meet a deadline. If by chance I do get the project I can research some alternative sources or techniques.
-------------------- Jeff Wisdom SignWorks info@oregonsignworks.com Posts: 450 | From: Oregon | Registered: Dec 2005
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