Custom signs can be made out of many different types of material – everything from sheet metal and real wood to HDU foam and acrylic. However, the more popular choices by far are the acrylic and HDU foam. Why?
In this post, we are going to talk specifically about acrylic signs and how they are used as lobby signs, office signs, and exterior signs.
What are the common uses of custom acrylic signs?
Acrylic signs are used mainly on the interior of buildings. They are used for lobby signs that would incorporate a company’s logo or their tagline or a saying or a quote from them.
The other type of acrylic signs used in the interior are what we call back printed acrylic signs. These office signs have some sort of picture or a work site from that specific company or a product of that specific company that’s printed on the back of a piece of acrylic to be hung somewhere in the facility, whether it’s in the lobby or something like that.
Why would a company want acrylic over other materials?
It’s a cleaner look. Acrylic, when cut and polished correctly, has a much cleaner look than other forms of material.
If you’re looking for an upscale, classy kind of look for a facility or an office, if it’s a lawyer’s office, a doctor’s office, an accounting office, a professional office, using acrylic over other materials is typically seen a classier, cleaner look to it.
We have used acrylic on other materials to give it a multiple level effect. Acrylic can be painted to specific colors, specific pantones, or specific PMS or can be purchased in different colors.So, it’s just a much cleaner look from that standpoint.
Once a design has been agreed upon, what’s the typical process to manufacture an acrylic office sign?
There are really two ways to uses acrylic in signs. One is cut acrylic – cutting it into shapes. The other is printed acrylic – printing it on the back of acrylic and displaying that.
The process to create a custom acrylic sign really depends on the type of sign. Let’s talk about printed first.
Printed Acrylic Signs
If you’re looking at a print sign, depending on the size of it, the first thing we really need to do is just to use our laser or our router machine to go ahead and cut the size of the acrylic panel.
From that point in time, once that acrylic is cut, it goes over to our large format flatbed printing machine, which prints directly onto the acrylic with a layer of white behind it to give the 3D appearance of the picture or of the diagram or whatever it takes. It goes through basically a two step process.
Cut Acrylic Signs
If you’re looking at shape, sizes, logos, and things like that, then we would use the laser machine to cut out the actual acrylic itself.
If it needs to be painted, we would paint it with a color match color. We would then mount that or get it ready to be mounted on a wall inside of the facility.
What types of permits are needed and why?
Typically from a permitting standpoint, there are no permits needed as long as the sign is within the confines of the building, of the business. In other words, within the four walls of the business do not need a permit.
Where you do need a permit is if you’re taking this acrylic and you’re mounting it on the outside of a building that can be visible from the street.
Any sign, whether it’s an acrylic sign, a channel letter sign, a dimensional letter sign, that’s going to be seen from the street is going to be regulated by the city, the county, or the jurisdiction that that building’s in.
In short, an acrylic sign does not need a permit as long as it’s on the interior of the building.
Wow Factor
We have done lots of acrylic signs. There are a lot of different things that we can do that give it the wow factor.
One would be to use multiple layers of acrylic and other materials, like metal, to give it a 3D effect. It’s kind of a stacked effect. It kind of looks 3Dish and is a really cool effect.
Another one is to have routed shapes into the acrylic. That gives it a really wow effect.
Lastly, the thing that we’ve done that really pops with people is we make the sign lighted. Not only is it a good looking sign, it also has that aura of either a shine through or a back lit effect with lighting, and that really gives a great effect to the sign.
What information do businesses need to submit to get a quote for their custom acrylic sign?
In reality, what we really need to look at is what size the sign needs to be, that’ll be dictated by the interior space that you have, and then what kind of a sign do you want.
Do you want a logo sign? Do you want a quote? Do you want back printed acrylic?
As long as we know that kind of information and sort of sizing, we can get a pretty good quote out to a customer as to what it would cost to do what they’re asking to do.
What is the turnaround time?
Lastly, from a fabrication standpoint, we have all the equipment necessary to produce acrylic signs within our facility, so the turnaround time on acrylic signs is fairly short. It’s from one to two weeks. If you’re looking for a lobby sign, an acrylic sign, that would like to be turned around on a fairly quickly basis, we have the capability of doing so.
Interested in learning more?
At Pinnacle Custom Signs, we work with businesses, organizations, and individuals to create custom signs of all kinds, from monument signs to building signs to banners, trade show displays, car wraps… you name it, we can help you make it happen.
We would love to talk with you about what you need and what your ideas are to see if we are the best custom sign company to work with you on the project. Give us a call or use our online contact form to get started!
Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ef5qvXVad5Q
