Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Here's How Those Big Store Signs Are Made
sploid.gizmodo.com: Here’s how channel signs—basically those big signs that hang above stores and restaurants across the world—are made. The Science Channel gives us a sneak of the way things are done and it’s surprising that so much of it still requires the help of a human. It’s not all robots! And it’s actually a lot more work to shape vinyl and aluminum into letters and logos than you’d think.
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Well, first off, I had no idea how this type of sign was made, and I typically like How It’s Made videos so I decided to watch. The main takeaway for me from the video was the fact that it takes many days to create this type of sign, while initially I would have guessed that an entire sign could have been made in one day. I guess there is that clear parallel to theatre in outsiders to the industry, underestimate what goes into it. Also, this article reinforced one of my favorite subjects that clear, effective signage is so important. Obviously, not everyone is probably able to afford signage like this, but having something that people can identify a product or an organization with at an event or in public to separate yourselves from others is so crucial in developing a strong customer population that is dedicated to what you do.
I say this a lot, and I always says topics, shows or genres but whenever I see a post with tools, How its made, Norm, or TOH, there is a really high chance I will it. So a how it’s made about signs? I’m so in. The reason I am “so in” is because I thought this video might take place in a scene shop. It is not unreasonable to think that a scene shop would build large signs. Now, when the video started, I realized it is even less unreasonable to think that a sign company would make large signs. The other thing I think is cool is how even though they have extremely specialized tooling, our tools do roughly the same thing, theirs may just be more industrial. For example, their break, that was awesome, it is all computer controlled and is essentially spits out the form of a letter. (This could have been helpful for our first show this year).
Making these signs takes a lot more effort than I originally thought. They only use a machine once to automate the process- the rest of the time it is manual labor. It takes an hour to make just one letter and weeks to do a whole sign. There was a link at the bottom for how candy canes are made that that process is entirely done by machines and takes about 30 minters to make a batch of thousands of candy canes. I had no idea making signs took so long. With the advent of LED billboards and all the other new sign technology, it would seem like these old style huge signs would be going out of style, but it seems like they are still being used regularly. However the ability to, most likely, use any font for these crisp, professional signs is a huge advantage in marketing. Seeing the process they go through, using simple tools like a CNC router, hole punch/grommeter and that industrial CNC bender as the biggest tools, shocked me. I guess at this point they have perfected the process into the smallest number of steps even if they haven't taken out the humans yet.
Huh! Glad to see someone is using nails! I had never thought about how these were made but it’s a lot more in depth than I thought! And the video is right, it ds definitely an attention grabber! What this video brought to my attention is how much I am used to buying everything I need and putting it all together to make it do my intended effect. Before I clicked on the video I was like oh you would just buy the letters and put in some back light, but…someone has to make the letters. I guess what I’m saying is there is a lot more effort that goes into making these things than I was acknowledging. There’s a surprising amount of manual effort that goes into making these signs, which is definitely a good thing in my eyes. When I think factory, I think of a lot of automated machinery moving things out rapidly onto a conveyor belt, but it is good that that is not the case everywhere.
Surprisingly, there isn’t much to making these signs. I’m surprised at the use of the vinyl for the face of the letters. I know that acrylic can be found or manufactured in almost any color and it would seem that for a custom sign this might be the better solution. That being said, it may be easier for the sign company to just purchase clear acrylic and apply whatever color for whatever application they need. In this case, it would also be easier to get some kind of image or pattern in the letters. The most interesting part about this process is the computer-controlled machine that creates the reveal for the letters. I don’t know what I would do with it, but I want one. Though, I would ask that if they have one of these machines to do the reveal, why not use another machine like this to make the front cap of the letter?
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