what can i do with shop facia panels in metal finish?

[Robert Lambie]

quick reply:
stainless steel is atractive but you are giving yourself bother/expence making that choice right away.
personaly, i normaly look at the shop front, think about their logo, name, image etc and think how i can incorporate the whole thing into the shop front giving the impact/feel to what is going on inside the shop. (thats if its all left to me that is, not always the case)
do you have a digital picture of the shop front mate?
giving good suggestions blind is tricky 😀

thanks for asking all our opinions mate 😉

[magpie]

Hi Rob,
I feel the same way if I’m honest. but the metal was the clients idea. I agree it would
be nice to steer him away from this to an extent, quite how far I don’t know.
There are four shops in total, I have a file for one so far and will get the others asap.
I know I’m asking a lot blind please bear with me and I’ll fill in the gaps as I can.
What I really want to do is quote for his fantasy then sell a realistic well designed solution.

[magpie]

Btw Rob,
thanks for that response, in my excitement I’d stopped thinking of it as a design problem
and got carried away with the customers vision and trying to play the Big I am!

One of the problems with still being green I guess 😕

Cheers

[Rodney Gold]

Wilsonart have a light aluminium that is anodised to look like stainless , easy to cut and easy to apply and bend , it’s called Alumasteel.
Most formica manufactureres will also have a metal clad brush finish material which will do the trick.
Both are weatherproof , easy to work and will look stunning.

[Hilliard&Winn]

I find beybond is quite good for these types of panels, easy to bend and the correct look. Depending on what meterials/tools you have access to you could inlay acrylic/perspex stepped letters into a fret cut beybond fascia…then theres the possibility of built up perspex or metal letters which could be halo illuminated or be rim and return?

I think the budget will be something that decides how you go about it.

Skeet

[Nigel Fraser]

Peter,

It’s a bit too easy to dive in and suggest some great sounding ideas to customers sometimes and then after you spend hours working out where/how to source product/materials from they run a mile when you give them a price. I’m not being negative, just realistic – I have done quite a few jobs like this and sometimes the customer WILL be prepared to pay the cash but often you have to cut the spec down to their budget.
So it’s a good move when you have the initial discussions to try and get a feel for the kind of money they are expecting to pay, just so you can avoid wasting your time on the quote. I once spoke to a hairdresser who ran his own salon about a new sign (two facias as it was a corner site) and he said he wanted builtup stainless letters on an aluminium background with internal halo illumination. I thought “oh yeah you are soon going to change your mind when I price that lot up!” so I gave him some price pointers to test the reaction and he just said “OK just price it up for me anyway”. I quoted him just over 4K and ended up doing the job for 4K dead after a bit of a haggle ! So it just shows you can’t be too judgmental but try and get a feel for the customers expectations too.
In my experience joe public don’t know the difference between brushed stainless, polished stainless, chrome plated, brushed aluminium or plain old silver powder coat most of the time ! So don’t take what they say as gospel and feel free to suggest what ever YOU think would look good. Here are some suggestions for possible construction-

1) Aluminium folded backing “pan” type sign with either flat cut stainless or builtup stainless lettering. Possibly with an overhead light of some sort or if they want to go the whole 9yds then internal neon illumination either with or without face illumination too.

2) Aluminium frame with brushed ali dibond panels and lettering like 1)

3) Aluminium light box with either dibond/aluminium panel fitted. Lettering fret cut out of panel with 10-12mm clear acrylic “push through” type letters faced in a solid opaque material to create a nice “halo” effect. I am doing one of these on Thursday so if you can wait till then I will post a picture you can show the customer (it’s for a hair salon in london)

I have done all the above type of jobs recently for hair salons and will try and get some photos together for you if that helps. You’d better get ready to fit some frosted window film too if my experience is anything to go by – they all want it doing in some form on the front glass 😀 talk about sheep….

Nigel

[Hilliard&Winn]

Some good suggestions similar to mine…4k for a panel with built up stainless letters and halo? Bah your raking it in! 🙂

As the feeling goes…BUDGET 😀

[Nigel Fraser]

I didnt particularly go mad on quoting that job Skeet, it was, as I say a twin facia on a corner so basically two separate signs. Including powder coated ali backing trays and fitting and all the electrical connection and design….. so not THAT bad eh ? Especially as like most of us I don’t make the glass or trays or s/s builtups so had to buy all that in 😉

Please don’t encourage me to start reducing my prices – it’s taken me 10yrs+ to try and convince myself I really am charging to little more often than not. It’s a slippery slope for me and one I’d rather try and avoid going back down again 😆

Nigel

[Hilliard&Winn]

Not a bad profit then :-p

No not bad at all if you sub it all out…:)

We live off guys like you…hehe, that and artists who want a “artistic” neon name….recently done “nana” :-s Which was a design of the artists gran children….then we had a photographer in which was fun…think richard whiteley crossed with timmy mallet and boy george 😀

[Nicola McIntosh]

well said nigel!! 😛 😛 totally agree! since me and ed moved from the town 16 years ago now, to the wonderful countryside!! 😮 customers tried to beat me down because they knew i had hardly any overheads!! i would not budge!! i do a good job at a good price!! people forget the money layed out on some jobs! and you still have to wait to get paid!! 😮

Nik

[magpie]

Rob, picking up on your earlier points, there is no logo/identity as yet this is part of what
he’s looking for as well as signage.
As for posting pics of shop front I’m not sure, this forum is open and its quite likely local
sign co’s who aren’t members and not active participants could scan the board to pick up
leads. If there were only UKSG members accessing then I’d be willing to take a chance.
I know this makes life difficult but I have to be cautious.

Rodney, thanks for that, I’ve contacted wilsonart here but they don’t recognise it,
they need the product code to help me – pathetic!
I’ll check other manufacturers as you suggested.

Skeet this sounds interesting, if you can supply or supply and fit PM your details. I may well be in touch.

Hi Nigel, it was the customers idea initially, I just got carried away thinking of my portfolio
rather than the job 😳 I’ll try to be more realistic in future 😀 .

One of the aims of this post was to get an idea of costs for various solutions,
but I needed to be sure I was exploring a good range of approaches.
However, I will establish a budget at the next op as I can see I could end up wasting time.
I wanted to ask at the time but fluffed it, again I got to carried away.

I’m way ahead of you on the frosted glass 😀 but really would appreciate seeing your work.

Thanks everyone, you’ve given me plenty to explore, I’m sure to be back soon with more
questions.

[jon vital]

We’ve done a few aluminium/stainless steel/cut letters/lit signs recently, ranging from about £1.5k to £4k. Applelec are a good company who fabricate them.