When making exterior signs for clients, we make sure that we are using materials that will withstand the weather conditions outside. We only use name brand products to assure that all of the signs we manufacture are of the highest quality.
Beverlywood Homes Association is a client of ours that owns and maintains private parks in the neighborhood of Beverlywood, California. They were remodeling the park and needed new Rules of Usage signs. To make the metal signs, we started with .080 white aluminum. We used .080 aluminum because it’s a little thicker, and the signs were going to be installed onto posts. If we a thinner aluminum like .063, it could bend due to wind shear. The reason we used white aluminum is because the client wanted white lettering. We plotted the lettering from vinyl and applied it to the white aluminum panels so the lettering shows up as white and the background is the vinyl color.
For the vinyl, we used a pre-colored opaque vinyl. We could have digitally printed the information, but especially for outdoor signs, we prefer to use pre-colored vinyl as it will last longer and is not prone to fading in the sunlight as a digital print would be. Even if we laminate a digital print for UV protection, it will not last as long as pre-colored vinyl, so if a sign only has a small number of colors like this one, we opt for opaque vinyl.
As we used white aluminum and only the face had vinyl applied to it, the back was just white. We included posts and they were white to match. We screwed the metal signs onto the posts and installed the posts into the ground with concrete. We always install posts with concrete and make sure that at least 2′ of the post is in the ground to assure that the sign is going to stay put.