We were contracted by a construction company for an ADA sign project for The Mansfield at Miracle Mile. ADA signs are signs that are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Mansfield is a new mixed-use building in Los Angeles that is 7 stories tall and has 138 apartment units. All new public facilities require ADA compliant signs so construction companies often subcontract a sign company to make sure that all of the necessary signs are in place so the building can pass inspection and be open for use.
The building is art deco style so they started with designing art deco style unit number signs. This was a good place to start because every apartment unit would need a unit number sign. First, they sent over some digital renderings of some ideas they had, and we made a couple of physical samples in both silver and gold and explored different proportions. As you can see from the photos, the final design we ended with was the black background with a brushed aluminum painted copy and the rest of the signs were styled after the unit number signs.
The unit number signs are made from a non-glare acrylic panel that is subsurface painted black. Subsurface painting means that we paint the backside of the acrylic which assures that we get the texture of the acrylic and the color of the paint coming through from the other side. To be ADA compliant, the signs need to be non-glare so they are easy to read from any angle. The signs also need to have 1/32″ thick raised copy and California grade II Braille rasters.
Most of the signs were made in a similar fashion as most of these signs need to be ADA compliant. Some signs used an aluminum backer instead of acrylic, and some were silkscreened or digitally printed graphic as opposed to raised text, but the style stayed consistent throughout to make sure that the interior signage was cohesive.