Plaques are useful signs for many different purposes. A few months ago, we made a new monument sign for Woodland Hills United Methodist Church. After the sign was completed, they wanted to put some dedication plaques on the footing of the sign. Other plaques we’ve made include logo, memorial, directory, identification, informational, and donor plaques. For these plaques, we used .040 horizontal brushed aluminum for the backer panels. .040 aluminum is pretty thin, and a lot of depth wasn’t necessary for these signs, especially since they were both only 4″ x 6″.
Aluminum comes in many finishes, the most popular ones being brushed and polished. Brushed aluminum, as you can see from the photos, creates a look as if brush strokes were embedded into the material. Brushed aluminum is probably the most popular finish used for signage as it gives a metal look, but it is not too reflective and it gives the sign a high-end look. Polished aluminum is very reflective and looks mirrored. Polished aluminum can look great for signage, but wouldn’t be good for these plaques that were installed outside and sunlight could glare off of them. Another material we’ve used for plaques is acrylic. When clear acrylic is mounted spaced off of a wall, it creates a very classy look and is a great way to display information.
For the lettering, we used black vinyl so the lettering it flat. Other lettering options include engraved lettering, embossed lettering, dimensional letters, or digital prints. Digital prints can be great if you need to use a specific color or if you want to display an image or a photo. These plaques just had lettering so we plotted the letters out of Oracal 751 black vinyl and applied them directly onto the brushed aluminum backer panels.