The Hanger is a new burger bar that just opened in Fresno, California this year. They wanted to make sure that their sign properly conveyed their restaurant’s theme by including their logo which is a propeller and wings. The sign went through a few different renditions before we ended on this final design. In one of the first drafts, the propellor was meant to actually spin. Due to permitting, we were unfortunately not able to have a spinning propellor on the sign, so we ended up painting the details onto a flat face instead. Paint creates a more high-end look compared to digital prints and lasts much longer. The client knew that they wanted the sign to be reverse-lit from the beginning, and was considering different shades of red to find one that would be vibrant enough at nighttime as the letters would be reverse-lit. After a few different renderings, they decided to go with black letters instead.
The sign was always going to have the propeller and “THE HANGAR”, but the tagline also went through a few changes. The original tagline was just “BURGER BAR” in the same lettering, and we even looked at renditions that had “HANGAR KITCHEN”, and even just “HANGAR”. In the end, the client finalized the sign with “Great Food-Great Hang” as the tagline in a channel letter box instead of individual letters.
The logo and the individual letters are reverse-lit, and the tagline is compound which is both front-lit and reverse-lit. Reverse-lit letters are all metal except for the back which is clear. The tagline is reverse-lit, and part of the faces light up. We made this sign by making a box like a reverse-lit sign, but we routed the letters out of the face and pushed white acrylic letters through them. This sign type is called push-thru letters. We use sign acrylic which is translucent so as you can see from the photos, the letters light up at nighttime.