How is signage made?

The days of brush and paint signage are, unfortunately, slowly dwindling. With the exception of a few very talented people still practising the traditional methods, modern signage has largely moved away from a highly skilled art form towards being more like a conventional trade. How signage is made today is mostly large format vinyl prints or computer cut vinyl mounted on to aluminium composite panel, acrylic or directly to a building or vehicle. illuminated 3D fabricated lettering made from acrylic, steel and aluminium is also widely used for a more high end result. 

Vinyl used in signage is an amazingly versatile product. It is made from PVC embedded with plasticisers to make it flexible and then coated on one side with an adhesive (which is where we get the term self adhesive vinyl). It comes in many forms and grades. I cover the grades of vinyl in another post which you can take a look at here, I also cover how long those grades or types are expected to last in a seperate post you can check out here. To go over it again briefly the grades from lowest to highest quality are; monomeric, polymeric and cast. The main types are coloured vinyl or printable vinyl. Coloured vinyls are generally used by putting them through a plotter to be cut to shape to create words and images. Printable vinyls are generally a white vinyl that are put through a large format printer for designs to be printed on to. Within these two main types are a whole host of sub-types like translucent films for illumination and frosted films for decorative finishes, to name a few. There are also clear films that are mostly used as a laminate to go over printed vinyls to protect the ink and prolong the life of the print. Most of these clear films are also printable as well and can used to reverse print window graphics for internal application, or as overlays for reflective films, among much else. All these kinds of vinyls can be used to create 2D signage by being installed directly on to windows, walls and vehicles. They can also be mounted on a substrate like acrylic or aluminium composite panel. Or they can used in conjunction with fabricated signage like a translucent film on illuminated lettering or a print over a fabricated shape to create a gradient effect. 

The industry standard substrate for most 2D signage is aluminium composite panel. Aluminium Composite Panel (ACP or ACM for short) consists of two thin layers of aluminium separated by a core material, usually made from polyethylene, mineral fibre or a combination of both. It is cheaper, lighter and more versatile than its predecessors of colorbond sheets and a product called sign white which was essentially 16mm thick painted particle board. Aluminium composite panel can be square cut or router cut to shape. It can also be v-grooved to make folded edges and bent to go around slightly curved surfaces. The other main substrate used in signage is Acrylic sheets. Opal acrylic for example is used with vinyl applied as a translucent substrate for light box faces. Clear acrylics can be reverse applied with vinyl to create reception or way finding signs. Coloured acrylics can be laser or router cut to create shapes or individual 3D lettering that can be used on its own or in combination with vinyl or other acrylics. Acrylic also has to ability to be heated and moulded into a desired shape that is utilised to make fabricated 3D signage which can then be illuminated with led lighting. 

The possibilities for fabricated lettering could be a post in themselves. I’ll only briefly touch on it here. Most metals including aluminium, steel and brass can be cut, moulded  and welded into shapes or channel letters that can then be pinned off a wall to create shadows or filled with LEDS to be side lit, back lit or front lit to create different effects. They can also be painted or mounted with vinyl to create different colours, patterns or shapes. The difficult part is narrowing down your design. 

In modern signage most of the creative process has been channeled to designers. With the vast array of materials available it takes a competent technician to manufacture those ideas in materials that are going to sustain the conditions the signage will be exposed to.