White by Day
Red by Night - Channel Letter Pylon
When preparing to open a new location in Owensboro, El Bracero approached us with an interesting idea for their pylon sign. They wanted the sign to be red with white letters during the day, but for El Bracero to illuminate as Red during the night. We set to work to bring this from concept to reality.
Start Up
Being in a high traffic area, our client wanted a high-rise pylon. We built the frame from steel angle. The frame was constructed upside down to allow room for the mounting pole, then flipped over and leveled to finish the outside. Everything was painted red to finish the metal and match the overall color of the sign.
Add the Red
Once completed, we skinned the frame with glossy red aluminum composite material. The text on the sign is channel letters, which provide dimension and the illumination. We manufactured the letters in-house, cutting the faces and backs on our CNC router and bending the returns with our accubend aluminum bender.
Now White and Red
With the sign and letters ready, now comes the color trick. The channel letters have white acrylic faces so they appear white during the day. The trick is that the letters intended to be red at night have red LED's which cause the faces to illuminate a brilliant red.
Ease of Use
With the pylon being a high rise with multiple LED's and power supplies, we wanted to make the sign as easy to service as possible. In an effort to prevent anyone from having to service the sign up high, we located all of the power supplies in a convenient, customized box mounted at the bottom. This box not only houses the power supplies, but also has numbered indicator lights and a corresponding lighting chart. If there ever is a problem, this will make troubleshooting a breeze.
Wrapping it Up
With the sign assembled, we loaded it onto our flatbed and hauled it to Owensboro. The sign was so tall it required two cranes to be able to lift it to the top of the pole and have an installer up there to fasten it all together. Now that everything was installed, we were able to stand back and observe our client's new sign with two red and white color schemes.
