ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Design/Build

Bring Your Brand to ADA Signage

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has many requirements for bringing current signs into compliance or when you create new ones. How can you bring your brand to ADA signage when creating new signs or bringing your current ones into compliance? While ADA signage requirements are first and foremost intended to improve safety and accessibility for customers and building visitors, many companies are pleasantly surprised at how the required signage can also support branding. We’ve helped large and small companies get a better understanding of ADA signage and to see how they can incorporate it into their interior design and include branding elements. What is ADA Signage? ADA signage is designed in accordance to the regulations of the Americans with

We’ve followed LEED and related architectural and design concepts for years, and always operated with a goal of finding the most efficient operational methods that are effective while having the lowest impact on natural and other resources. Expect to hear more from us on the subject in the coming months. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from our clients and partners, how are you working to make the most efficient use of time and materials?

How Real Signage Plays into a Virtual World

Earlier this year, a report by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America showed that outdoor advertising not only remains tops in terms of cost-effectiveness, it continues to be one of the strongest drivers of online searches. How Outdoor Advertising Fuels Online Searches According to the report, outdoor advertising was as successful in spurring Facebook activity as were TV ads, and results were similar for driving traffic to Twitter and Instagram. If it sounds surprising at first, when considering your routine behavior it’s easy to understand the findings. While commuters are strongly encouraged to ignore their phones while on the road, thanks to mobile devices, we’re accustomed to tuning in to an increasing amount of visual stimuli all the time, even while

All of us here at Metro Sign & Awning send a hearty “Congratulations!” to the team at Dellbrook and everyone involved in the West of Chestnut development in Quincy. We were excited and honored to be involved very early (probably before the earliest point in this time-lapse video!) interior signage evacuation map Metro design Boston While the video shows the dramatic transformation, you don’t see all the behind-the-scenes planning and design decisions that go into creating interior signage that complements a beautiful interior while serving an important (possibly life-saving) purpose for residents and visitors. More on that later. For now, here’s a glimpse at some of the preliminary sketches, hinting at how professional sign designers work to ensure interior signage meets codes, is ADA compliant, and is created and installed to be

Early in 2015, Metro Sign & Awning began designing a freestanding (pylon) sign for a corporate environment that would re-imagine Tewksbury’s workspaces. The corporate campus needed a sign that said more than “we’re here.” It needed to say, “we’re here, we’re corporate, we’re cool, and we’re different.” Enter Metro’s innovative design team. Exterior Signage To Transform a Corporate Entrance The birthplace and original headquarters of Wang Computers, today The Center at Innovation Drive hosts entrepreneurs as well as companies like Corning Life Sciences. The mixed-use development includes office, R&D and laboratory space in addition to warehousing, and lifestyle amenities such as doggie day care, a fitness center (for humans) and a fleet of rental bikes. LEED certification is in process for the four conjoined buildings totallling 750,000 sf of rentable space. Metro Delivers Inspired Design, Innovative Materials

Brockton Enterprise Center: A Plan Comes Together Creating a mixed-use development with residential units, interconnected streets, and dozens of retail businesses requires tremendous cooperation among city agencies, business owners, and developers. It also requires many different types of interior and exterior signage, all of which must work together to serve the development’s many users. Metro Sign & Awning began working with property owners at Trinity Financial to begin creating signage for the $100 million Enterprise Center project more than a year before Enterprise Center, Phase I, opened to the public in November 2015. City officials and business leaders expect that the project at the corner of Main and Centre Streets will serve as a beacon and an anchor for continued

Most communication is simple, with a single layer of meaning. But once you get into the world of graphics – where the best signage lives and thrives – you begin to find opportunities to communicate more than one message at a time. Here are a few examples of public, possibly familiar graphics that exemplify the potential for signage to be a powerful tool of communication. Wendy’s has a new logo, but it contains a hidden message that’s very old. Can you spot it? … It’s the word “mom” woven into the red-headed girl’s collar. I guess the idea is to evoke home-cooked foods, family dinners, and perhaps even a dose of unconditional love. None of that is guaranteed when you’re

Business signage plays an important role in the life of any city, not only because it supports commerce and the livelihood of individual businesses, but also because the overall appearance of a city’s signage helps communicate and even define its character. Think about the differences in signage between Boston and Las Vegas, for example, and what that signage says about each of those cities. Generally, governments do not heavily regulate the content of any signs (although the Americans with Disabilities Act does set forth some standards for signage content). Rather, each city government tends to develop its own set of signage regulations, in an effort to control the appearance of the city’s built infrastructure and also to tame the impulses

When the Boston Public Library wanted dramatic new exterior environmental graphics – including interpretive panels and engraved pavers – at its newest branch, in East Boston, they turned to the noted architectural firm, William Rawn Associates. Rawn, in turn, asked for consultative help from Arrowstreet. And when the time came to fabricate the designs, Rawn and Arrowstreet came to us. The East Boston Library is the newest branch library in the Boston Public Library system. Located in the middle of Bremen Street Park, the building features three entirely glass walls and soaring roof that allows in filtered light, helping to connect the new Library’s indoor resources with the Park’s natural outdoor elements. A new series of interpretive panels are located

In a typical building, the glass entry doors and any adjacent windows create more opportunity for unwanted energy loss (in winter) and gain (in summer) than any other structural element. During the summer, for example, a single square foot of unshaded glass can allow more energy into a building than an 8′ x 10′ insulated wall. That’s a big reason why, as we’ve noted here, designers and business- or building-owners are looking more frequently toward adding new entry awnings at key traffic and visibility locations. Once installed, high-quality awnings help limit the location’s energy gain and loss every day and night, and do this during their considerable service lifetime. As a result, their benefits work out to be extremely cost-effective.