ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Original Posts

Revitalizing Historic Hudson Mills

A multi-million dollar renovation is underway in Hudson, Massachusetts. Developers are revitalizing the iconic Landing at Hudson Mills for contemporary use. When Mark Development and Manzo-Freeman Development began upgrading the treasured landmark with modern systems, utilities, and finishes, they knew they had to include signage to attract tenants. They called on Metro to build a welcoming focal point for clients and employees visiting the transformed space. A Sign of the Times We were excited to work with The Landing at Hudson Mills because the project was two-fold. They needed us to design and build an upscale and illuminated sign that had some historical elements. Our team worked closely with the owners to create a piece that could sit on their

When opening and running a business, one of the biggest mistakes people make is neglecting their interior signs. Avoid doing yourself this disservice: learn exactly how big a difference interior signs can make for your customers, visitors—and your bottom line. Why Interior Signs? You’ve realized already that most of your customers need some kind of outdoor sign to find your business. But, once customers or visitors have walked through your doors, interior signs take over. Serving as a kind of silent salesperson, guide, and reputation booster, the interior signs help you lead your visitors once they have gathered inside your store or business. Interior signs do this by performing one or more of five distinct functions. 1. Wayfinding Wayfinding signs

In a design-build project, a single team completes the project; from design to fabrication to installation. A completed design-build team has major benefits. With a non-design/build approach, the client first works with a designer or architect, then sends the design to a separate fabricator. This relationship doesn’t always work in the client’s best interest, because neither entity is 100% responsible. This often results in needless delays and can result in errors. Design-build solves this problem, which is why we offer it. Here are the benefits clients see as a result: Lower Total Cost and More Accurate Budgeting With a design-build signage process, your initial estimate tends to be more accurate. That’s because there are fewer unknowns when a single supplier

Have you ever watched the credits roll after a movie? When you realize how many collaborators are involved, it’s no surprise that many great movies exceed their budget exponentially. That’s why we’re proud of an unexpectedly collaborative project that we recently completed without disrupting the schedule. The Project When Roche Brothers approached us to work on one of their locations, we were honored and excited to be sought out by a family-owned Massachusetts company that we all know and love. They asked us to co-design, build, and install clean looking, durable interior and exterior signage, and approximately 1,000 square feet of painted stenciling to add a crisp design element to the indoor environment. We happily agreed. Behind the Scenes Every

When clients or investors walk into your corporate office space, are they getting the right first impression? Researchers have found that an office’s interior environment can create lasting beliefs about a company’s culture, including how considerate the staff is and how much control the leaders have over what happens at the office. That’s why we’ve cultivated expertise in a wide range of higher-end interior environmental graphics packages. Here are a few examples from our portfolio. Floating Illuminated Logos Hudl is a tech company that provides tools for professional athletes and coaches to review and analyze footage of their games. They wanted the interior of their office to be exciting, fresh, and distinctive. We provided an interior signage package for them

Have you ever walked into a space and been surrounded by bold, larger-than-life graphics on the walls, floors, ceilings, and even columns? For example, you might have seen a restaurant’s tantalizing morsels emblazoned on the wall, making you even hungrier before you’ve ordered. Alternatively, perhaps you’ve seen a colorful, digitally printed mural that made you pause and take in the sights while walking through a retail store, office, or transit space. You’ve probably also seen a floor-to-ceiling sign that made it effortless for you to navigate an unfamiliar building. In all these cases, what you were experiencing is called “environmental graphic design.” It’s a growing trend in corporate spaces as well as entertainment, hospitality, education, and transit buildings. These graphics

We’re excited to share that we won both the silver and bronze medals in the 2019 Best Original Design and Fabrication, Non-Illuminated competition adjudicated by the high-profile industry publication Signs Of The Times. Here are the visuals for our two winning projects, plus a look behind the curtain at how they came to be. Second-Place Award: Interior Graphics for Dynatrace, Inc. Dynatrace is a global software company that celebrated its IPO in 2019. At their corporate headquarters in Waltham, MA, the team is known for having a love of sports. So, at the start of a new phase of their growth as a company, Dynatrace decided to jazz up their headquarters with sports-themed decor that the team would enjoy seeing

If you ask any member of our team about the most exciting part of our work, you’ll likely get the same answer: Every project is unique. There’s never a cookie-cutter solution—and that’s where we get our inspiration. Recently, the design team at the real estate development company Related Beal approached us with one such challenge. In this case, the city of Boston had asked the luxury rental company to place wayfinding signs in strategic locations on Boston’s waterfront. The signs needed to help pedestrians navigate the bustling waterfront where the company’s Lovejoy Wharf property is located while complying with city, district, and environmental codes. Mapping Walking Traffic The first challenge was to identify the most elegant positioning for the signs

“I passed a new place and it looks pretty cool. We should try it.” How many times has a friend said this? You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can gather a really favorable first impression from the outside of an eatery. Is it fun or fancy? Healthy or heart attack? Exterior design can be the first draw, even before the menu is posted. That was the case with a recent Metro Sign & Awning project. Prior to Grainmaker opening a second location at 248 Elm Street in Somerville (the first one was at 91 Summer Street in Boston), owner Chris Freeman contacted us. Things were taking off for the young entrepreneur and he wanted to maintain

In May we were helping brand the National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) non-profit canine center just in time for their grand opening. And speaking of furry, four-legged friends, most of the signs you see around a lion’s living quarters say “Beware” or “Danger.” Our client, The Ecotarium Museum of Science and Nature, wanted just the opposite: a warm, inviting archway to welcome visitors to their new wildcat exhibit. We did not disappoint! A Pet Project The NEADS non-profit canine center in Princeton, Massachusetts, provides dogs for the deaf, disabled, veterans, children with autism, classrooms, hospitals, courthouses, mental health practices, ministries and prisons. Their puppies are provided by breeders and animal shelter rescues around the country. When they came