ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Original Posts

Summer in the City: Awnings and Enclosures Can Heat Up Sales

So it’s summer, and your customers want to sit in the shade. Remember January? We were excited to install a vestibule at the South Boston (Berkely Street) Area4 restaurant. The smart and energy-efficient enclosure was welcome, as it protected patrons from the Arctic blast that blew in each time the main door was open. Awnings and enclosures may not be top-of-mind when you think about exterior signage, but few investments in your business have such an obvious pay-back period. Particularly in the New England climate, exterior structures can pay off quickly, thanks to extending your hours into the evening, adding additional seating, and keeping your customers happy and comfortable, protected from the elements. Custom-designed, high-quality awnings provide additional patio seating for restaurants and encourage

We’re very excited about YOTEL Boston’s Grand Opening! The forward-thinking micro hotel offers a “smart, flexible space that suites individual needs.” It’s a business model we love: providing smart and flexible designs that are tailored to meet individual needs is what we strive to do every day. Signage must meet the needs of a business, while being flexible and innovative in order to shine and celebrate the uniqueness of each commercial enterprise. Members of the Metro Sign & Awning team have been working closely with the city of Boston and YOTEL developer Boston Global Investors (BGI) for more than a year to make sure the signage – inside and out – would be as smart, bold, and bright as the

New owner of full-service salon sees vibrant results with new logo, new sign When Infinity Hair, a full-service salon and barbershop, was purchased, the new owner needed a new logo and sign. Metro Sign and Awning helped create a bold new look for the business. The owner had several ideas. Metro’s Keene designer took those ideas and developed several concepts as a guide to steer the general direction of the sign. “Once we had picked a basic concept, (designer Kris Arnold) dove in deeper and created a more detailed rendition,” explained Patrick Grizzard, Sales Manager. ‘The result was a stunning vinyl sign using the colors of the rainbow in an intertwined infinity sign.” The Advantages of Vinyl Graphics Grizzard is

When the owner of One-Stop Country Pet Supply planned to move to one of Keene, NH’s biggest retail centers, she knew she needed a big, bold sign to help her reach more shoppers. Patrick Grizzard, Sales Manager at Metro’s Keene location, was delighted to help her bring her vision to life. Big Sign, Big Impression “The overall height of this one came in at just under 8 feet, and the overall width came in at 25 feet,” Grizzard said. “And the custom shapes that we made for this sign really gives it that extra something.” Owner owner Saskia Whallon had a clear idea of what she wanted the sign to look like – and Grizzard and the Metro design and fabrication team enjoyed

When it comes to business signage, size matters. While it’s not always accurate to say, “the bigger the better,” well, sometimes, it is. When your building project needs bold thinking, big ideas, and even bigger signs, you need to work with a professional signage company that has the training and experience to ensure your best signage visions become reality. Large and Oversized Exterior Signs = More Attention for Your Brand When you’ve got the permits and the plan to “go big,” we say, GO BIG! Experienced sign designers can take a concept from inception to installation-ready, making sure your brand gets the attention it deserves. Below, we shine the spotlight on some of the larger signs that we’ve designed and installed in

Metro Sign and Awning graphic designers and fabricators love bringing signs to life. But would our jobs make a good movie? Well, probably not. Carefully fabricating any sign requires extensive knowledge and experience with a host of tools, techniques and materials. And painting the finished sign is another highly specialized part of the process. While we know that watching paint dry isn’t exactly the stuff that wins Oscars or Academy Awards, we had to share this video of one of our great painters at work. (Thanks, Pete!) The video offers a quick overview of our sign painting techniques and various stages, including: Pre-treat and base layer Full second and third pass Masking/border mask, stencil mask Potter cut vinyl Light first pass Full

We hope your 2017 is off to a stellar start! Here’s a look at one of the first signs that came out of our fabrication shop this year.

Is Your Store Signage Drawing Traffic for Holiday Shopping 2016?

Shopping center developers know they need to help tenants capture point-of-sale traffic on Black Friday – the busiest shopping day of the year. More importantly, effective signage should attract shoppers all year long. An out-of-date center with tired signage just won’t draw the traffic it needs to. But rather than a complete renovation, sometimes the most effective – and affordable – solution is to replace or upgrade the existing signage. Updated Signs Draw Attention, Increase Mall Traffic Metro Sign & Awning frequently works with developers and municipalities to modernize freestanding sign structures. We have retrofitted signs on many established properties to utilize dynamic, digital boards to display news about new tenants, promotions, and shopping center events – ultimately increasing traffic and sales. Retail

Arches punctuate the distinctive architecture of St. Mark’s School in Southborough, MA. The 150-year old institution has a dedicated faculty, alumni, and more than 350 students, many of whom live on St. Mark’s campus. When it was time to update interior signage, it had to be carefully designed to add to, rather than distract from, the historic private school. Metro Sign & Awning had created other signs for the school, including a hand-carved donor sign. The sign was created by our in-house Design Department to echo the school’s distinctive arches and hand-crafted by our Fabrication Department. For this most recent project, the administration contacted Metro Sign & Awning’s Keene, NH location for conceptual designs for the new interior signage. Strong,