ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Others

Working With General Contractors – Our Safety Program

It’s a little bit too technical for the kind of blog this is primarily intended to be, but for a long time we have wanted to write up something about the extensive efforts we make to keep ourselves qualified for work with General Contractors. As you may know, GCs on major construction projects are subject to a wide range of standards and specifications that control not only how they operate, but how the subcontractors they hire (that would be us!) must also operate. If we don’t conform to their high standards, GCs simply cannot trust us with any work. So we here at Metro Sign and Awning spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources making sure we’re qualified

Helping You Find Your Way Around

If you’d watched us work for the past couple of weeks, you might’ve thought we were going around in circles. And in a way, you’d be right. We’ve been working on another large wayfinding signage project, and the number of details outnumber the number of signs by about a thousandfold. We’re not complaining, or bragging – that’s just the way wayfinding projects (and most others, really) seem to go. If you’d like to see a few of the details and understand some of the principles behind a wayfinding signage project, the AIA (American Institute of Architects) created an overview document a few years ago, which is now freely available. If you have questions about wayfinding signage or would like to

Inside Metro Signs – Jamie Potvin, Designer

For Jamie Potvin, the process starts when information about a new project begins to trickle in through one of the sales team members. Over the next days and weeks, she steeps herself in the client’s history and strategy, various signage suggestions, client and team requests, and specific requirements, as well as any graphic elements such as client logos that are already available. She also likes to look at comparable signage of the same size and classifications that’s already “out there” in the community. Then she dives into the design process. With more than fifteen years of experience, Jamie likes to start a project by working on some “looks”: rough sketches and simplified renderings of the new sign’s essentials. She’s usually

Carved and Routed Signs

In sign-making, as in so much of daily life, what’s old is often new again. Sign-making dates back to very early civilizations. For example, carvings were heavily used to communicate information by the Mayans, and also by the Greeks and the Romans. Pompeii and Herculaneum, two Roman cities buried by volcanic ash and lava in 79 AD and therefore helpfully preserved for us to study today, contain hundreds of carved signs (some gilded, others painted) advising residents of then-important information. The traditional art of Whakairo, or carving in wood, stone, and bone, has been a staple of the Maori culture in New Zealand since the first Polynesians arrived there more than 1,000 years ago. During those early days, sign-makers learned

Five Things You Don’t Know About Wayfinding Signs

“Wayfinding” is a fascinating word that conveys its own meaning very clearly – which is precisely what you expect from “wayfinding signs” themselves. But it’s far from easy to create a series of signs that are unified, logical, and authoritative in design, yet variable enough to convey highly specific information clearly and unambiguously to people who are quite often in a hurry, stressed, confused, and possibly lacking in local language skills. So it’s no surprise that, to many designers, wayfinding signage projects are among the most challenging tasks in all of signmaking, and – when satisfactorily accomplished – among the most rewarding. Here are some interesting facts you probably don’t know about wayfinding signage:   Wayfinding Signage Should Go Beyond

Getting More From the Business Sign ROI Calculator

Signs cost money. So before you commit your business to getting a new or updated sign, it’s natural and prudent to ask whether the expenditure will be a worthwhile one. Fortunately, you can get the answer from our unique and exclusive Business Sign R.O.I. Calculator. But like any computerized tool, the answer you get out of it is only as accurate as the information you put into it. To make the Calculator easier and faster for most business owners and managers to use, we’ve built it with some generic information already in place. These data include a generic estimate of the costs involved – including the necessary Permits and approvals, average figures for electricity usage and costs, the typical traffic

FedEx Survey Finds Signage Powerful

Federal Express is both a well known brand and a highly successful company. So when it says there’s a solid and important connection between good signage and consumers’ decisions about whether or not to visit your store and make a purchase, it’s probably a good idea to listen. FedEx’s classic survey, called “What’s Your Sign?,” measured the power of signage to attract people and influence their buying behavior. Its results underline the potential for small businesses to find new customers and increase their sales and profitability by means of effective signs. According to the survey: More than half of consumers will hold back from giving a retail store a try when its signage doesn’t measure up, particularly if it contains

Inside Metro Signs – Susan MacGregor, Senior Designer

To most of us, beautiful designs just spring full blown from nowhere in particular. But in reality, the polished look of all the objects we see – complete with all the associations each one brings to mind and the various messages and feelings each one conveys – are the result of much hard work by a visually-gifted group of people who work as “designers”. Metro Sign and Awning is well staffed with a group of designers who routinely make clients’ visions come to life in three dimensions. One of these is Susan MacGregor, Senior Designer, who is responsible for creating the drawings that will later be turned into signs, as well as for the presentation visuals shown to clients for

Much-Needed Signage Facelift For Daikayama Restaurant

As Shakespeare wrote (Act II, Scene 2, “Romeo and Juliet”):  “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But Shakespeare never met a modern consumer, beset on all sides by a wide variety of choices and aggressively courted by all manner of tempting offers. In today’s economy, the right name can make all the difference between one type of flower that sits unappreciated on a shelf somewhere and another, very similar, type of flower that shows up in every suitor’s hand as he nervously rings the doorbell of his beloved. While Shakespeare had some reason to believe in those simpler times that names didn’t really matter much, the Bard of

Inside Metro Sign and Awning – Mark Vella, Account Manager

Cabinet maker, sign maker, account manager. Mark Vella is a “hands-on” kind of guy who very much enjoys working with Metro Sign and Awning’s customers, finding out what each one needs in the way of signage, and helping to deliver it. After a varied career first working with wood, then later with signage materials, Mark found his way to Metro Sign and learned his true calling: making contact and working with contractors, architects, building owners, and just about anyone who has a message to communicate and needs Metro Sign to give it solidity and dimension. Mark keeps his ear to the ground, searching out potential projects via a wide variety of industry channels. He also actively develops relationships through which

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