Channel Letters Will Make Your Sign Pop
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009Sign is usually the first thing you will see when you walk up to a store. It is no surprise then that more and more businesses are trying to separate themselves with attractive and innovative signs. So much so that the electric commercial signage industry is now believed to be more than 2 billion dollars in the United States. At the forefront the charge are channel letter signage.
Channel letter signage in particular have grown in popularity in the last few years. Channel letters are built to stand out from a building and are lit with neon or LEDs lights. Channel letters are usually made of aluminum making them very light and versatile while still being able to withstand high winds and various weather conditions. The latest trend has been to place the lights at the back of the channel letters providing them a nice soft glow.
Channel letters are usually built with aluminum sides and backs and have faces that are colored acrylic. When these letters are lit from the interior with either neon or LEDs, it is named face lit. Halo lit channel letters are almost the reverse of face lit letters as the faces are usually made of aluminum while the backs are built out of clear polycarbonate.
There are two mounting methods for channel letters, the raceway or the direct mount. When letters are affixed to an aluminum box called a raceway which is then affixed to the wall of a building, it is named raceway mounting. The power supplies and all the wires are included in the raceway box. When the channel letters are affixed directly to the structure, it is called the direct mount. To attach the wiring to the interior power supply, holes must be made into the wall. While direct mounting may give the sign a cleaner look, raceway mounting is less difficult to install and maintain.
Until recently, neon was the only selection for lighting letters. However, now, channel letters can be lit using LEDs lights. In an attempt to be more environmentally friendly, many businesses are opting to have their signage illuminated using LEDs lights. A string of LEDs lights is placed at the back of the channel letters and it can be set up to offer for spectacular lighting effects. LEDs lights are highly efficient and incredibly bright which will allow your storefront signage to stand out from the others. A variety of colors can be used to light channel letters. Red is the most popular and the least costly option at the moment in the case of LEDS lights. The next most popular selection is the color white.
Signs made using channel letters may be a bit more expensive than the more traditional options, but they will provide your business with 24 hours a day client awareness. They will be noticeable from a greater distance than traditional sign options and will draw passerby throughout the day. Additional sales and increased brand recognition may be the outcome from using these signs. In the end, this is the ultimate goal of every company: to get more clients through their doors.
