Channel letters are one of the most popular sign types that clients ask for. Many property managers require channel letter signs in a shopping plaza, and they are also requested by individuals because it’s a great way to make your unique logo into a lighted sign. We made Morton Capital Management a reverse-lit channel letter sign. From the photo, you can see that the letters themselves aren’t lighting up, but there is light coming from the back.
There are different lighting options for channel letters, but the general idea is similar for all of them. Channel letters are hollow letters with metal sides or returns so we can put LEDs inside of the letters. Our channel letters are made in-house and the returns hand bent by our fabricators to ensure the highest of quality. Typical channel letters are made with translucent acrylic faces which are attached to the returns with trimcaps. The faces on these can be removed for electrical service or to replace the faces and these are called front-lit channel letters because the light comes out from the front. We can use colored acrylic or colored vinyl so a specific color is shown at nighttime.
For Morton Capital Management, we made reverse-lit channel letters. After the returns are formed, we weld solid aluminum faces to the front and the letters are painted. LEDs are installed inside of the letters and the back is made from a clear polycarbonate so the light comes out the back. These are also called halo-lit channel letters because the light creates a halo effect around the letters. We can also do both front-lit and reverse-lit and these are called compound channel letters. We can do different color combinations because we can use acrylic or vinyl to create one color for the face, and we have different LEDs colors to choose from for the reverse-lighting.