Westside Contractors, a long-time client of ours, reached out to us a couple of years ago regarding a new residential building they were working on. Westside Contractors is a general contractor that subcontracts us for the signage for many of their projects. New construction projects can take a very long time to complete, and we were working on this project for almost 2 years. Projects like these are a little more complicated than the typical storefront sign or lobby sign that a business needs. New construction requires interior signs that are ADA compliant, and changes and design revisions are going through many different people.
First, we receive the scope of the work from the contractor and bid for the job. Once we have the job, which can be a long process, we can start on proofs. We received the logo for the entrance sign and used a sans serif font for the address sign. The original design had both signs as illuminated channel letters. We went back and forth on front-lit or reverse-lit for the address numbers, but in the end we had to make them non-illuminated dimensional letters due to permitting. Exterior signs need a sign permit, and if the city is not satisfied with the design, they will request us to make changes before we can secure a permit.
They were considering using black lettering for the address sign so we provided a rendering showing the sign in white and black. They ended up going with the white letters, and we moved our focus to the entrance sign. The original logo was a little taller because “THE”, “MODERN”, and “LA” were on three separate lines. The city also did not like this, so we had to make a few modifications and ended up with the current design where all of the words are on one line.