El Camino Real Charter High School North Campus was in need of signage, and their construction company, DS Honda Construction, reached out to us because they had worked with us in the past and were happy with the signage we provided. The first set of signs we made for them was the interior signs which consisted of 28 room identification signs and a Fire Alarm Control Room sign. Regarding the design, the construction company provided us with a sketch that called out the material dimensions, thickness, colors, and font sizes.
Since we knew the quantity, all we needed to do was choose a material to provide the client with an accurate quote. To make sure that the signs were easy to read, we used non-glare acrylic. The acrylic was subsurface painted and the tactile letters were to be mounted on the front. During proofing, the client saw a proof with the colors that they had chosen which were a sand color for the main portion and blue for the accent color. The color combination didn’t look as good as they expected and asked for a more muted version of both colors. We created new mockups using Behr’s Jean Jacket Blue and Brazilian Tan. The colors still didn’t look like what they were looking for so they asked for our recommendations on paint colors. Our project manager suggested a brushed aluminum paint instead of a “sand” color, and the client was very happy with how they turned out.
After the colors were finalized, we just made some final changes on the wording on each of the signs. You want to review all of the verbiage on the signs before production in case there is a better way of wording something or another title that would suit the name of the room better. It can be a pain to replace just one sign so the proofs help the clients review all of the specifications before we start production.