Metal letters are very popular for office signs and for high end lobby signs like the one we made for Glendon Capital, the client is usually looking for something nicer than just standard aluminum. At the beginning of the project they were considering painted aluminum, but decided to upgrade to not only bronze, but oxidized bronze. Oxidized bronze is chemically treated and hand-rubbed to produce an antique look on the face of the letters. This is a very popular look for both interior and exterior signs.
We used 1/4″ thick bronze for this sign. As you can see from the side photos, the letters were mounted with spacers. In order to mount with spacers, the letters need to be stud mounted and metal dimensional letter need to be at least 1/4″ thick in order to be stud mounted. For acrylic, the minimum is 3/8″ thick because the material is not as strong.
The interior wall was porcelain so we needed to use specialty drill bits to install the sign. At the shop, we tap the letters with studs and make a paper pattern to indicate where the studs are on the letters. We then tape the pattern to the wall and drill the holes accordingly. The holes are filled with silicone, and the spacers are put onto the studs during installation so the stud doesn’t go into the wall all the way which creates the spaced off look.