There are many different styles of channel letters to choose from and the one you choose can depend on what is going to be displayed and your hours. The first thing you want to consider is whether or not your sign will need to illuminate. If you own a business that is only open in the daytime and doesn’t have a need to advertise after sunset, you probably want to opt for non-illuminated channel letters.Non-Illuminated
There are two options when it comes to non-illuminated channel letters. You have non-illuminated front channel letters and non-illuminated reverse channel letters. The main difference is how the faces are made. Front channel letters have acrylic faces which can be kept as the acrylic color or have a overlay of vinyl with a digital print. This is a good way to keep the returns (the sides) of the channel letters one color while having a custom color for the face. With reverse channel letters, we normally paint the whole letter, including the face and the returns but we can also lay a digital print on the face if you have a logo or an icon you want to display.
Front-Lit vs. Reverse-Lit
When it comes to illuminated channel letters, making a choice between front-lit and reverse-lit comes down to one question. Do you need a specific color displayed when the sign is illuminated at nighttime? The reason we ask this question is because no matter what color a reverse channel letter is painted, the letters will just look black at nighttime because the light is coming from behind to create a halo around each letter.
With front-lit channel letters, the faces are not opaque so whatever color acrylic we use or whatever color, pattern or texture we print on the face, that is what will be illuminated. If you want both front-lit and reverse, we can also make compound channel letters that are both front-lit and reverse lit. We can even use different colored LEDs for the face and the back.
Another thing to consider is that we cannot illuminate black. If your logo consists of all black and you want to illuminate it, you want to go with reverse channel letters, or consider changing the colors if you want front-lit.
Classic Tile & Flooring
For this job, we decided that reverse-lit channel letters would be the best choice. This is because Classic Tile & Flooring just wanted to display “CLASSIC TILE” in a simple black font. The sign looks great during the daytime, during sunset, and at nighttime.