What’s it cost to produce this 4-by-12-ft. fascia sign?

Oftentimes a little extra effort goes a long way towards making a sign stand out. This fascia sign’s clean design and subdued color scheme gain a lot of punch of the sign curves, but the lettering, outline and background panels all have their own dimensional effects going on.

I subcontracted the manufacture of the curved aluminum frame to a local welding shop who does quite a bit of work for me. It took 3½ hours for them to build it. Their time is not included in the labor costs here—but my cost is included in materials. If you fabricated it in-house, of course, be sure to add in the labor and material costs, plus markup.

The rest of the sign is made of Dibond aluminum composite material [ACM]. It’s a great product to work with—very consistent and stable. We have a pretty extreme climate up here, with a range of over 140 degrees Fahrenheit. We get as low as -40 and as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s hard on materials and finishes. The ACM holds up great.

The letters and the border on the top and bottom of the main panel are Brushed Silver; the background is Brushed Stainless. The grain direction is also reversed to provide additional contrast. I especially like Dibond’s metal finish panels because they seem to have a clear finish that provides a lot of protection, especially during fabrication. You don’t want surface scratches, especially if the sign will be seen close up.

I do a lot of signs with ACM, so I have plenty of off-cuts and leftovers on hand. I used a lot of them on this sign. The filler panels I used to close the top and bottom of the sign to keep the snow out were from off-cuts, as were the letters.

This sign was easy to make while delivering a distinctive look. I’m a one-man show, so I have to keep things simple. This type of production goes pretty fast and gives you a lot of flexibility.

It helps that the client gave me all the room I needed to do what I thought was best. As always, that’s the client who gets the best value, because you can’t help but work a little harder when they give you that freedom. I had about two hours of sales, design and planning time, then I was down to work.

Jeff Gilfix’s shop, Brushfire Signs, is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

This appeared in the November/December 2012 issue of SignCraft. While the prices have been adjusted for inflation, they may not accurately reflect current pricing for such signage.

Here’s the curved aluminum frame that’s behind everything. I subcontracted this step to a local welding shop who does quite a bit of work for me.

Attach panels to frame and align paper pattern: 30 minutes. This sign was assembled completely with 3M VHB Tape, which is easy to use and doesn’t cause any distortion.

Position lettering before application: 10 minutes  I roughly positioned the lettering on the panel to get the proper spacing.

Attach Gemini pads using 3m VHB Tape: 65 minutes  I wiped the Gemini pads down with lacquer thinner to make sure they were clean, then applied the tape. The letters are 1/2 inch off the black background, which is mounted 1/4 inch off the cabinet.

Mark the location of the mounting pads: 10 minutes  A dab of acrylic latex on each pad marks the location of the holes on the background panel. Latex paint dries quickly and is easy to clean up, should any get on the metal.

Position letters on pattern: 15 minutes  Here the holes are marked onto the pattern, and it’s ready for drilling.

Attach letters to curved background panel: 35 minutes  I drilled the background panel and attached the letters with machine screws.

Final assembly and installation: 45 minutes  I hung the main sign, then butted the black top and bottom panels to it.

Jeff Gilfix