Discipline

Signage & Branding

Fabricated identity — letterforms, logos and wayfinding built in solid metal.

A logo cut in metal is a different object.

Fabricated identity — letterforms, logos and wayfinding built in solid metal rather than printed onto it.

Most signage is a graphic applied to a surface. Fabricated metal signage is a physical object with a thickness, an edge and a shadow, and it behaves differently in every light through the day.

The craft is in the letterform: keeping the weight of a typeface true when it is cut and folded, resolving counters and thin strokes so they stay rigid, and returning the edges so the letter reads as solid.

We build built-up and flat-cut letters, backlit and halo-lit signage, cast and etched plaques, and complete wayfinding sets finished to match the metalwork elsewhere in the building.

What this covers

Built-up and flat-cut metal letters
Backlit and halo-illuminated signage
Hotel, retail and corporate identity signage
Cast and etched plaques
Wayfinding and directory panels
Metal logos and brand marks

A note from the workshop

Letters are read from further away than they are made

A sign is made at arm’s length and read from across a lobby or a street. The stroke width, the depth of a built-up letter, the spacing between characters — all of it is settled by the reading distance and the light the sign will be under, not by how the artwork looks on a screen. Halo-lit letters are set off the wall by a distance that decides how soft the light is; too close and it is a hard outline, too far and the letters float.

The brand’s own artwork is the starting point, and the drawing shows where it has to be adapted to be made in metal — a hairline serif that cannot be cut, a counter that will not survive as a built-up letter — before anything is cut.

In pictures

Signage & Branding from the workshop

The gallery

Questions about signage

What decides the depth of built-up metal letters?

The reading distance and the light. Letters read from across a street need more depth and stroke than letters at a reception desk, and letters lit from behind are set off the wall by a distance that controls how soft the halo is — too close and it is a hard outline, too far and the letters float. The brand artwork is the start; the drawing shows what has to change to be made in metal.

How is halo-lit signage made?

The letter is built up as a closed metal form, the light sits inside it facing the wall, and the glow around the letter is the light bouncing back off the surface behind. The gap to the wall, the colour of the wall and the evenness of the light all show in the result, so a halo sign is proofed on the wall it will hang on, at night.