You invest in new channel letters in DFW. You want customers to see them day and night. But you may not be happy with the results you achieve after dark. Why is that? More importantly, what can we do to help you change that?
Why Channel Letters Sometimes Do Not Shine so Brightly at Night
The greatest culprit in a sign that lacks after-dark visibility is the color choice of the facing. Dark blue or green, black, brown, and similar tones just do not allow for the vibrancy that yellow, orange, light blue, and red provide. Of course, the gold standard for night visibility is white. However, business owners frequently believe that this color fails to meet the requirements of a corporate color palette. Therefore, they choose a darker tone for branding purposes. It is interesting to note that you do not have to do that.
Working Around the Color Conundrum
You can have your cake and eat it, too.
- Two-tone facings. If you do not like the idea of a white facing because your brand color is hunter green, but you want the after-dark visibility that white brings to the façade, we can compromise. We can adjust the look of the channel letter faces by having the edges present in white. The rest remains in the darker tone. The resulting illumination shines brightly around the more limited light emanation from the letters’ centers.
- Perforated vinyl overlays. You know perforated vinyl for use as vehicle window coverings. Our technicians can also adapt its functionality for channel letter fronts. A 70/30 ratio, which simply means that 30 percent of the film’s surface consists of perforations, presents your target color during the day but allows white LEDs to shine brightly at night.
- Colorful LEDs. In some situations, the illumination from the letter fronts needs a little help. LEDs come in bright white, which is by far the most common selection. But you might also add some color to augment your chosen tones. Doing so heightens the vibrancy of the after-dark color display. By the way, we can sometimes add more LEDs to larger letters. This approach works well when you worry that the sheer size of the signage causes the illumination to diffuse too much.
- Front and backlit combination. When you have the opportunity to go with a halo illumination, we recommend choosing a combination setup. Doing so bathes the signage in light but also provides the sharper lighting from the lettering’s fronts. In many ways, this setup gives you the best of both worlds.
- Sub returns let you go for the gusto. There is one more option that our technicians like to propose to the faithful color aficionado who does not want to compromise the corporate palette. The sub return essentially places a letter within a letter. It allows our experts to put another set of lights – colored of white – inside the return, which provides an additional illumination experience. The finished product generates amazing results after dark – particularly if you want us to use different colors.
One Size Does Not Fit All
When ordering channel letters in DFW, keep in mind that although we frequently refer to a standardized product description, there are still plenty of variations. One size does not fit all in sign making. In fact, customization is the key component to a successful illumination setup. You do not have to opt for a design that does not do justice to your desired color palette. We gladly work with you to realize your vision of featuring your brand colors with fantastic night visibility.
If you already have channel letters at your location, we gladly visit your venue to see what we can do to upgrade the products for heightened illumination. When this objective is not possible, we show you what your options are. Call us today to get started on the project!
