We have just completed the manufacture and installation of our first City Electrical Factors signage at the Brighton West Branch. We were approached by CEF back in February and competed in a tender for the works. We were awarded the signage work based on our competitive pricing, our extensive knowledge and experience. It is a great start for Graffiti Design within City Electrical Factors, as the retailer has over 360 sites in the UK.

We have secured a further 9 sites and are looking at 10 beyond that, with a possibility of covering the whole of the South East’s City Electrical Factors branches.

The signage is clean and smart, with simple and effective imagery and wording. Red ACM panels with cast vinyl, flat cut white acrylic letters and a halo illuminated logo with digitally printed contravision made up the front elevation of the branch. The install engineers also erected a 3 metre monolith at the entrance to the trading estate, with cast vinyl detailing on the front.

Our relationship with City Electrical Factors has been taking to another level with the install of the new signage at CEF Brighton West, as before we were a customer of theirs, and now the favour is returned. CEF Chichester is now under way in the factory with pushed through illuminated lettering, and Littlehampton should not be far off after that.

Bruce Pestell, director and account manager for Arun Estates, has been working closely with the estate agency on the designs and specifications of signage for a number of months, and at the beginning of February we were given the all clear for manufacture.

Pittis follows on from the complete signage rebrand of Ward & Partners in Kent, and the other Douglas Allen and Cubitt & West sites that we have completed in the last few years. The all new specification includes painted aluminium panels, with built up painted aluminium letters, all externally illuminated with our own LED trough light, very similar to the current spec. of signage for the other Arun Estates sites.

There will be an interior refurbishment of all the 7 sites, and all the interior graphics, branding and signage will soon follow on from the external signage.

Plans for the museum have been floating about ever since the stadium was built, and was originally intended to be in place for the opening of the Amex back in the summer of 2011. However, the club has been a bit busy recently with all the expansions and new training ground plans, so it was put on the back burner.

However I can now happily say that works are due to start and the new museum should be operational by the end of May 2013, allowing fans to enjoy the famous high points of the clubs 112 year history.

We were approached by BHAFC regarding the museum, and then introduced PLB to the football club. PLB is a heritage design consultancy, who we worked with extremely closely with on the Basing House Ruins Project where we provided much museum interpretation. The club were delighted with the proposals set out by PLB, and there after we successfully tendered for the works and manufacture is planned for February/March. We have good knowledge and experience now within the museum interpretation field, after projects such as Lewes Castle, Havering Museum and Basing House Ruins.

The hard work, dedication and high levels of competence from all the staff has really made 2012 a great year for the company. Working with our major blue chip clients, Brighton & Hove FC, Arun Estates, Fat Face and Monsoon Accessorize has driven Graffiti skywards and we look forward to an even better 2013, and of course all the smaller local projects that we thoroughly enjoy.

With the planned expansion of our Head Office factory expected to begin in the coming year, production and services will grow along with the company and the client base. We were named as runner-up in Sign Company of the Year 2012 by Sign & Digital along with winning the Multiple Sign Project of the Year 2012 for the Community Stadium. It is fantastic that the efforts of the team are paying off and are being recognised throughout the industry.

We would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a prosperous New Year, from all the team at Graffiti Design.

CPJ Field has a prestigious history and has been family run ever since the company was founded back in 1690. The Field family has been providing funeral services since and has assisted in funerals such as the Duke of Wellington’s in 1852, Queen Victoria’s in 1901 and King Edward VII’s in 1910.

Six separate Shires sites were completed over the last few months. Luton, Dunstable, Bedford, Kempston, Letchworth and Baldock which are all in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire are under the Shires name.

The specification for CPJ Field signage consists of aluminium fascia panels powder coated in the rich CPJ Field purple, with flat cut white acrylic text and premium cast vinyl to display the artwork. Reverse cut etched window vinyl completes the look of a sophisticated and welcoming store which represents the branding of the historic company very well.

We are truly humbled to be associated with a company such as CPJ Field, and it is always a pleasure to complete signage works for them. New signage for many other sites are planned and we are looking forward to providing CPJ Field and its other trading names with the high-end signs next year. For more information on C.P.J. Field & Co. Ltd. please visit www.cpjfield.co.uk

There are really seven different types of illuminated letters, so deciding isn’t straight forward. They are halo illumination, face illumination, full letter illumination, side illumination, Matrix illumination, Trax illumination and the classic neon. All are effective and have their own individual strengths and purposes.

Firstly there is halo illuminated letters. These are very popular on the high streets of the UK and amongst retailers especially. It gives a classy and sophisticated yet subtle illumination of the sign. Halo can be used on any type of built up letter, from aluminium, stainless steel, modelboard and acrylic. LEDs would be mounted inside the letter to illuminate back onto the fascia as the letters would be stood off.

Face illumination is also a very popular form of retail signage, and probably the first port-of-call when it comes to illuminated signs. They are bright, bold and really stand out on the high street. The face of the letter would be acrylic, with either stainless steel or aluminium returns. Again, LEDs would be used to illuminate the face. We manufacture face illuminated letters for Monsoon stores.

Full letter illumination can only be used with built up acrylic letters. LEDs in the backs of the letters illuminate the entire area as the acrylic is semi-translucent. We have used these types of illuminated letters for Red Bull Racing.

Side illumination is very similar to full letter illumination, as the letters would be built up acrylic with internal LEDs, however the face would be covered so only the returns illuminate. The main fascia signage for Oasis used this method.

Matrix illuminated letters are a new take on traditional fairground style of illuminated letters. Using exposed LED light bulbs or pushed through LEDs on the face of the letters to achieve a retro style. This has proved extremely popular with some clients and we believe it is only a matter of time before Matrix illumination really takes off and becomes a household name of illumination in the signage industry.

Another developed product from Graffiti Design is our very own Trax method. This is where we mount half the letters onto the outside of a glass frontage, then the other half on the inside of the glass. There are steel tubes that subtly hold all the electrics that run power to the LEDs mounted in the interior part of the letter. The light shines through the glass to the acrylic letter on the exterior illuminating the sign. It gives a look of floating letters coming through the window that has been extremely popular with Jones the Bootmaker, and many of our clients.

Finally we come to neon. Neon has been around for an extremely long time, and is what everyone thinks of when it comes to an illuminated sign. The bold bright colours are nearly impossible to replicate and there is sometimes nothing else that can match the effect neon gives you.

Hopefully this should give you all a better understanding of what can be done with illuminated signs and built up letters. We have every example of illumination mentioned here in our showroom which we welcome you to visit. If you have a project or an idea for some signage, then please contact us to today and we would be happy to help.

This is the first site by Graffiti Design and there are a few more, around London, on the radar. The signage is made of pushed through opal acrylic text, with the faces of ‘Republic’ covered with painted aluminium inset by 10mm. The letters are pushed through an ACM tray with internal fluorescent tubing for illumination. Two fascias were manufactured for the Oxford site and there is also an LED illuminated projecting sign to complete the set of external illuminated retail signs.

Internally, Graffiti produced two hanging canvas prints, a wall vinyl decor and a Perspex roundel with reverse cut vinyl. The interior printed works is something Graffiti Design is now extremely accustom to, having completed a vast amount for many of the blue chip client base, especially Fat Face, Brighton & Hove Albion and Monsoon Accessorize.

The signage for Coffee Republic is simple, only using three different colours, yet extremely affective. It stands out on the high street and still remains stylish and not overworked. This is another project that the specification has suited Graffiti Design. Illuminated retail signs are all in a day’s work for the chaps in the factory and we certainly look forward to working with Coffee Republic in the future and on more sites. The Oxford site is due to open within the next month.

This site is part of the continued rollout of the newly rebranded Monsoon Accessorize signage that Graffiti Design won back in March 2012. Now that the initial Olympic rollout has been successfully completed, Graffiti have been working through the major sites in the Monsoon Accessorize estate.

Kingston was just one of a number of the key sites for the worldwide fashion retailer; others have included Accessorize Euston Station, Kings Road London and Taunton. More sites are on the horizon and now in manufacture, Canary Wharf, Windsor and Crawley will be completed with the next couple of weeks.

The illuminated signage at Kingston was complex not just because of the size, but also the splay around the corner of the building. The powder coated aluminium trays were over 1.3 metres in height, and reached a little over 42 metres in length. There were four different sets of illuminated letters on the fascia, ranging from a cap height of 240mm over the door, to the main set which was 1.2 metres.

All the letters and both projecting signs were internally illuminated using LEDs, and diffused with opal acrylic. The job took over two nights to install because of the sheer size of the panels and letters.

The fascia also included the new Monsoon Children logo, in a very attractive illuminated blue. The other two sites where Graffiti has manufactured and installed the Monsoon Children fascia are Regent Street and Kings Road. The ‘Monsoon’ remains as built up illuminated letters although ‘Children’ is manufactured as pushed through illuminated letters, so they appear flush with the rest of the fascia.

Graffiti Design has also been working on samples of the illuminated built up letters to be sent out Egypt for Monsoon, as the retailer spreads it wings to the Middle East.

Colin Pestell, project manager and Chairman of Graffiti, met and discussed in depth the possibilities for the signage with Weird Fish. After the specification and design was approved, manufacture begun.

Graffiti Design was swimming with the tide on this project, specialising in built up illuminated letters and logos, this type of project was ideal. The Weird Fish signage consisted of built up aluminium letters all stove enamelled a dark blue, then given a distressed effect finish to the face, with SloanV180 series LEDs fitted and with a polycarb backing letter to provide the halo illumination. The logo was again stove enamelled aluminium, this time with face and halo illumination.

Both parts of the sign were fitted to an ACM back tray that had a digitally printed laminate applied to the face to give a certain pattern that was desired by Weird Fish. The letters  and logo were stood off the panel to achieve the full affect.

The install took place overnight in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth’s designer retail park. It is a new store for Weird Fish which is due to open on the 26^th October 2012, as part of their growth and expansion plan. Weird Fish currently have 10 independent trading stores, which Portsmouth is the 11^th, and over 20 other concessions and stockists throughout the UK.

This well executed project will again hopefully turn into another fruitful and longstanding relationship for Graffiti Design which the company enjoys with many of their clients. This site down in Portsmouth follows a previous White Stuff that Graffiti completed back in 2010 which again was halo illuminated.

The purpose of the signs was to help visitors find their way around the site. We primarily did this by using monolith signs. At 1.5m tall they are perfect for directing traffic around a large site and being made from aluminium means they are durable and look very smart. The monoliths are also curved to provide a smart professional finish, 5 monoliths in total were used across the site

Another major feature of the signage at Edwards is the large illuminated letters which are 6 metres in width across the front of the building and 3.5 metres across the back of the building. The purpose of these signs is to brand the site as Edwards Global technology Centre, they are illuminated with energy efficient LEDs which means that they have a low running cost and are environmentally friendly to fit in with the green ethos of the site.

All the signs were fitted in one week including all the ground works and the front letters which were 15metres high and required a cherry picker to get access to the location of the letters and a complicated wiring fit out to ensure that the letters received sufficient power to fully illuminate.

We have so far received some good feedback from Edwards that the signs look “brilliant” and they will be looking to add more internal signage to the site as the project progresses.