ARCHIVE: Category Archive for: Architectural Signage

Metro Sign & Awning Approved MHEC Member and Provider

You’ve seen our vehicles and team members at various schools, colleges, municipalities and libraries over the past years. North Reading High School, East Boston Public Library, Suffolk University, City of Holyoke Park Program, Museum of Fine Arts, City of Lowell Façade Revitalization Program…. just to name a few. We work with fabulous architects and designers including Arrowstreet and Roll Barresi, and some of our fabrication designs are created by our own Metro Sign and Awning design team. We’re thrilled to announce that Metro Sign and Awning is now an approved member and provider of the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC). This means that as an MHEC member, is that your organization can now benefit from our expertise in signage design and installation,

The term “ADA Signs” is now in widespread use among architects, general contractors, developers, and signage experts. “ADA” stands, of course, for the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the term “ADA Signs” is misunderstood almost as often as it is interpreted correctly. For example: 1. A great many people believe that “ADA Signs” refers to those containing Braille symbols for the benefit of people who are visually impaired. That’s like saying elevators are installed in buildings for the benefit of people who are unable to climb stairs. The claim is true, as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. While signs containing Braille and other raised characters are a highly visible expression of the ADA requirements,

One of our most demanding projects in recent memory has been taking part in the rebranding of a chain of medical centers that crossed not only state but national borders! It began in March of 2014 when one of our long-time customers, Winbrook Associates, asked us for help. Their customer, Lake Region Medical, had purchased all 18 locations of a company called Accellent, and now the facilities had to be re-branded. We began with a design review and offered some initial signage concepts. But to support the rebranding while the design and build process took place, we installed temporary banners at every location: Just the name “Lake Region Medical” in black text on white material. Our crews surveyed the local

It’s not easy staying current in the fast-paced world of business signage. That’s why the team at Metro Sign and Awning likes to take time when possible to visit with colleagues and take advantage of trade shows with educational opportunities like the upcoming Digital Signage Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center, March 10-13, 2015. We like to keep abreast of current and future trends in our industry, including advanced display technologies, best practices, and new thoughts on how to meet the needs of our retail customers. This particular show offers the 4,000 or more signage industry professionals who attend plenty of collaborative peer-to-peer “Idea Exchanges,” bolstered by lectures and panel presentations, seminars, and roundtable-format discussions. The schedule this year

Did you know that Metro Sign and Awning works with many hotel and restaurant owners to create semi-temporary enclosures that add a degree of weather-proofing to their outdoor areas? Properly done, these enclosures extend the outdoor seating season and thereby add revenue for restaurants. They’re able to contain heaters placed in the enclosed area, as necessary, to allow the space to be used quite comfortably during the colder months, here in New England. We’ve also worked with hotels to create enclosures to block the wind and weather around pick up / drop off areas. This makes hotel ingress and egress for guests and visitors far more inviting and hospital. Material Choice Important For many of the enclosures we use “Weathertyte”

Metro Sign and Awning’s designers are expert at managing the many nuances that help create extra value and excitement in your signage. Here’s an example…

Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which first became the law of the land in 1991, has made incalculable improvements in the lives of countless people. More recently revised in 2010 and made mandatory as of March 15, 2012 for virtually all new construction and renovations, the ADA has resulted in a system of “best practices” that make it possible for disabled persons to access and enjoy an extremely wide range of public and private built environments. Many people think the ADA just requires Braille on certain signs, but it’s considerably more comprehensive than that. Compliance can impact a great many of your project’s signage (and design/construction) specifications. Unfortunately, the ADA’s requirements are sometimes ambiguous. That’s one reason Metro Sign

It’s hard to drive or walk far in today’s built-up areas without encountering a pylon sign, sometimes called a pole sign or a roadside sign. As the name implies, this is single- or double-sided signage supported above ground level on some kind of slim vertical support. Along highways, pylon signage can tower 200 feet or even higher. In urban areas, they’re likely to top out at 30 feet or so, the better to be visible to foot traffic and to link the sign’s messaging more closely to a particular piece of real estate. The pylon sign itself usually consists of an illuminated sign cabinet supported by one or two unembellished poles, which may be square, round, or of an interesting

How Many Kinds of Signs Can You Name? There are more than 206 bones in the human body, each one with its own name, from cranial bones to vertebrae, and from the vomer to the clavicle. That’s more bones than types of signage, but our industry nevertheless can marshal quite a line-up of different ways to convey messages to people. How many different types of signs can you name? Below are some photos, with a link that lets you see what that type of sign is called. Sign Type 1: This high-profile sign is the kind you’ll see outside many developments, such as shopping centers, highway service establishments, or multi-tenant commercial parks. Depending on circumstances and visual

Working With General Contractors – Our Safety Program

It’s a little bit too technical for the kind of blog this is primarily intended to be, but for a long time we have wanted to write up something about the extensive efforts we make to keep ourselves qualified for work with General Contractors. As you may know, GCs on major construction projects are subject to a wide range of standards and specifications that control not only how they operate, but how the subcontractors they hire (that would be us!) must also operate. If we don’t conform to their high standards, GCs simply cannot trust us with any work. So we here at Metro Sign and Awning spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources making sure we’re qualified