Sign Company Orange County
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While some large sign fabricators have design capabilities, few graphic designers are also fabricators. There are the rare designer craftsmen who work in Jewelry Store Sign Letters Newport Beach CA or with other specialized materials or techniques. But for the most part de signers of signing systems must depend upon sign fabricators or contractors to build and install these systems. Most custom signs are fabricated in job shops rather than in large production-oriented plants. Consequently, the individual craftsmen are key elements in the overall process. The skill and knowledge of fabricator/contractors is based on years of diverse shop and field experience. Many have grown up in a business which may have been in the family for several generations. The designer should become familiar with the various sign fabricator/contractors in his area. The Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (SEGD) in Chicago has published a list of recommended fabricators located throughout the United States. This information should be especially helpful to designers interested in architecturally integrated signing. A sign system based on this approach may involve many different types of materials and methods, and it may require as many different fabricators to build it.
Kinds of Fabricators It is difficult to classify sign fabricators into neat groups because there are so many crafts related to signing and so many methods of building signs. However, it is useful to discuss the various types of fabricators, even though there is not always a convenient label to distinguish one from the other:
1. General Sign Contractor (GSC). Whether small or large, the general sign contractor is usually quite rare. Having a broad knowledge of many techniques, this firm can handle a job of any size or complexity. It builds in-house what it can do most efficiently and jobs out the rest to well-qualified subcontractors whose work it supervises. The special value of general sign contractors lies in their flexibility, broad experience, and ability as coordinators. They are responsible for scheduling and supervising the work of subcontractors so that the entire sign system.
2. Custom Sign Fabricator. The custom sign fabricator can usually make signs of wood, metal, or plastic using a variety of techniques. It often concentrates on no illuminated signs.
3. Electric Sign Manufacturer. An electric sign manufacturer may be a member of the National Electric Sign Exchange and often specializes in the fabrication of illuminated signs. It builds custom signs or limited production runs of signs for chain store outlets, banks, markets, and the like. This kind of firm can act as GSC in some cases.
4. Standard Sign Manufacturer. The standard sign manufacturer produces signs, letters, directories, or other cataloged items in quantity. It usually concentrates on small interior items and can produce custom variations of cataloged items if quantities are involved.
5. Technical Specialists. The technical specialists' category includes subcontractors who are very skilled in one material or technique, such as: metal casting silk screening engraving plastic forming stone carving concrete casting. They are not limited to producing sign items.
6. Artisan/Craftsman. The artisan/craftsman includes, among other specialists, wood carvers who specialize in making signs; stone carvers who specialize in incised letter work; or crafts men who fabricate stained glass signs.
7. Sign Painter. Sign painters vary greatly both in the kinds of signs they paint and in their skills. Some paint small signs on store windows, while others specialize in executing huge signs on the sides of buildings. This group is important to the designer as a source of temporary and hand-painted signs.
8. Wall Graphics Painter. A relatively small group of craftsmen, wall graphics painters, specialize in painting hard-edged super graphics, involving flat areas of color. They do not design, but enlarge the designer's original layout. Their reputation is spread by word of mouth, but the GSC should be able to recommend one or two.
Few sign fabricators can bid effectively on a complex sign system utilizing many materials unless they are GSC. There is no such listing in the telephone directory provided by Local Orange County Sign Company.
