NEED HELP- Storefront Sign

[Johnny Milne]

Hi. I was asked by a friend of mine to help him out and do a store front sign for a new Tattoo Shop here in my town. I am confident in the art work and design layout of the sign. The thing I am not confident in is the material I should be using to do the sign on AND how to properly mount it.

Most of the stuff I have done till now have been garage art sign or shop sign or automobile lettering. I been painting on small metal signs or some wood or even glass bottles. I haven't encountered this type of job on a large scale yet. Ill take any and all advice I can get on doing this type of job.

The sign is going to be pretty long (7-9' by 3' wide)

Thanks for the help in advance, I'm gonna need it.

Johnny M.

[Lee Littlewood]

If you've done metal signs before you should be OK. A traditional sign type was the galvanized sheetmetal sign made with bends on all 4 sides to hook over wood 1"x2". Any sheetmetal shop can do it. The wood stiffens the metal but the whole thing is light weight. Mount with screws through the face or hangers on the wall. Mounting is the killer part - remember to think about winds, and don't screw untreated lumber to a wall that gets wet; it will rot.
You can do a face-frame of wood moulding to dress it up - it is pretty easy to do since the moulding is just resting on the face, it looks like a picture frame but it isn't.

Having described the Olde Way, i think a lot of people now are using DiBond: a sandwich of thin aluminum with a plastic center. Still pretty light, easy to cut with wood working tools, and it comes pre-painted. Since it is a sandwich it doesn't 'oilcan' like sheetmetal, so it is easier to handle. It is pretty thin, so dressing it up with a face frame makes it look more substantial on a wall.