Sub-Surface Lettering

[Mike Jackson]

My kids like to skateboard, as mentioned earlier. Over the weekend, we drove over to Boulder for a skate contest and later ended up at the huge Denver outdoor skate park. I went around the park looking over the signs so I could be better armed to talk to our town Mayor, city council members and rec center administrator.

One of the problems facing many outdoor signs and monuments is grafitti, and one of the complaints from the rec center dude is the occasional tagging of the skate park (overall a very small issue here so far). They posted some rules for the park, put it has some magic marker writing and a lot of stickers on it now.

The Denver skate park seems to have solved that issue by building a few signs out of porcelan enameled surfaces, along with expanded metal supporting. If a sign gets tagged, a little laquer thinner removes it right away. The park rules were done sub-surface. All the lettering and graphics were under a clear layer of something that looked and felt like formica to me. Again, it looks like they could remove any grafitti with a little laquer thinner.

I doubt I ever get involved making the subsurface signage, but it would be nice to know a bit more about the process and terminology in case it becomes an issue for the town. We are trying to get our little park expanded, but appear to be getting some resistance from the park department.

Any help or info would be appreciated.

Mike Jackson

[Joe House]

Mike, 3M has a product just for this. 3640-114 Graphic protection film. Apply it over your finished sign like a laminate and most markings -sharpies, spray paint, magic marker, etc can be removed with a little solvent. Gloss finish too. Looks nice.

Joe