ImageFirst News

The Drake Community Library - Grinnell, IA

Exte­ri­or Sign

Why it’s a favorite? Because this is the per­fect com­bi­na­tion of sculp­ture meets archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage. This ​“stack” of fab­ri­cat­ed alu­minum let­ters is a one-of-a-kind rain­bow beau­ty. A col­lab­o­ra­tion of local artist Ryan McGuire, the library, and our pro­duc­tion design, and man­u­fac­tur­ing team.

Out­lets of Des Moines - Altoona, IA

Exte­ri­or Truss Signs

Why it’s a favorite? The ​“crafts­man style” design car­ries through the entire out­door shop­ping mall and it all begins with these three truss entrance signs. These behe­moth truss signs were fab­ri­cat­ed in our fac­to­ry in Grin­nell, IA, trucked to their final loca­tion, where a lift dropped them into place as one large piece (3 times). Design, fab­ri­ca­tion, and install col­lab­o­ra­tion at it’s finest.

Dundee The­atre - Oma­ha, NE

Exte­ri­or Entrance Signage

Why it’s a favorite? Help­ing ren­o­vate a his­toric project, espe­cial­ly a the­atre is an extra spe­cial treat. Re-cre­at­ing the main mar­quee sig­nage with a his­tor­i­cal feel and installing into a his­toric build­ing all have their chal­lenges. But what’s real­ly cool is the ​“neon” ​“FILM” let­ters. Why? Because they’re not real­ly neon, it’s LEDs! We’re thrilled with how this turned out and uti­lized a rel­a­tive­ly new flex­i­ble LED prod­uct to give the ​“vin­tage” look of neon.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa Stead Fam­i­ly Children’s Hos­pi­tal - Iowa City, IA

Exte­ri­or Build­ing Signage

Why it’s a favorite? Because of the seam­less design. The design intent was for the let­ter­ing to look like an etched let­ter into the build­ing. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with Fos­ter + Part­ners on the design and fab­ri­ca­tion, these rout­ed alu­minum curved signs have con­trol­lable LED illu­mi­na­tion, open face con­struc­tion and live 12 sto­ries in the air. They also have a great view of all Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa foot­ball games.

Pho­to cour­tesy of Fos­ter + Partners

Mur­ray Place - Peo­ria, IL

Main Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Sign

Why it’s a favorite? This 90-year-old ware­house, on the Peo­ria river­front in the Peo­ria Ware­house Dis­trict, was recent­ly con­vert­ed into a mixed-use com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial facil­i­ty by the Mur­ray fam­i­ly and Aris­to Prop­er­ties. The strict guide­lines to keep the dis­trict as authen­tic as pos­si­ble led us to design this sign that cap­tured the 1920’s era from when the build­ing was con­struct­ed. The sign itself is exte­ri­or illu­mi­nat­ed with a goose­neck light fix­ture and fea­tures mul­ti­ple ten­ants with room for growth.