Made in SW Fla.: Sign maker weathers crisis
Work force of about 40 can handle creative design, the really big jobs


BY LAURA RUANE • lruane@news-press.com • January 4, 2009


Jon Messick, a glass bender for Images Graphic Specialties, bends
a piece of glass that will be used in a sign for a client. (Andrew West/news-press.com)

There's more to sign making than immediately meets the eye.

Phil Lotti, administrator for the Florida Heart Associates, discovered this when ordering for his medical practice's new building that opened in November in Cape Coral.

Sure, sign makers must follow applicable city or county rules for signs, "but you really need people who can think outside of the box," according to Lotti.

He said he found such creative people at Images Graphic Specialties Inc., a Fort Myers-based manufacturer of signs since 1988.

Besides making the customary outdoor signs, the company took on Lotti's challenge to craft a three-dimensional version of the company logo - a heart with pipe-like embellishments - that, as Lotti put it, would "float" over a paneled wall behind the reception desk.


Amy Gauthier, an employee of Images Graphic Specialties puts Braille
beads into signs. (Andrew West/news-press.com)

Said Lotti: "It turned out beautiful. My logo looks like a sculpture."

Signs simple and complex are produced by an ensemble cast of skilled trades people at Images Graphic, a state-certified electrical sign contractor and an Underwriters Laboratories-listed sign manufacturer located at 3730 Canal St.

The work force of about 40 includes designers, people who program and direct machines to trace, cut and/or emboss letters, welders, painters, assemblers, installers and more. They handle a wide range of projects including interior signs that are readable by the visually impaired, store signs and shopping mall directories, large, freestanding signs and multi-location projects such as bank signs.


Messick bends a piece of neon glass. Neon is used more as a sign
embellishment than the main attraction, since government codes
seek to avoid a Las Vegas look. (Andrew West/news-press.com)

Twenty years ago, "we were doing smaller, interior signs and graphics. Over time we graduated to doing the big jobs," said John Hose, company president and CEO. The privately owned firm serves mainly Southwest Florida, but frequently has projects under way throughout the southern half of the state.

Two big jobs recently completed in south Fort Myers are an 88-foot-long metal sign over the entrance to Lakes Regional Park and a 15-by-by-24-foot pylon sign that will alert passers-by to tenants of The Village Shoppes at HealthPark, which is currently under development at Summerlin and Bass roads south of Fort Myers.

Neon-lighted letters spell out "The Village Shoppes," while the commercial center's logo and HealthPark designation are plastic sign elements illuminated by fluorescent lighting.

Neon is used more as a sign embellishment than as the main attractions these days. That's mainly because government building codes want to avoid a "Las Vegas look," said Ric Roberts, company art director.


Jon Messick, a glass bender for Images Graphic Specialties, bends a
piece of neon glass that will be used in a sign for a client.
(Andrew West/news-press.com)

Still, visitors to the manufacturing plant tend to linger in the room where Jon Messick bends glass tubes over an open flame to form sign letters or graphic images that will be filled with neon or argon gas.

Applying high electrical voltage to metal electrodes at both ends of the glass tubes makes the gas glow brightly.

Elsewhere in the plant, workers employ several high-tech tools, including laser cutters and large-format plotter-printers, to create signs out of vinyl and plastic.

Sign prices range from about $1,500 to $100,000 or more. The average job? "About $15,000 to $20,000," Hose said.

The company, which moved into its own 34,000-square-foot building in June, didn't feel the downturn that befell the region's construction and real estate industries in 2007.

By 2008, "things tapered off a bit. ... We're doing a lot more bidding and proposal-writing to get the same amount of business," Hose said, adding:

"Those big, really custom jobs are fewer and far between now."

One final sign of more frugal times: In the first quarter of this year, the company aims to introduce on its Web site a new line of customizable standard products. These, Hose believes, will deliver quality with the lower prices some customers require.

LED Lighting Raises the Bar for 2009
Source/Type: Solid State Lighting Design LED Lighting News - Editorials

Author: Tom Griffiths - Publisher

January 2, 2009... A few years from now, when the hindsight becomes clearer, 2008 will likely be noted as "the kickoff" for the solid state lighting revolution. This doesn't mean that widespread adoption occurred, or even that LED technology has become suitable for every one of its potential applications, but some key milestones have taken place that make things much more believably "now" in the eyes of the buyers.

First among the key milestones are the finalization and effectivity of important standards, most notably IES' LM-79 and LM-80, along with the US Department of Energy's (DOE's) Energy Star specification for solid state lighting devices. LM-79 provides the framework for validating the performance and characteristics of an LED-based luminaire (which is the mechanical/decorative "fixture" plus the "bulb" or light engine that makes the light). With it, manufacturers can validate their claims for overall light output and efficiency (lumen efficacy), as well as the color temperature and color rendering characteristics of the luminaire. LM-80 compliments that specification by providing test and validation procedures to characterize the lifetime of the LED itself. So far, it can only be used to specify the characteristics of color shift and fading ("lumen depreciation") during the testing time itself, which is in the neighborhood of 1 year (typically 6000-8000 hours).

The DOE Energy Star specification brings the two together by proving an all-encompassing "mark" (approval) that provides a buyer some confidence that the lighting efficiency, characteristics, quality and lifetime offer useful improvements over the incandescent and fluorescent technologies that LED lighting will ultimately replace. It's not perfect, there are a few holes here and there, and there are some ways to "cheat", but both the market and the expected enforcement processes should work fairly quickly to keep the bar high enough that more often than not, buyers get what they're expecting.

For 2009, we expect the industry and consumer awareness of the various specs, especially Energy Star for SSL, to steadily increase. That should help avoid some of types of "evaluation" surprises we saw in 2008. From our own experience, one manufacturer provided one each of an R-20 and an R-30 type flood lamp replacement for us to take a look at. With our simple plug-in "Kill-A-Watt" tester we have, the results showed that one of the lamps was likely the 20-watt version in the 16-watt box (two models are available, so we'll assume the dot was in the wrong box on the label), that both had mediocre power factors (around .5 to .6, which is what we see on most CFLs), the light was harsh and the color rendering poor. We believe the manufacturer is sincere in their intentions to offer a quality product, but it really typified the 2008 reality where there weren't common measures to shoot for. When provided the feedback, they were a bit taken aback and replied, "We didn't realize your evaluation would be so comprehensive. We expected you would merely be checking to see if they looked OK, would fit where standard reflector lamps do, and that they were bright enough to do the job." I wonder how surprised they would have been to see a stack of returns with a refund request and "discontinue our purchase agreement" had the feedback come from paying consumers back through a major chain supplier such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot.

While another key milestone can most easily be summed up as "bright enough", 2008 saw us hit that measure along with the quality of light being delivered for a number of applications. Exterior lighting, especially for parking structures, parking lots and street lights were the most "visible" manifestation of that progress where a number of pilot programs kicked off. Thankfully, they were pilot programs, as they allowed the kind of real-world sample size that triggers real-world failures. Failures are good (at least in pilot programs), as long as all the parties involved are prepared for them, and everyone understood from the outset who had what responsibility should failures occur. Manufacturers pointing fingers at "suspect installation" doesn't help, and one assumes they would be intimately involved with those installations, on-site, through the process. From the buzz that's come our way, there seems to have been some initial shock and disbelief that something could fail, but once the realization settled in, everyone got down to business to properly analyze things and improve the product.

While there are lots of smaller steps, the final big milestone we observed came from efficiency improvements taking us far enough along that LED-lighting could provide a real business case (payback and return-on-investment) for industrial/public facility and some commercial applications. ROI's have gotten there for 24x7 "troffer" type applications (2 x 2 foot and 2 x 4 foot fixtures, currently served by fluorescent lamps). For usage rates of less than 24 hours, one needed only to look beyond year 2-3 of the traditional fluorescent/HID installation for the real baseline comparison for actual delivered foot-candles once some lamps begin to fail, and most have dimmed and accumulated dust. When 20% of the tubes are awaiting replacement at any given time, an LED solution can be planned which delivers as much light with better quality and less maintenance, with not only a payback, but also a real ROI.

It's important to note that we're talking about "high quality" solutions that are not exorbitantly priced, and I'd be surprised to find anyone able to name more than 4-5 manufacturers that can actually fit that description right now. Unfortunately, there are probably dozens to a hundred companies claiming to offer such solutions, with real little real help being available to buyers to separate the good from the not good. Of course, that's the premise of the Solid State Lighting Design Summit, which saw its premier in New Jersey last August. Buyers, specifiers, luminaire and enabling technology providers can mark their calendars for early August in New York, and October in LA to tap into the 2009 editions. Attendees make targeted connections that lead to real solutions and not costly experiments (and we all know 2009 will not be a year where much experimentation fits into the business plan).

So all that raises the bar and sets 2009 up to be a great year for the industry. Yes, we'll lose some quality producers that didn't have the financial means to make it through the rough patch, but their innovation and capabilities will simply be re-capitalized in someone else's hands. Hopefully, we'll lose a large number of low-quality producers from the combined effect of standards-based accountability and stubbornly sticking to a head-in-the-sand business approach if they continue to be surprised that the market is demanding LED-based lighting be a better solution, not just a comparable one.

I'd like to introduce the new sister site. DesignerLightingForum.com



In the past we've had some light discussions on specialty lighting and general lighting. I even opened a small forum on this board, but since it's a sign site with a Sign name it never really took off. So now the sister site will house dedicated discussion for Architectural, Ambient, Cove, General, Fixtures & Controllers, ETC. A focus on the lighting community.

I've been inching it closer to completion over the last couple of days and it's still under construction with plenty of more work to do converting it over from a community to an industry board. It is a site that was originally a forum for my local community (Schools, Sports, etc), But I decided to retrofit it for our use since I didn't spend too much time with it.

Anyway, thought I'd announce it here since some members will find it useful to their scope of the industry.