The pages below approach illuminated signage from its unlit condition first: what the sign is made of, how it catches daylight, what it does to the wall it hangs on, and only afterwards how much light it should emit and when. We also state plainly what the protected status of the old core means for the range of options, and which frontages in the town are not affected by it. Manufacture is in Győr and fitting is on site, 429 kilometres away.
Illuminated signage in Škofja Loka — manufacturing, installation, quote
An illuminated sign spends most of its working life switched off. In Škofja Loka that ordinary fact becomes the governing design constraint, because the trading hours of a town of twelve thousand fall overwhelmingly in daylight and because the walls the signs hang on are the reason people came. Between Mestni trg, Spodnji trg and the approach from the Capuchin Bridge, a visitor forms an opinion of your frontage at eleven in the morning, when no LED anywhere on the building is contributing anything at all. Signs designed only for their lit appearance look accomplished in a rendering and disappointing on a Tuesday.
What does your sign look like at eleven in the morning?
Twelve unlit hours against three lit ones
Count the hours honestly. A shop trading from nine to seven in this town is visible in daylight for most of the year and lit against darkness for a short evening window, shorter still in summer. The consequence is that material, depth, colour and edge quality carry the identity for the majority of the time, and the light is a supplement. We therefore begin every proposal here with a daylight study: what the face is made of, what shadow it casts on the render at midday, and how the fixings read from three metres. If the sign is not good unlit, no amount of output will fix it.
Which construction still reads when the LEDs are off?
Built up letters, halo lighting and the flat box compared
A flat illuminated box is the weakest performer unlit: by day it is a blank panel with a printed face. Individually built up letters, cut from solid material and mounted on standoffs, have a physical shadow line and read as lettering whether or not they are powered. Halo or reverse illumination, where the light escapes behind the letter onto the wall, is invisible by day and quietly effective by night, which suits a town where restraint is the local grammar. The price order runs roughly in that sequence, and in this location the extra is generally justified.
How much light does a rendered medieval frontage actually need?
Less than a modern retail park, by a wide margin
Pale render and stone return a great deal of the light that falls on them, and the streets in the core are narrow, so the reflected component is much higher than on an open boulevard. A sign specified for an out of town frontage will be glaring here. We set two operating levels at commissioning, a daytime one and a considerably lower evening one, and write the switching times into the handover sheet. Where flats sit above the shop, which in these streets is normal, the evening level is set with the resident in mind rather than the datasheet.
What may be attached to a wall inside the 1987 monument, and who decides?
Our part of the process, and the part that is not ours
The upper and lower squares carry a national monument designation dating from 1987, and interventions to those elevations are subject to conservation consent administered by the responsible authority together with the municipality. We do not apply, and we do not offer opinions about what will be approved. What we supply is the technical package a submission needs from a manufacturer: dimensioned elevations, the proposed fixing detail with the substrate identified, the electrical data and the luminance figures at both operating levels. Ask for it early, because assembling it after the design is frozen wastes time.
How is a frontage at Trata a different problem?
Modern elevations, longer sightlines, no conservation question
The industrial and commercial addresses at Trata and Poden are ordinary contemporary buildings, and the design brief there inverts almost everything above. Sightlines are long, the approach is by car, the surrounding light is sparse and the substrate is panel or block rather than historic render. Larger lettering, higher output and a totem at the entrance are all reasonable. With around three thousand people arriving at that zone every working day, a legible entrance sign has a measurable practical function beyond marketing, which is not something we say lightly about signage.
What do you actually receive from us, and by when?
Survey, drawings, manufacture, fitting, handover sheet
The sequence is fixed. A survey establishes the substrate, the available area, the supply position and the sightlines, and produces photographs by day and after dark. Drawings follow, then manufacture at the works, then a fitting visit. At handover you receive the two brightness levels and their times, the electrical certificate data, the spare parts supplied and the maintenance interval, all on paper that stays with the building rather than in an email to whoever signed the order. Warranty is one or two years by construction.
