We manufacture illuminated signage: individual letters, illuminated trays, shopfront bands and the small lit elements that make an entrance findable after dark. This page describes the types, how they are fixed and powered, how brightness should differ between the town centre and a roadside unit, and what the survey and installation look like from a workshop 291 kilometres away.
Illuminated signage in Virovitica — manufacturing, installation, quote
Croatia · 291 km from our plant in Győr
Trade in Virovitica does not sit in one place. There is the historic core, where Pejačević Castle and the park sit between Trg bana Josipa Jelačića and Trg kralja Tomislava, the buildings are older and the rules about what may be hung on them are stricter; and there is the commercial ribbon along the approaches, where the D2 and the D5 bring traffic through and the premises are newer, larger and set back behind parking. A sign that works in one of those settings is frequently wrong in the other, in scale, in brightness and in the way it is fixed. Anyone with premises in both parts of town ends up needing two answers to what looks like one question.
Which sign type belongs on which building?
Cut letters, illuminated trays and the difference in cost
Individually cut letters, lit from behind so the wall glows around them, are the most restrained option and the one that suits an older elevation on Trg bana Josipa Jelačića or along Stjepan Radić street. Cut letters lit through an acrylic face are brighter and read further, which is what a roadside unit wants. A single illuminated tray is the least expensive per square metre and by far the easiest to change when a tenant leaves, and it is entirely appropriate on a modern retail box while being a poor idea on a nineteenth-century frontage. We build all of them and we would rather tell you at survey that the cheapest one will look wrong than take the order and hear about it later.
How far away does the sign have to work?
A pedestrian at ten metres and a driver at eighty are different briefs
Letter height is set by the furthest point from which the sign must be recognised. In the centre, where people are on foot and pass within ten or fifteen metres, a modest letter is enough and an oversized one just looks aggressive. On the state road approach a driver at sixty or eighty metres is reading at speed and with a windscreen in the way, so the letter has to be considerably larger and the shapes simpler. The mistake that costs money is scaling up a design that was drawn for the pedestrian frontage and putting it on the roadside unit, or the reverse.
How bright should it be after dark?
The right answer differs by several hundred percent across town
A lit sign has to be brighter than its surroundings by a comfortable margin, not by the largest margin available. On a road approach with competing lit forecourts, that means real output. In a quiet street in the old town, the same output would be glaring, would irritate residents above the premises and would look cheap. We set the level for the location and fit a timer or a photocell, so the sign steps down late in the evening and switches off at an agreed hour. Signage that runs dimmed for part of every night also lasts longer, because heat is what kills drivers.
What holds the sign up, and how is it serviced?
Fixings, drivers and the access question nobody asks in time
The sign is carried on stand-off brackets anchored into the structure rather than into render or insulation, with sealed penetrations, and the weight and wind loading are calculated for the specific size. The component that fails first in almost every installation is a driver, so we place the drivers where they can be reached without hiring an access platform: behind a panel inside the premises where the building permits it, or in an accessible housing at low level. On a large site such as the county hospital complex, where a wayfinding sign may be twenty minutes' walk from the maintenance office, that decision is worth even more. Deciding that at the design stage is what turns a future repair into an hour's work instead of a day with a machine on the pavement.
What if we have several premises to keep consistent?
One family of signs, made once and repeated
A business with a branch on Trg kralja Tomislava and a unit out on the D5 approach wants the same identity in both places without the same physical sign in both places. We do that by fixing the family once, that is the letterform, the colours, the depth off the wall and the lighting method, and then scaling it for each location. The alternative, which we see often, is two contractors, two years apart, producing two signs that are recognisably not the same company. Setting the rules down as a short specification costs almost nothing and pays back on the second sign.
How is the job run from 291 kilometres away?
One survey visit, manufacture at the workshop, one installation day
We survey before quoting because the elevation build-up, the available power and the access route are not visible in a photograph. Virovitica is close enough that the survey is a day return, and so, in most cases, is the installation of a shopfront sign. The letters and trays are manufactured at the Győr workshop and travel assembled and tested. Where an access platform is needed it is arranged locally and shown as its own line on the quotation, as is the mileage. The warranty is one or two years depending on the build, and we hand over the component list so a repair years later does not depend on our records.
