Storefront Signs

Max metal sign mounted with tapcons

A popular request lately has been storefront signs — specifically, acrylic and max metal storefront signs. It’s a really pretty, noticeable way to brand your building or shop, advertise your company, and increase brand recognition and exposure.

The two storefront signs we’re going to discuss were printed for Cognito Hair Design and Dear Addie Fine Stationery.

Although they look similar, Dear Addie was created with acrylic while Cognito was printed with max metal.

Dear Addie acrylic storefront signs

Dear Addie acrylic sign

Cognito storefront signs

Cognito storefront sign

Dear Addie, specifically, was created using two acrylic layers: one for the background and one for the words “Dear Addie” and the logo.

Dear Addie acrylic sign - close-up

Dear Addie acrylic sign – close-up

acrylic sign with raised letters

Acrylic sign with raised letters

Although it’s a little bit difficult to see, if you look closely, you can see the raised “Dear Addie” letters on the storefront sign.

To install the sign, we used silver standoffs. You may remember standoffs from our posts on Third Man Records or Lendlease. For Third Man, we used black; for Lendlease, we used silver. There are various colors, and you choose based off the color scheme of your sign or art installation.

In the two pictures below, you can see the holes where the standoffs would be placed (there are four).

Acrylic sign - before standoff installation

Acrylic sign – before standoff installation

Acrylic sign - before standoff installation

Acrylic sign – before standoff installation

Standoffs are one of the most popular ways to mount signs because of the way they look. They tend to blend into the sign itself and are typically not that noticeable, unlike screws.

Screws are actually what we used to mount Cognito’s sign. Specifically, we used tapcons, a type of masonry screw.

Max metal sign mounted with tapcons

Max metal sign mounted with tapcons

Max metal storefront signs mounted with tapcons

Max metal sign mounted with tapcons

We also used custom spacers behind the signs to make the sign stand out from the wall. The spacers were 2.5 inches.

In the pictures above you can better see the max metal layers of the sign. Like Dear Addie’s sign, we used two layers: one for the background, one for “Cognito.” If you click on the picture above you can see the raised letters.

Finally, we created custom fittings to go on the heads of the screws to make it look like the storefront sign is mounted with silver standoffs.

Silver standoffs lookalike

Silver standoffs lookalike

The reason for this is because standoffs look much nicer than screws. Unless you’re going for a heavy-duty industrial look, you want to go with standoffs. It looks much cleaner and professional.

On a side note, we also created etched glass designs for Cognito’s windows, as you can see in the pictures below.

Storefront sign with etched glass windows

Storefront sign with etched glass windows

Storefront sign with etched glass windows

Storefront sign with etched glass windows

It was a nice touch and complements the storefront sign without being too showy.

Want to create a storefront sign of your own? Let us know!