Change white channel letters to black but still light up

[ddubia]

A new Sprint store opened up in our town this month. It has a wall mounted sign of white channel letters with a black return. I got a call from an out of town Sprint representative today asking if we could make those letters black but so that they would still light up at night.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this done before using a perforated material. Letters are black in the daytime while the light shines through at night. That job was high in the air, about 30 feet, so the perf was not noticeable in the daytime. The viewing distance of this sign however is much closer 12 feet. I'm not sure what it will look like that close using perf. Maybe white polka dotted?

At any rate, has anyone ever done this or know the type of material I need to meet this challenge?

The job is simple enough if I can find the right stuff.

 

[J Hill Designs]

http://www.3m.com/product/information/Day-Night-Film.html

 

[oldgoatroper]

There is also a product out of Germany that is black acrylic but is white at night when illuminated from behind.

We used to have the brochure on that but its been heaved long ago -- I also recall it was somewhere around $600 or $800 a sheet. ( But they were ten-foot sheets... ) :Big Laugh

 

[J Hill Designs]

yeah thats black/white acrylic...available in the states quite readily...but I doubt this guy wants to remake the faces...the day/night vinyl is the stuff for this job - just look in my supplier online catalogue - black/white 6x8 acrylic sheets are around 3 bills

 

[MikePro]

just laminate the faces with black perforated vinyl

 

[ddubia]

..the day/night vinyl is the stuff for this job

Yeah, I'm reading about it now. It's perfect. Thanks a million!

 

[MikePro]

i'm not at the office to access the day-shots, but these underarmor channel letters are white led with white acrylic faces, laminated with black perforated vinyl:

 

[ddubia]

Those look great Mike.

 

[FS-Keith]

Offsite pics replaced. Please read our rules and instructions on photo posting.

 

[visual800]

I have used that Day/Nite stuff and I dont like it. the daytime its black but at night its a muddy greyish looking ...I cant even describe BUT I am liking that perforated vinyl on the faces. KUDOS great idea!

 

[Desert_Signs]

We set up a print file for day/night perf. Rather than have a bunch of different colors of vinyl perf (or printing it), we just direct print the "perf" (any color!) onto the white acrylic with our flatbed. It works very well.

 

[FS-Keith]

or you can paint it the same color as your cans

 

[gerald]

Don't use the day/nite plex with led's. You will see all the led's as hot spots and there will be a small pinkish dot where every led is. Only use the vinyl on white plex, not clear. Dont use window perf either. The hole spacing is different believe it or not.

 

[John in Cali]

Day / Night acrylic with LED modules.

 

[Bobby H]

We prefer to use the 3M Scotchcal dual color perforated vinyl for black-day/white-night channel letter faces. It just works better.

We tried some of the other types of solutions out there in the past, be it certain kinds of black/white acrylics or other kinds of vinyl. The black perforated vinyl just does a better job.

BTW, Sprint should have sent along vector-based artwork of the Sprint logo as well as a list of materials & colors approved for their signs. If they haven't done so, request the files in order to make a proper bid on the job.