Day/night back lit sign

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

We recently got a great deal on some interior back lit quick change cabinets that were double sided. We decided to make a nice window sign with one of them and try 3M's 3635 series black/white blockout film with 1/8" laser cut acrylic letters from Gemini. Check it out. We are really happy with the amazing day/night effect.

 

[Kwiksigns]

this is different from the perforated day/night vinyl?

 

[skyhigh]

We recently got a great deal on some interior back lit quick change cabinets that were double sided. We decided to make a nice window sign with one of them and try 3M's 3635 series black/white blockout film with 1/8" laser cut acrylic letters from Gemini. Check it out. We are really happy with the amazing day/night effect.

And you simply reverse weeded the letters (with an outline) from the 3635, and applied to white acrylic? Nice halo effect....or is that just the way it looks in the picture?

What did you use to adhere the letters to the face?
Poor mans "push thru"?

EDIT: Oops, what happened to the BLUE "S" and lettering?????

 

[Moze]

this is different from the perforated day/night vinyl?

Blockout vinyl is solid white or black. So he has the white side showing but since it's blockout, it looks black at night even though the whole face is backlit.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

And you simply reverse weeded the letters (with an outline) from the 3635, and applied to white acrylic? Nice halo effect....or is that just the way it looks in the picture?

What did you use to adhere the letters to the face?
Poor mans "push thru"?

EDIT: Oops, what happened to the BLUE "S" and lettering?????

That halo effect is the way it looks at night. Yes, the image was reverse cut andreverse weeded from the blockout film and applied to the inside of the panel.

The letters were adhered using Weldon acrylic adhesive applied under the preplaced letters with a seringe. Placement is easy over the visible blockout whether lit or unlit and are held in place with masking tape and slight hand pressure until dry (a few seconds).

I wanted the dimensional look of cut acrylic. Unfortunately the blue isnt quite as translucent so it appears much darker at night.

 

[visual800]

Isnt that last image a digital pic and not the sign? Take a pick of the sign lit up

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Isnt that last image a digital pic and not the sign? Take a pick of the sign lit up

That image is in fact the sign lit at night. No Photoshop tricks added either.

 

[John Butto]

Are those the same cabinets your buddy had with the hotspots. Did you change the lighting in them as people suggested or just leave as is. The sign looks great at night and during the day, good job.

 

[Rick]

Must be some 12-13 years ago that a 3M rep came into the office and showed us this similar effect using block out vinyl/trans. and opaque vinyl instead of dimensional letters to get the halo effect. Looks great in this application.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Are those the same cabinets your buddy had with the hotspots. Did you change the lighting in them as people suggested or just leave as is. The sign looks great at night and during the day, good job.

Yep, these are the same cabinets I had posted about a few weeks back. We started with the idea of trying diffuser film to even out the lighting. We applied 30% diffuser to one of the faces and it worked perfectly to even out the hot spots from the flourescent tubes. Then we got the idea to try the blockout film after reading a 3M product bulletin about it. We were originally going to try translucent film on front, transparent film on the back, then the blockout, then the diffuser. After that, Gino made a comment that if I build a sign for the shop, it should be a great sign...the best sign...so we decided to pump it up a notch with dimensional acrylic letters to try to make something really unique. I definitely think it fits the bill and we have already received lots of positive comments about it's appearance at night.

What wound up actually happening in the end was I applied the reverse cut blockout film to a panel, since I had learned that the block out film should be applied to the back before the diffuser. We then put it in the cabinet to test it out and were surprised to find that not only did it glow wonderfully but it also killed the hot spots since all the light was concentrated in just those open areas. So we scratched the diffuser film altogether and went with blockout and acrylic letters only. It's been a fun learning experience and I'm realizing there are a ton of cool things that can be done with the entire series of day/night films.