Construction site signage help
May 19, 2005 6:44 AM Subscribe
I do marketing for a company that manufactures and installs windows/doors/gates in Uganda (East Africa). I want to create signage to put up at construction sites to advertise that the windows (etc) are by us. Problem: as opposed to the north american constructions sites i am familiar with, site hoardings (the barrier around the site) are usually corrugated metal sheets instead of the flat, nailable/gluable wood we use at home, and lawn-type areas around construction sites are non-existent, so you can't just stick something into the ground. SO.. how to display the sign?
Most likely i'll be needing an answer that helps me come up with a design that allows me to afix the sign to the hoarding somehow; or alternatively, a more 'outside the box' solution i haven't thought of yet.
Oh, and displaying the sign should be a pretty easy process: complicated setup = not set-up at all.
Most likely i'll be needing an answer that helps me come up with a design that allows me to afix the sign to the hoarding somehow; or alternatively, a more 'outside the box' solution i haven't thought of yet.
Oh, and displaying the sign should be a pretty easy process: complicated setup = not set-up at all.
Paper sign glued right to the metal with something like wallpaper paste?
Drill a hole in the metal and put the sign up with a nut and bolt?
Use enough tape to laminate a paper sign to the metal?
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:50 AM on May 19, 2005
Drill a hole in the metal and put the sign up with a nut and bolt?
Use enough tape to laminate a paper sign to the metal?
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:50 AM on May 19, 2005
Drill holes through the corrugated metal and the sign and attach them with zip ties.
posted by electroboy at 6:57 AM on May 19, 2005
posted by electroboy at 6:57 AM on May 19, 2005
Hang the sign from one or more hooks that can be placed on the upper edge of the barrier? If you put the hooks on the end of a wire or string of some kind, you can position the sign as high or low as you like.
posted by majick at 6:59 AM on May 19, 2005
posted by majick at 6:59 AM on May 19, 2005
don't they already have things fastened to them? if i were you, i'd go down to a site and look. and if they don't, ask someone to fasten something (anything) up and see how they do it. that way you'll find out the "normal" way to do things - what people will be expecting, and what they'll know how to do.
posted by andrew cooke at 7:12 AM on May 19, 2005
posted by andrew cooke at 7:12 AM on May 19, 2005
Use fabric. Many billboards (in the US, anyhow) are actually printed on a sort of plastic canvas, and then stretched over the billboard. Do the same -- figure out the size of fabric you'll need, print your sign on that (eyelet holes in the four corners, and maybe elsewhere along the edges depending on the size of your sign), run cables through the eyelets, and tie off everything in back.
Sorta like wrapping a very thin package. With "advertising paper" instead of wrapping paper.
posted by aramaic at 7:20 AM on May 19, 2005
Sorta like wrapping a very thin package. With "advertising paper" instead of wrapping paper.
posted by aramaic at 7:20 AM on May 19, 2005
just thinking a bit more. you might be in the situation where labour is so cheap that it makes more sense to get someone to paint something on the hoarding rather than making/transporting/maintaining signs. i've haven't seen that here (chile), but you get similar kinds of shifts in other areas, and i suspect labour is even cheaper there.
posted by andrew cooke at 8:35 AM on May 19, 2005
posted by andrew cooke at 8:35 AM on May 19, 2005
What andrew cooke said. This has the added benefit that no poor person will prematurely recycle your sign for use in their own construction project.
You can do some neat things with corrugated iron, eg paint signs that appear differently depending on which way you walk (paint your two images up to the peak of the ridge on the left and right sides respectively).
You should also think about sign visibility. If there's no lawn area, is there anywhere people can stand at ground level and actually see your sign? Maybe it would be better off as a removable transfer on the window glass itself, which would also protect it in transit. I've seen that done successfully here in New Zealand with glass and with sheet metal.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:52 PM on May 19, 2005
You can do some neat things with corrugated iron, eg paint signs that appear differently depending on which way you walk (paint your two images up to the peak of the ridge on the left and right sides respectively).
You should also think about sign visibility. If there's no lawn area, is there anywhere people can stand at ground level and actually see your sign? Maybe it would be better off as a removable transfer on the window glass itself, which would also protect it in transit. I've seen that done successfully here in New Zealand with glass and with sheet metal.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:52 PM on May 19, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bshort at 6:46 AM on May 19, 2005