The Nothern Design Centre is divided into studios for creative industries. The building is very modern and features a lot of glass. The problem comes where do you put your signage and as you creative neighbour is passing how do you keep some of your secrets secret?

Winning pitch wanted to add their logo and sub brand to the glass panel to identify their studio. These window graphics are a mixture of printed and cut graphics and solid colour cut vinyl.

Alius Media was divided into 2 jobs. The first was to add the black panel graphic to the glazing. We later added a larger frosted area to give a higher level of privacy. The requirements for this was to have a “piano black” background with the Alius rippled logo in the middle.

Flo Culture, similar to Alius above wanted branding, but also wanted the frosted panel too. This time it was about diffusing a large laser printer and cabling. Their logo is a custom printed colour, cut out to allow the glass to remain clear.

The family owned commercial cleaning business has recently decided to change to the look of their livery to try and reflect a friendlier, less industrial look. The previous design focused on a logo of ‘ECCS’ while the new one suggest a personal touch with a signed name. Here we have the Nissan NV400 van. As you can see the wrapped panel extends above the indented panel area.

The wrap covers all 4 sides of the vehicle and is done using solid vinyl colours instead of digital printing. This will mean that the colouring will stay brighter for longer.

The product used was Avery 900SC. We have been using Avery materials at Hooper Signs for nearly 30 years. The range an quality has proved to us and our customers it is a stable material. We have also chosen to stay with this brand as it is known and respected.

The Design for this rebrand was created by Tent - tent.uk.com

To find out more about Edwards Commercial Cleaning visit their website http://www.edwardscleaningltd.com/

We’ve just finished 6 Transit vehicle Liveries for Robertson. This order was a little different to others!

The petrol green colour was a specific shade of vinyl that is only available if bought in bulk from the manufacturer. So for this order Robertson’s graphics department supplied rolls of the wrap vinyl for us to cut and apply.

The design was cut with minimal joins to allow for a smooth application. All logos were then applied on top in our vinyl.

The wrap continues around the corner of the transit until it meets the door gap.

Visit Robertson’s website at www.robertson.co.uk

Their vehicle livery consists of panels covered in solid vinyl and vinyl graphics applied on top. This gives the long lasting finish that they were looking for. Solid vinyl colours last up to 7 years as standard, while the guarantee with full colour digital printing is between 3 and 5 years. So we worked with them to find the best colour that matched their concept.

The graphics are on all “four sides”. The Bonnet, sides and rear.

The project here was to create a curved fascia sign with halo lit lettering. The customer also wanted the lighting to come out the face of the lettering too. This in theory was simple, but the construction was a challenge. The logo is a stainless steel return with an opal acrylic face. This allows the light to only come out the front and the rear. The lighting was LEDs, which we opted for “extra” bright ones as the sign was inside the MetroCentre and had to compete with the internal lighting conditions. The finished result is amazing. We are really proud of the look. Although we don’t like to compare signs, this one is brighter than the neighbouring ones.

One of the problems with the brightness of these LEDs is that we struggled to get some great photographs of the job. In reality your probably best of looking at the sign in person if you want to see the true finish. iKuse is located upstairs in the Yellow quadrant of the Metro Centre.

The shop fitting at iKuze was done by Aptus Shopfitting Ltd

OK, we haven’t got the most corporate office planner next to my desk, but it does it’s job. I mainly use it to book days off, but that’s not what I want to blog about.

The beginning of a new year always brings change. Most people say that they are going to do something different and instantly commit to a new year resolution that will last for 1 week max. Here at Hooper signs, we are no different to the rest of the nation. We have some plans and some changes that we are going to make.

However here is the 10 most popular resolutions.

• Spend more time with the Family.
• Try to be fitter.
• Lose some weight.
• Quit smoking.
• Drink less alcohol.
• Go out more.
• reduce the debt (not the entire nation’s debt)
• Help others.
• Be more organised.
• Learn a new skill.

I think over the course of 2013 we’re probably going to try and do every single one of the above across our team. In business terms, I’m sure you don’t want to hear us say that we will be spending more time with the families and less time working. So instead we’ll spend more time working! No, we’re going to try and work the same amount.

We do have some plans for 2013 and I would love to let everyone know what we have up our sleeves, but unfortunately we can’t just yet.

Anyway until we have more information for you, we would like to wish you all the best for 2013.

I dare say that our role inside this building was to create feature wall(s).

The feature walls in this project each covered different solutions and options. Here we have “Doddle” in the staff canteen area. Flat cut acrylic letters on stand-off locators. Mediaworks business is search engine optimisation and this slogan hints towards this.

As you enter the building you are met at a reception, which we installed, flat cut stainless steel letters. These were fitted flush to the textured wall surface. The lighting in this building is developed to highlight all the features in the right places. Here halogen spots are pin pointing the logo.

As you leave the reception area an open walk way through to the open plan offices has some built up lettering as it’s feature wall. These letters are built up stainless steel. They are mounted on stand-off locators, which means that there is a gap behind the lettering, this gives it an extra bit of depth.

Finally here we have the Mediaworks logo built up with a halo glow. The logo is built up aluminium and powder coated to match the corporate colour scheme. Even though this photo was taken in the day time, the halo glow really stands out. The reason for this is that we opted for a neon internal illumination.

The logo was built up to about 40mm thick. This is to allow the neon and transformers into the logo and for all the fixings to be hidden.

And this is what the logo looks like with out the face panel. The neon is snaked around the exterior of the logo to give maximum glow at the edges. Neon was used in the job as it gives a much brighter glow than LEDs.

You can visit mediaworks website at http://www.mediaworks.co.uk/

Design work by Cargo Creative

Feature walls and focal points are very important in setting the right impressions in your business. We have noticed a huge increase in customers requiring wall graphics and focal designs.

We worked with Aptus Shopfitting Ltd to create these Television / focal walls for Leica.  Our part of the project was to create and install the full colour printed acrylic panel and the Leica logo in the top corner of each display. The logo is powder coated aluminium fitted flush to the wall.

“Leica Microsystems is a world leader in providing innovative microscopy, camera and software solutions for imaging and analysis of macro-, micro- and nanostructures.” The designs and imagery used in the panels we taken “from the lab”. Images of cells and chemists at work.

Aptus built the box units into the walls, which allowed our acrylic panels to slide in from the sides. The finished result adds even more light into this bright clean environment.

Well it’s that time of year again. This year seems to have disappeared too quickly. We would like to thank all our customers for the work and projects that we’ve been involved with in 2012. We are already looking at the schedule for January, which is kind of weird using 2013 already.

We (just like many trades) will be closing for Christmas on Friday 21st at noon.

• Friday 21st December:  9.00 – 12.00 noon
• Saturday 22nd December:  Closed
• Sunday 23rd December:  Closed
• Monday 24th December:  Closed
• Tuesday 25th December:  Closed
• Wednesday 26th December:  Closed
• Thursday 27th December: 9.00am – 5.00pm
• Friday 28th  December: 9.00am – 4.00pm
• Saturday 29th December:  Closed
• Sunday 30th December:  Closed
• Monday 31st December:  Closed
• Tuesday 1st January:  Closed
• Wednesday 2nd January: 9.00am – 5.00pm (back to normal hours)

If we don’t see you before, we hope you have a great Christmas and an awesome New Year. Don’t eat too many sprouts and I’ll see you in the returns queue on Thursday!!

We were approached by Mansion House to create a sign that was with in the council’s guidelines and be suitable for the local area.  The proposal had to go through planning permission.

We suggested an aluminium tray sign mounted between 2 posts. This allows a tidy, clean and long lasting solution. We create this type of sign quite often as we believe in providing a solution that will be maintenance free to a long time.  The sign itself is powder coated with vinyl graphics on it’s face.

Since we’ve been keeping our website up to date, we have been asked quite often if we have any photos of the back of our signs. So as requested here is the back of the sign.

We have powder coated the full tray sign (front and back). The post has been mounted with 3 bolts on either side. This keeps the fixings to a minimum, but gives the sign enough strength to withstand the elements. There are other options for this type of sign, which includes a backing tray panel, but this sign was a face tray only.

You can visit their website at http://www.newcastlemansionhouse.co.uk/

The replacement signs were 10mm toughened glass with etched  stainless steel panels bonded to the face.

We’ve always insisted on glass sign panels being toughened as it increases the safety of the product. This meant that the signs couldn’t be simply swapped over like for like. Our replacement had to be 20mm bigger to allow the panel to be drilled and then toughened.

The edges of the glass are slightly beveled to give a much cleaner, safer finish. Here you can see the different finishes to the plaque. The BSI logo in the background is simply etched, whit the important visible text is infilled with black and colours.

The weather is getting colder and the heating is getting cranked up. That must mean it isn’t long before we max out our credit cards and prepare for Christmas. The above image is a nice homely Christmas scene. The warm glow of the fire, the tree & the lights and it’s strange how certain time of the year bring up images or memories.

As Hooper signs is a family business I would love to say that we all gather around a warm fire and discuss the days work. Unfortunately the storage heaters don’t have the same feel to them!

I would say though that Christmas does bring back a memory from one particular year.
About 20 years ago (yes it’s that long ago!) Washington Galleries asked us to help out with their Christmas Displays. Our work involved parts of a Santa’s Grotto, Santa’s Sleigh Ride and the Hanging Decorations.

There is nothing more Christmassy that White twigs and branches (unless you have to make them). Below is an image I found to illustrate the type of twigs we are talking about. Notice also that the trees in the background have no leaves on them.

You see, the main difference between the above photo and our preparations for Washington Galleries was that the leaves hadn’t fallen yet! To get a shopping mall’s decorations ready for the Christmas Period (which seems to start mid November) you have to start much earlier.
The Galleries arranged for some twigs to be dropped off for us to paint white. We didn’t realise exactly what they meant until it turned up. The delivery was the the branches of several trees that had recently been felled. They were complete with leaves. It was my job to strip the leaves from the trees and cut the “twigs” into six foot lengths. After 3 days of stripping we painted the forest of branches white, which all had to be hung out to dry. We had a very Christmassy feel workshop that weekend, in September.

I don’t think I’ll look at white twigs the same ever again.

This is the second lot of car graphics we have done for Dave’s Driving School. The First was on a Black Car, now the design was for a white car. I know that doesn’t sound that interesting. The problem with changing your vehicle colour is when you try and keep your branding coherent. For example is Orange Mobiles changed their logo to a blue square.

Here we tweaked the colours of Dave’s previous livery of black, silver and red, to become white, red and metallic dark grey. The design looks tidy and clean, without over crowding the car.

The rear of cars can provide their own challenges. Car manufacturers like to advertise their branding on your car, before you get a chance to. Again we tweaked the layout to accommodate.

visit www.davesdriving.net

No, it hasn’t been badly graffiti-ed!

Capital asked us to wrap a white Fiat 500 (supplied by Springfield Gateshead) with white vinyl and some graphics. When the artwork came through there was more white on the job than graphics. So we set to it and turned a white car…. White!

The intention was to get people to sign their names all over it (on the white wrapped parts). So we knew that all white surfaces needed to be covered. If you didn’t know it was wrapped, you’d probably never guess.

The rear window was also wrapped with Contravision, to allow maximum advertising space.

The sign was originally bult in the 1920′s to advertise a real estate development.
In 1949, the sign was given a much needed make over. Not only had the development been completely sold, but the residents had started to complain about it’s disrepair. As part of the make over the “Land” part was dropped.

In 1978 the sign is attacked by arsonists and termites. The cost of the repairs was estimated to be $250,000. To help save the iconic landmark, Hugh Hefner steps forward and hosts a gala auction at the Playboy Mansion. Actioning the letters of the sign at $28,000 each. Hugh sponsored the “Y”, Alice Cooper sponsored an “O” in honor of Groucho Marx, singing cowboy Gene Autry sponsored an “L” and Andy Williams sponsored the “W.”

Nearly 90 years after it’s original installation the 50 foot tall letters are getting a complete refurbishment. Each letter is currently getting all it’s paint removed to the base metal and getting a fresh covering.

Looking back at the concept of installing letters on a hillside has a number of logistic issues. 90 years ago the issues wouldn’t necessarily have been around. The Original letters were wooden construction, which is why it needed refurbing a few times. The new installation is concrete and steel. From a distance the letters do their job. However if they were ordered by a customer today, would they accept lettering that wasn’t inline and with so many visible supports?

The entrance to the school is marked with an aluminium tray sign mounted between square posts. The graphics and design were applied in vinyl. To try and keep a theme running between all St. Wilfrid’s signs we added their school crest as a watermark in the background, to add interest.

External signage was added to make the entrances clearer. These were made from 5mm clear acrylic with the graphics applied to the rear of the panel. This creates a crisp high gloss finished sign. It also adds an element of protection to the graphics as they are behind the clear acrylic.

The main school entrance had 3 floor to ceiling glass panels which needed to have some form of manifestation on. Not only does this give an opportunity to add some interest in the panels, it is required for health and safety purposes to prevent people walking into the glazing.

Door and wall directional signage was create using the clear acrylic option. Again we added the crest watermark and kept the design uniform through out. As these signs are light weight, we opted to secure them with strong adhesive bonding tape to remove the need for visible fixings.

The customer came to us with a concept and design idea for her shop sign. The sign panel itself is an aluminium tray sign. This was powder coated a bright pink colour. The graphics were then applied with flat cut vinyl.

The benefits of a tray sign are “hidden fixings”, long life and low maintenance. Unlike a flat panel sign a tray sign has all its fixings hidden on the top and bottom edges. This gives a clean and tidy finish. Normal flat panel signs, generally have their fixings through the face of the sign

Wendy’s Patisserie has since had additional signs from us in their window display.

Oldfields Restaurant in Durham, have chosen a new approach to providing fresh food to their consumer market. The award wining restaurant wanted to try and expand it’s reach through out the region. The option that they’ve decided on was to supply their cuisine, in a frozen meal form.

Fenwicks, Newcastlle upon Tyne currently have two freezer units displaying the meals. The project was about turning these two units into something eye catching.

The work was deigned by Wonder Stuff Studio, who have worked with Oldfields for some years now. Our work was to turn the designs into reality. We produced a matt print and mounted them onto a black matt foamex panel. This meant that all visible edges would be black and add to the sketch work design. A white edge would have cheapened the feel.

Now you too can impress your partner with top quality food, as long as they don’t know where you bought it!!

Visit Oldfields at http://www.oldfieldsrealfood.co.uk/

In the mean time, people often leave it too late to order bespoke items for Christmas. So I’d like to give you a heads up on http://www.heartshapedhome.co.uk/
The website says “Carefully crafted gifts, accessories and decorations for your home and family.” To which I can add that the items on this site are good quality and great value too!

The item that caught my eye recently was, Christmas Tree Names.

These scripted letters are 50mm high with an “invisible” thread to hang them from. I think they are very cute and my daughters are going to love them.

But wait there is more! While I’m feeling all Christmassy, check out the snowmen families too. Great idea for setting out your room this year, but don’t leave it too late. Hand made items take time, so order early to make sure your not disappointed.

Visit http://www.heartshapedhome.co.uk/

Personally I take it as a compliment that our clients are happy to display our work on their own website.

Thank you for your work.

To visit Simpson Bros. Website visit http://www.simpson-bros.co.uk/index.php?page=main_history

Below is a photo of some frosting work we’ve just finished at r//evolution, in the Northern Design Centre. The design goes from floor to ceiling and brands a glass vision panel with their logo. The frost allows light through and gives a neutral colour of silver, which stops the installation from being over powering.

Visit r//evolution at http://www.r-evolution.co.uk/

This is why we have over 30 rolls of white in our print room. I actually couldn’t believe it when I counted this up today. We’ve got

• Short and long term vinyl
• Permanent and removable vinyl
• Matt and Gloss vinyl
• Vinyl for wrapping the contours of vehicles
• Vinyl for windows
• Vinyl for illuminated signs
• Vinyl that won’t let light through
• Vinyl for Floor graphics
• Finally, we have 3 different vinyls for wall graphics

And that’s just one section of our print room!

Peter Pan, will be the Pantomime of choice this year at the Sunderland Empire.

We have been given the opportunity to install full colour digital print advertising in the Sunderland Empire’s Fly Tower. The advert is highly visable from the main access roads towards the theatre.

The project involved installing opal perspex panels into illuminated boxes, that are on the inside of the windows. The panels are 4 Meters wide and are a challenging job as the installation is “back to front”. Normally sign projects like this involve inserting panels into a light box, this one is inserting a box into the panels.

This is a landmark building and a project we are proud to be associated with.

Peter Pan will be running from the 13th December 2012 – 6th January 2013.

The shop has developed from a ‘emergency purchase’ shop, to a specialist local shop. Their stock of specialist ale and local micro-breweries would envy many of the independent pubs in Newcastle. Their customer base covers a wide area, because of the vast choice. Another area, Coppers were hoping to develop was, fresh fruit and vegetables.

We worked with them to create a frosted vinyl block out and information graphics. The frost helps obscure the view of the back of the shelving units, while also allowing natural light in.

We worked closely with but the Design team and Olive & Bean to create the final installation. The shop front was repainted a stone colour, to which we mounted our Built up Lettering. The centre window had some updated vinyl graphics. While their projecting sign was also updated to reflect the change too.

Design www.wonderstuffstudio.com/

Olive & Bean www.oliveandbean.co.uk/

One of the many jobs that we never got around to photographing. We always try to, but time constraints mean we’re onto the next project. We were called back to add an update to the signs, during which I noticed that the signs are photographed and on the customers website.

Our work here included window graphics and illuminated tray signs. The one next to the door there is an illuminated brushed stainless steel sign with a list of available treatments. A nice project, which was fun to be involved with.

Visit Osborne Skin at http://www.osborneskin.com

iSurvey-PropertyInspector.com chose to create a partial wrap using their existing fiat 500′s base colour. The design maximises impact, with out involving huge costs of a full wrap.

The rear window is covered in contravision, which allows you to see out of the vehicle, but creates a solid substrate to add your design to.

Visit their site at www.isurvey-propertyinspector.com

Here is a sign system that has floated down the Thames as part of the build up to the main event. Organised by specialist event and brand experience agency Innovision, ‘Rings on the River’ cost more than £930,000 and used some 34 tonnes of steel to create the 25 x 11m structure. The rings utilised front lit enamelled aluminium sheeting for the front colours and LED illuminated 10mm opalescent acrylic for the back.

The signs looks even more spectacular when lit up at night.

Alternatively, if you don’t have that much spare cash, maybe this is a better option. Click here to find the instructable on making this Duck Tape Olympic Banner.

Of course the preferred option would be to order a Full colour Digitally printed banner from Hooper Signs (Hint Hint!!)

Below is an info graphic showing the evolution of 2 different brands over the 100 years plus. Its interesting to see the similarities and where the design has changed.

Or what was your experience like at the Highland Adventure Safari?