When David Musa came to us to make a unique stand for his honey based products, we knew just the thing to do. The honeycomb was the first inspiration that came to us and we rolled with it. Made from seasoned wood from pallets, we cut and assembled the hexagonal cells to make two stackable shelves. LED strips were used to light them up and the batteries were stored in the wooden base unit.
Embark on a visual journey through the intricate world of wayfinding signage at Pennywise Pharmacy and Stores in Kubwa, Abuja. Explore our web photo gallery showcasing the meticulous design and strategically placed signs throughout the four-story supermarket for their opening in 2023.
Made from Aluminum channelium, these three 30 foot signs adorn the main facia of the building. They are visible from all the major sides of the building from at least a kilometer away. The fabrication process started from the machine cut backing boards, then the letters were intricately built up one by one.
Next was the lighting up of the signs. Evenly spaced LED strips were placed on the foamboard base. The electrical leads were all pulled out, connected to the control boxes and tested.
Installation occurred over a week. The scaffolding took a day to put up, and another day to take down. This meant that we could only install every other day, being that there were three faces to install. We had to make sure the internal wiring was in place, before going up with the letters, which were mounted on a pre pasted template, to ensure proper alignment.
The first thing you see when you come to the building is a navigation pillar. This uses a color code to show the floors inside the store, and what they have to offer. This leads you to a bright yellow welcome sign right in front of the secure boxes for placing valuables. We made steel plates to label these boxes.
For the bank of cold products, we opted for a black slatted LED Neon board. This low power unit has a strong impact as you get into the store.
We started off by engraving the slats and letter grooves onto thick foamboard. Next we made a metal frame to support it all. We sprayed it all matt black. The LED neon strips were then fitted in and soldered onto the connection cables. These were neatly connected at the back to the power unit and tested.
Sticking to the color coding, the menu boards were designed for high visibility, and high legibility.
These eye catching figures simply tell you where you are and where to go without many words.
We were mandated to make a monument sign for the Nigerian Army headquarters in Abuja that would be durable and stand the test of time.
We choose to use black granite, concrete, steel, and fiberglass.
The logo.
The Nigerian army logo has some interesting components to it. There is the eagle, the six pointed star, and the ribbon. We wanted to achieve a 3 dimensional effect, so we opted to mold the eagle out of fiberglass.
This, we commissioned a professional sculptor to achieve. For the star, we used mild steel . A spot of cutting, welding, filing and sanding got that sorted out.
For the ribbon, we also used mild steel. We enclosed this in a round steel frame, with a glass cover. This was all finished in three layers of top quality car paint.
The letters.
At the time we made these signs, there was no CNC machine readily available in town, so we had to use what we had: a jigsaw! Tracing the letters from computer printouts, we cut out the faces and sides from mild steel. We welded these together, to achieve an extruded look.
We also used steel rods, to act as stand offs for mounting the letters. We choose to use caps and lows for the letters, so as not to come out too aggressive. These were all primed, and sprayed with three layers of yellow car paint and a layer of gloss varnish.
The base.
For the base, we wanted a solid structure that could support the weight of the black granite tiles so we used a steel skeleton to form the backbone. We then cast concrete slabs, using steel to reinforce then, and to make holes for easy assembly.
The legs were made from large steel pipes with a thick cross section. These were long enough to support the whole structure with a massive foundation block that we had to cast in the ground a week before installation.
Installation.
Having prepared the site for installation a week in advance, the concrete block was set and the support poles were standing firm. We then brought over the concrete slabs and mounted them on the steel frame. It was a delicate operation, using a large crane to align the heavy slabs just in place to be fastened by steel bolts.
This was now given a smooth dressing using cement. We had pre cut the black granite slabs to size, and had them mounted with high adhesive strength tile glue. This had to dry for a couple of days.
We had a template of the letters and the logo made on paper. This way, all the stand – offs’ positions were marked accurately. We placed this template on the granite and drilled holes for the letters. We also cut the hole for the logo to fit in. The logo and the letters were then mounted.
We made some solar powered flood lights to light up the sign at night. These were mounted on the ground in front of the sign
Hand over
The site was cleaned, and the sign was handed over to the elated client. Making the Nigerian Army monument sign was a delight for us, having to work with various materials at once.
These indoor signs had different colours and had to look exactly like they were in the drawings. We opted for laser cutting to achieve a smooth finish. for materials, we used 10mm clear acrylic for the base, and 3mm colours for the top.
We cut the same designs out of both the clear and the coloured acrylic sheets. We didn’t put in and stand offs, as they would be glued directly to the wall.
Installation was simple, using a live size printout as a layout guide. UHU was the chosen adhesive to mount these letters in the wall.
We built this sign in 2018, and it recently got rammed into by a ‘Keke NAPEP’ . The damage was extensive on the support poles, but apparently more on the rickshaw!
We had to dig it up and take it to the workshop to fix the damaged parts. We also used this opportunity to put in fresh artworks, as the old one had faded with time. The internal lighting also needed a couple of lamp replacements.
All in all, it was a relatively simple fix, and the new sign was back in place in a couple of days.
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