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Products
We offer various Product types in which are roughly organized by sign type, material, and design features. This section provides an overview of the various products within each Product Line. Many examples of sign designs are given in the
Product Galleries.. Click on the underlined Product Line titles below to go to that Product gallery page. Examples of these various products are also distributed throughout the Application photo gallery pages.You can also download our Summary Catalog, order form and price list by clicking on this link. It may take a minute or so to download. This Summary Catalog covers Product Lines 1, 2, 3 and 7 only. The prices in this Catalog are most current and supercede any other prices on this website. Individual Product Galleries for Product Lines 4, 6 and 7 can be downloaded by clicking on the underlined word "Catalog" in the written descriprion.
(You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to read the PDF files. If you do not already have it, you can get it free by downloading it from the site Adobe Reader 8 Download)
Sign and Plaque Product Line Descriptions
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These are our most popular signs; inexpensive, simple, attractive, eye-catching, long-lasting with low maintenance. We offer a wide variety of sign shapes, sizes, font styles, and art icons for our completely custom attractive three-dimensional HDU signs and plaques. They are weather and moisture resistant, and will outlast a wood sign by a factor of two or three, requiring very little maintenance. We will perform multi-level sandblasting for the same price as single-level. Letters and art can be raised and/or engraved, with backgrounds smooth, sandstone texture, or simulated wood grain. We may also use our CNC router for some features of the sign.They can have rounded edges, multiple borders, one or more art pieces including flourishes, and multiple lines of text in the font styles of your choice, at the same low price. For more details download our Summary Catalog, -
These signs and plaques have premium 3D art and sometimes beveled or V-cut text , in contrast to regular sandblasted HDU signs which have 2D art and text.They are suitable for residences, estates, businesses, and organizations where an dramatic and detailed sign will will attract attention while giving the impression of quality or elegance. The artwork is more elaborate and may depict a scene rather than a single object. The artwork is first sand-blasted at several different levels or CNC routed to give a bas-relief sculptured look. It is then hand-carved, hand-sanded, and hand-painted with artist brushes using oil enamels. We can also apply 24 K gold, aluminum or copper leaf to gild letters, borders or art., or we can bronze or antique some or all of the sign or plaque. We can also make V-cut or prismatic engraved letters or beveled raised letters. We can work from a computer file, a photo, a sketch you supply, or we can create a new design for you.Also included in this category are cut-out letters ot art appliques (usually made from HDU) mounted on a HDU or wood substrate.These type of signs can range from the fairly simple to complex and elaborate.For more details download our Summary Catalog, -
Art Sign Works makes beautiful classical sandblasted, hand-carved, engraved, or routed California Redwood, Western Red Cedar, Oak, American Cherry, Teak, and genuine Mahogany signs. We offer the same shapes, sizes and artwork choices as for High Density Urethane (HDU) signs. Many people prefer the natural beauty of stained and varnished wood instead of the enameled paint finish of HDU, even though more maintenance is required for outdoor wood signs than HDU signs. We recommend our wood signs only if you want a natural or rustic finish; if you want an all-painted sign, we recommend HDU instead.Of course, we can paint our wood signs as well as finish them naturally. We use only the finest grades of clear all-heart vertical-grain kiln dried California Redwood , Western Red Cedar, Oak, Mahogany, Teak and Cherry for our wood signs which we get from a specialty lumber supplier. This top grade of wood has very few knots or defects. We also use reclaimed barnwood when an antique or aged look is called for.
We make many "hybrid" wood/HDU signs, with hand-carved and painted HDU mounted an applique on a natural wood signboard. Sign holders, stands and frames for these signs.For more details download our Summary Catalog, -
We offer desk and door nameplate plaques which are made from Mahogany, Rosewood, Walnut, or Cherry, all Central or South American tropical exotic woods and are naturally finished (stain and varnish). These nameplates are 2.75 to 4 inches high by 8 or 10 inches long and can list your name and title (optional).They also have decorative or simple borders, or can contain small silhouette artwork icons such as scrollwork, animals, flowers, sailboats, etc around edge if you wish. You have a choice of elevated letters, art and border (background sandblasted) or carved-out (sandblasted) letters and icons , similar to engraving. The letters and icons can be painted any color in our standard 1-Shot Enamel color set but gold, silver, white, dark blue, dark green, natural (varnish only),and dark stain (walnut or mahogany) are the most popular colors. These nameplates show the beauty of the grain of beautiful and unique exotic woods. They are richly finished with fine sanding and five coats of fine furniture laquer. They make a great gift!! We also make similar painted Nameplates with HDU. For more design choice details, please download our Product Line 4 Catalog -
These plaques will add elegance as well as provide information on your roses or other flowers or trees in your garden to your visitors. These are sandblasted HDU plaques with a two or three word descripton (plant name) in your choice of any of five font styles and two shapes. They have a raised border and letters and either a woodgrain or sandstone or smooth texture background, or alternatively, incised (engraved) letters on a smooth background. Each sign is mounted on a galvanized zinc-coated wrought iron stand six inches high above ground level that can be easily inserted in the ground. For more design choice details, please download our Product Line 6 Catalog -
In this Product Line we offer unique and exquisite hand-crafted custom wrought iron sign hangers and sign stands which interface with signs and plaques in our other Product Lines, for no-hassle sign installations. These are custom fitted to each of the sign shapes and sizes we offer, if you order the hanger or stand at the same time as you do the sign. These fixtures enable you to install your sign with minimum effort, usually less than half an hour. There is no drilling or cutting of the wrought iron or sign required; simply drive stakes in the ground (or put fasteners in a wall or door) and install a few bolts or screws in the wrought iron to hang your sign. All holes, chain lengths, etc. are already place correctly and adjusted to fit your sign's size, shape, and thickness. All of these products that are designed for outdoor use are galvanized in a zinc bath, coated with a special corrosive-protection primer, and then painted with two coats of Rustoleum metal enamels in your choice of six colors. All of these wrought iron sign frames stands and hangers are optional; the signs may be ordered without them, or these products may be ordered without our signs, to be used with another type of sign.
(1) Double-post stands with hanging chains with arched or straight top beams with scrolls and two chains to hang larger wood and HDU decorative signs (single or double-faced).
(2) Double-post side-tab frames with arched or staight scroll beams and four side tabs (no chains) for large and medium size decorative or horizontal signs (single or double-faced).
(3) Single-post stand with scroll and attachment plate with adjustable view angle for mounting small decorative and horizontal signs (single-faced only).
(4) Wall-bracket projecting hangers with scroll work (3 different standard designs, plus many custom designs) for decorative and horizontal signs (usually double-faced), for businesses who need an over-the-sidewalk sign, or to attach to a single 4 x 4 post.
For more design choice details, please download our Product Line 7 Catalog -
We design, build and install custom large redwood , cedar , HDU and MDO signs on a custom and project basis (i.e.,we quote each job separately rather than use catalog prices). We have a complete integrated in-house capability for computer graphics design, vinyl mask and stencil cutting, sandblasting and blast carving,, precision sawing, power sanding, CNC and manual routing, hand-carving and hand-sanding, gold leaf gilding, and airbrush and detailed artist brush painting. We specialize in dimensional signs of several types, with a variety of advanced design features such as HDU and PVC cutout letters and art appliques, sandblasted or routed incised (i.e., engraved or intaglio) letters and art, sandblasted backgrounds with and without grain patterns, bas-relief multi-layer sandblasted/hand-carved/or CNC routed and hand-painted Carved Art and high-relief HDU sculpture appliques which are hand-carved and hand-sanded. We paint our signs with the finest enamel paints (1-SHOT) or Sherwin-williams acrylic, ,or stains and varnishes (wood only).We can also gild applique or incised letters or art with 24 K gold, copper , bronze or aluminum leaf. We can either provide the sign for you to install on your own support structure, or we can build the sign support structure and install the sign (in the Southern California area only).We design and built support structures from steel/aluminum, wood (redwood & fir), HDU, and faux stone & brick facing. For more design choice details, please download our Product Line 8 Catalog
Wood Vs High Density Urethane (HDU). We usually make our larger custom signs in High-Density-Urethane (HDU), rather than Redwood or Cedar, because it lasts longer, requires less maintenance, and will not rot or crack. If you want an all-painted sign, we strongly recommend HDU rather than Redwood or Cedar, but we do make half our signs from wood. HDU has been the material of choice in the sand-blasted sign industry for many years. HDU is impervious to water and will not rot because of its closed-cell construction, and it has good temperature stability so that it will not crack due to freezing and thawing. This provides superior weather resistance compared to wood. Finishes last considerably longer. A dramatic grain pattern can be created using a wire stencil (i.e., grain-frame) during the sandblasting process, so that the background of the sign looks just like sandblasted redwood grain. Alternatively, we can make the background look like sandstone or leave it smooth (for applique or incised letters).
HDU is not as strong as wood. A double-faced HDU sign must be thicker than one made of wood. For our larger signs, we put a sheet of 1/2 or 3/4 inch thick MDO plywood on the back of single-faced signs, or insert a sheet of MDO sandwiched between two HDU faces for a double face sign, to give additional strength. We can also supply posts and crossbeams (heart redwood or pressure-treated fir) and can install the sign including setting the posts in concrete (Southern California area only).
Some clients prefer a more natural look, with all or part of the sign varnished or stained. In this case for sandblasted signs we can use clear premium kiln-dried California Coastal redwood, which has a more dramatic grain pattern and is more resistant to rot than western Cedar, but we often use Cedar for smaller signs. Cedar is more suitable for engraved signs, where the letters may be routed, sandblasted, or hand-carved into the cedar or epoxied onto the Cedar, and the background is smooth, stained and varnished Cedar.We also use hardwoods such as Mahogany, Oak, Maple, and Cherry , and Teak.
Selecting Your Sign's Design and the Order Process. We can work with your verbal description, photo, sketch, or computer file of your design, or we can create a design for you. We accept a number of vector file formats, or we can also work with a raster file. We will work collaboratively with you in the design phase, to develop a PROOF of your design for your review and approval. We will provide quotes and a firm schedule at no cost to you at the same time we provide you the preliminary design PROOF. Typical time after your PROOF approval until sign completion is 2 weeks for small signs and 3 weeks for large signs. If we design and build the sign support and install the sign (Southern California only) add another week. We request a deposit (50% of sign value) AFTER you approve the PROOF, at the time you place your order and we begin fabrication, with the remainder due after the sign has been shipped and/or installed.
We recommend you first visit the Product Galleries. , or for more detail, you can download our Summary Catalog, order form and price list by clicking on this link. If you see a given type of sign or plaque you like, you may email us with your requirements, OR call us at (951)698-8484 or (760)723-6161 (fastest response), OR fax us at 915-698-9088, OR go to the Request an Estimate page, fill out the short form referencing the sign's ID number (e.g., M2315) and modifications you want made, and send it to us.You will be sent a quote and preliminary sign design within a couple days at no cost or obligation. If you like the design, we can iterate on it and improve it for a nominal cost of $25 (charged to credit card), which will be credited against the price of the sign if you order it. You may also send us an image of a design that you have, or refer to a design in the Product Galleries(specify the ID number please) ; in these situations there is no design fee . After you approve the design, you can place the order with a credit card and we will begin production on the sign.You will receive the sign 2 to 3 weeks after an order is placed.
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