VISITORS WELCOME

THE MUSEUM OF THE CONFEDERACY, APPOMATTOX, VA

 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT

“Main entrances must be welcoming, particularly to first time visitors,” says Madge Bemiss, the architect who planned and managed construction of the Museum of the Confederacy (MOC) in Appomattox, VA.

Holiday Signs recently worked with the new museum in providing entrance signage and a complete wayfinding system. Due to their location, visible from Rt. 460, effective building identification signage was important. Signs for the project included one large, low horizontal wall sign that gets the attention of passing cars, two colorful signs at main turning points into the parking lot, and a sign above the main entrance visible by pedestrians entering the museum.

IMPORTANT SYSTEMS

Just as HVAC, electric, and plumbing systems are all critical components of a building’s design and functionality, signage systems play equal roles in achieving visitor-friendly environments.

We collaborated with Ansel Olson Design to produce the signage system for the MOC. The final comprehensive system included the identification signs mentioned above plus parking lot directional signs, site informational signs, historical plaques and markers, flag markers, tree markers, interior ADA signs, and display graphics in the museum itself.

The Appomattox site is one of three MOC locations. Two other museums are located in Richmond at 1201 E. Clay Street: The Richmond Museum of the Confederacy and The White House of the Confederacy.

 

Carter Thompson, Project Manager

Holiday Signs  (804) 796-9443

 

 

 

CLICK HERE for an excellent article shared by our friend, Madge Bemiss,

Architect, about “museum design” from Colonial Williamsburg Magazine, Spring 2014.

 

 

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• Branding and Anniversary at Kings Dominion

 

 

 

 

BRANDING ON A BUDGET

MOBILITY SUPERCENTER, CHESTERFIELD, VA

“Good-Better-Best” Options

Retailers incorporate their customized logos and taglines into their facilities’ identification signage to promote clear and consistent branding themes across all media channels and various physical locations.

To be effective, big, bold branding statements need to pop off buildings and into the eyes of passing customers and prospects around the clock. But “big and bold” can sometimes challenge budgets allocated for signage. When employing the “good, better, best” model to sign design, sometimes “good” or “better” can work just fine, depending on the situation.

Plastic Solutions

There are certain times when a customer’s parking lot and site lighting is sufficient in lighting up branding signs at night, opening the possibilities for channel letter alternatives.

Some of the most popular font variations don’t necessarily have to be custom made, especially when they don’t need illumination. Holiday Signs has access to templates and molds for many standard type styles that save customers the cost of starting from scratch in creating customized letters.

For applications where using standard fonts can do the job without the need for internal lighting, our project managers may suggest vacuum formed letters, like in the case of Mobility Supercenter. Since they had a large, highly visible wall, big, bold letters were a must. To meet the customer’s visibility needs and budget, we recommended vacuum formed plastic letters that have lower manufacturing and installation costs when compared to custom fabricated aluminum channel letters with LED lighting.

In this particular application, using formed plastic letters (lit by existing site lighting) offered some of the 3-dimensional qualities and durability of custom fabricated aluminum letters. The non-illuminated plastic letters have a reduced graphic impact and effect after dark compared with channel letters, but remain visible enough after sunset to do the job at a reduced cost.

 

Contact: Holiday Signs www.holidaysigns.com (804) 796-9443

 

 

 

If you liked this, you may also like:

 

Historic Plaques and Markers

Custom Church Signage

Awnings

 

Read About DIGITAL ADVERTISING FOR RETAIL STORES:

 

Part 1- They Connect With The Community

Part 2- They Can Be Paid For By Your Vendors

Part 3- They Grab Attention of the Masses

Part 4- They Allow You to Own the Media Channel

Part 5- They Have a Long Track Record of Getting Attention

Part 6- Promoting Loss Leaders

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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channel letter alternatives, Custom CHANNEL LETTERS, signs for buildings, retailer signage, custom ELECTRIC SIGNS, neon signs, plastic signs,

plastic letters,signs FREDERICKSBURG, signs Chesapeake, signs Newport News, Northern Virginia electric sign companies, Holiday Signs Service

 

Signage Makeovers Boost Virginia’s Economic Development

Restoring Life to Virginia’s Aging Shopping Centers

 

RETAIL REVIVAL
  Brookhill Azalea is one of many Virginia shopping centers where Holiday Signs helped revive cash flow and visual appeal by renovating signage. Research shows that grocery-anchored retail centers have the best survival rates during the toughest economic times, one reason moderate investments in facade and signage upgrades at supermarket-based centers make sense for developers.

Photos of how one of two SHOPPING CENTER ENTRANCE SIGNS was improved. What was once just a “sign on a stick” was transformed into a fresh, new multi-tenant identification sign that compliments the new pylon sign at a second entrance. The new signs allow for tenants to broadcast 24-hour customized digital messaging.

BEFORE:    

• Day/Night Image Not Attracting New Customers and Tenants
• High Tenant Turnover Rates
• Negative Economic Impact on Community

AFTER:

• Updated 24-Hour Street-Appeal More Attractive to Customers
• Lower Tenant Turnover Rates
• Improved Economic Impact

Updating “dated” shapes and colors can add new appeal to shopping centers, attracting both new customers and tenants. Adding digital messaging capabilities allows all tenants, big and small, a chance to promote themselves. This is especially valuable at malls and strip centers where many of the non-anchor tenants can sometimes get lost from the viewpoint of the main road.

 

FRESH IMAGE BOOSTS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
  Economic development officials understand the importance of healthy retail centers and don’t want commercial properties in their areas to reach the point of decline. I recently asked Mike Davidson, Economic Development Director in Campbell County, Virginia, for his angle on how upgrading signage at declining centers helps. Here are some good points:

  “Renovating and retrofitting existing shopping centers makes good economic sense,” he explained. 

  “Refreshing the visual appearance of properties gives consumers the feeling that something new has happened and helps to retain and improve traffic into those centers.”  

  Mike recommends re-purposing centers when they become vacant with new or different uses to revitalize existing property that has already had considerable investment in installing infrastructure, and he referenced a recent success story of this kind from his area.  

  “This also helps to prevent blight from creeping in to areas,” he pointed out.  

  “Having something nice & appealing rather than worn and old always enhances the opportunity for consumers to want to visit and see what is being offered in those centers,” he said.

 

 

  Neglected retail centers are often viewed as one of the top culprits of crime and the decline of neighborhoods, conditions that lead to lower property values and tax revenues.  Offering their help for ailing commercial developments, cities and counties across our service area have special matching grants and tax credit programs in place for signage and storefront renovation.

 

  Here are some Virginia area facade improvement programs I have found on the internet:

 

• Blackstone Facade Improvement Program
• Fredericksburg Downtown Facade Improvements Matching Grants Program
• Henrico County Commercial/Industrial Rehabilitation Grant Program
• Lexington Downtown Facade Improvement Program
• Martinsville Facade Renovation and Signage Matching Grant Program
• Newport News Facade Improvement Grant
• Norfolk Commercial Facade Improvement Program
• Portsmouth’s Downtown Portsmouth Façade Improvement Grant program
• Roanoke County Commercial Corridor Matching Grant Program
• Town of Purcellville Facade Improvement Program
• Virginia Main Street Awards Downtown Improvement Grants
• Winchester Commercial Facade Loan Program

International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)

 

 

 

 

Here are a few more articles related to shopping center signs:

 

How Small Features Can Add Big Punch to Shopping Center Signs

Digital Messaging for Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, DC Shopping Centers

 

 

CHURCH SIGNS- PART 3

How Bricks Can Finance an Electronic Message Center

 

Just Another Brick in the Wall?

   Bricks…

   Small, modular building units about 2.5 inches high by 8 inches wide. Who would ever think they could add so much value to an organization? 

“Our sign is an interesting story,” says Dr. Jim Lavender, the founding pastor of Henrico County’s Discovery United Methodist Church. “It has been very effective and a great thing to have done,” he continues.

  Dr. Lavender’s church had Holiday Signs construct a new church sign with money raised through a memorial brick program. Surprisingly, memorial brick programs are underutilized by many churches with highly visible real estate who could quickly raise the money needed to benefit from the exposure provided by electronic signage.

Easy Short-Term Fundraising

  Inscribed bricks help organizations of any size raise funds for marketing. Special memorial bricks are ordered for about $25 a brick and members often give up to 10 times their cost leading to very successful fundraising campaigns. Once the sign is purchased and installed, the memorial bricks become a permanent part of the sign’s foundation, making a lasting memorial to the names inscribed.

  “Our memorial brick campaign was a huge success,” explains Dr. Lavender.

  “The sign cost about $45,000 and we were able to assemble funds in two weeks,” he says. “We are not a really strong church financially and this was a significant surprise!”

 

   “Churches all over the country are discovering how creating excitement out by the road translates into increased membership, a more connected community, and an appeal to the youth of your town,” according to Stephen Cook in his article in Religious Product News titled Transitioning to 21st Century Church Signage.

It’s really neat to see the sign doing it’s job twenty-four hours a day broadcasting events to the community, and then walking up close and reading all the names of those both past and present who made such an effective evangelistic device possible.

  “I strongly recommend this kind of stewardship program for other churches, regardless of size,” emphasizes Jim.

 

 

Here are some more interesting sign case studies you may like:

 

New Life Community Church Case Study

Grace Church Case Study

Operation Smile Case Study

Digital Signs Help Collect Coats for Kids

How to Become Your Own Marketing Machine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historical Signage

Source for Markers, Historic Plaques and Site Wayfinding Systems in Virginia

 

HISTORY ON DISPLAY

Since Virginia hosts over 30% of the US News & World Report’s Top 13 Historic Destinations in the US, it only makes sense that our Richmond-area-based sign company, Holiday Signs of Chester, Virginia, manufactures historic plaques, markers, kiosks, and so on.

Many times I have walked into our shop to find a Virginia Historical Marker being refurbished. (All states have them, the heavy metal signs with silver backgrounds and black letters that make travelers aware of local historic sites.)

We also get involved with historic sign systems at many of Virginia’s Battlefield Parks, recently completing signage for the Pamplin Civil War Park in Richmond, and the Museum of the Confederacy in Appomattox.

Projects are as simple as individual bronze plaques or as complex as complete wayfinding systems. Sometimes we help with interpretive signage that helps tell an interesting story at each stop along the way of a historic trail. We also build and install complete traffic directional sign systems such as a system we made for Colonial Williamsburg.

Many area college, church, and hospital campuses have utilized Holiday Signs for historic-type sign structures in special gardens, cemeteries, and other historic areas housed at their facilities.

Now that schools are out in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and DC, we hope you will take some time to enjoy the wealth of history all around you and think of Holiday Signs as you enjoy the many markers that help tell the historical story of Virginia’s colorful past!

 

 

LINKS OF INTEREST:

2014 Special Events at Kings Dominion

2014 Special Civil War Events in Virginia

War of 1812 Bi-Centennial Events in Alexandria

High Rise Signs

Harpers Mill Signage 

Restoring a Virginia Landmark Sign