LEDs, Are we there yet?

I have a confession to make, I'm a conservative. Ok, some people who know me might be laughing about that, but really, when it comes time to fully embrace new technology I can be very conservative. For the past five years clients have been asking me which is better for channel letter lighting? Neon or LED? For most of that time the answer was: "LED lighting is nice, a great concept, but... I don't think we're there yet. It's not ready to replace neon.

LED, or light emitting diode, is an energy efficient alternative to neon lighting. For many years now the debate has been raging between the new age "Green" sign makers and the old school sign builders. I've recommended neon while I kept a close eye on the LED products, waiting for the price to come down and the efficiency to go up. Historically the cost of the LED's required to provide the same amount of lighting as neon was much greater, and the lighting could be very uneven if you were not careful with your installation.

Throughout the past year there have been some important changes in the sign industry with regard to LED lighting. The cost factors have come down significantly and the lighting efficiency has gone up. At this point there is no real difference in the price of the two, and very little difference in the effectiveness. The two are basically tied.

Except, in the event of a tie, the prize must go to LEDs for the drastic reduction in energy usage, the reduced maintenance costs, their safer operation and their ease of installation. With every industry making an effort to show their "greener" side the sign industry has a tremendous advantage, our "green" alternative is actually a better product.

BH Furniture

The sign cabinet shown here measures 8ft. in height and is 56ft. wide. Lighting is supplied by 48 fluorescent lamps powered by 12 high output ballasts. When the existing face was blown off in a windstorm Sign A Rama of Egg Harbor Twp. was contracted to replace the face.
As much as I would like to have had an adequate budget for a complete rehab of the sign, it was not to be. As a matter of fact, we had to work inside a limited budget.
In situations like this we are forced to prioritize, we present the client with several options and the costs associated with each. Based on what is most important to the client we develop the scope of work.
Defining the scope of work and setting the budget determines the products and processes we will use. We decided to go with a fabric face, and a fabric retro-fit frame system. The Signcomp extrusion system is a terrific product, very durable and easy to use. After attaching our extrusions and stretching the fabric we used computer cut applied graphics for the sign content.
Typically this work is done in the shop, but the size of the sign mandated lettering in the field.

E-mail Madness

My mailbox is getting slammed. Like most businesses we receive a fair amount of e-mail solicitation, it is definitely increasing. Typically I deleted one message for every two that I opened. Now I'm deleting at least two for every message that I read.
I'm deleting them unopened.
It seems many businesses are stepping up their e-mail campaigns, but is it effective? In my case the increase in e-mail solicitation is having a negative effect. Before I would glance through some of the more interesting subject lines, now if I wasn't expecting it, I'm deleting it. This past weekend I discarded 78 unsolicited e-mails and saved one. That's less than a one and one half percent effectiveness for unsolicited e-mail. If you were paying postage on these e-mails would you be getting the ROI you needed to continue sending them out?
If you are sending out e-mails to drum up sales, don't mail me on the weekend. You stand a much better chance of having me read it if I get it on a Wednesday or Thursday.