Last month, we had a fantastic opportunity to build a sign for a great team, AKA the Seahawks, which is displayed at the amazing Experience Music Project Museum in Downtown Seattle. This was a difficult project that demanded a high level of detail in a short amount of time, but we definitely enjoyed working with the great people at the EMP to put together this piece to highlight their eye-catching new Seahawks display.
It was especially fun to watch the giddy reactions of people visiting our shop as they saw the sign in various stages. We did have one visitor from Colorado who was not nearly as impressed, but you can’t please them all.
NW Signs Helps Make We Are 12 Project Possible at EMP
We take you through the making of We Are 12 signage from beginning to end! The signage accompanied the new EMP exhibit that celebrates the historic team, its leadership and its loud and proud fans, the famous 12th Man.
Step One:
First, the “We Are” letters were routed from 2” thick slices of HDU and then laminated together with a welded aluminum frame embedded in the middle for support.
Step Two:
It is assembled and ready for bodywork. It is deceiving how much surface area there is here — it took 2 gallons of primer alone!
Step Three:
Next, 1/8” aluminum is routed on our CNC machine and then tacked up to a 1” square tube aluminum frame. Reinforcements were then placed on top and nuts are welded in to receive the “We Are”.
Step Four:
Here we were wrapping the edges with aluminum along with grinding and filling all the weld marks. Keeping everything straight and square is a serious battle with a project like this.
Step Five:
Now it is time for paint!
We were given specific Pantone colors which we matched using our Matthews paint system.
Step Six:
It is ready to prime and paint! Several coats of color and several more coats of clear will protect this from eager fans.
Step Seven:
Final shop assembly to make sure it all fits and to make a template for bolting it down at its final home.
We then took it apart and loaded it up on the trailer for our trip to the EMP. We encountered especially courteous drivers everywhere that morning for some reason.
Step Eight:
Take a look at the installed piece with the crew. Thanks for the great work!
About NW Signs
Northwest Signs is a Monroe sign company that designs, creates and installs high-quality interior and exterior commercial signs throughout the Puget Sound region. Northwest Signs designs and fabricates all types of signs, including dimensional signs, metal signs and electric signs and even creates wholesale signs for other sign companies, sign brokers and designers. We accept projects of all sizes, including everything from simple monument signs to complete sign systems. As experts in sign fabrication, we are proficient in working with metals, plastics, stone, wood and combinations of these materials. Contact us online or give us a call at (425) 844-6415 to discuss your sign project.