1933 Lounge Sign Package
Last year around this time, The 1933 Lounge was getting ready to have their grand opening at The Yard in Fishers, IN. The 1933 Lounge began in the space above the world-famous restaurant St. Elmo Steak House in Indianapolis back in 2011. Last year the restaurant, owned by Huse Culinary, expanded into its own 5,000 square-foot building. The building can host up to 180 patrons and features a private dining room and a patio. During the construction of the eatery, Huston Signs was invited to work alongside the architect and general contractor to create a sign package for the new space. Honored with the opportunity to work on such a unique project, our account executive and sign team did an amazing job carrying this project from concept to installation. Our team helped guide the restaurant's owners through a worry-less sign project by working to design a sign package with a desired style, assisting with production logistics, and streamlining the sign installation.
Huston Signs had the privilege of working closely with the architect of the restaurant to create a custom sign package that exemplified their desired theme. The 1933 Lounge was designed to feel like a post-prohibition era-style tavern. The question was how to create exterior signage that portrayed the essence of the desired experience inside. The logo designed for the new location along with other choice design elements created a strong brand identity that our team was to work in accordance with. First, ideas and inspiration were collected for the illuminated signage. They knew they wanted an illuminated sign above the front door. On the sides of the building, they were curious about a set of channel letters for their tagline and a perpendicular sign to catch the attention of passing bystanders. With that information and the ideas, we created our proposed sign package. We provided detailed renderings of all their signs to help the customer visualize the sign package. It only took a few rounds of design changes until the design of the signs was agreed upon. Next, it was our accountant executive's job to ensure its approval with the city of Fishers. The signs with details of their square footage and illumination were sent through the permitting process. Once approval was received, we officially ordered the signs into production.
We knew from the beginning that this sign project was going to be a complete custom fabrication. During the design process, we began to show the signs at different angles in our renderings so that we could begin the conversation about dimension and illumination of the designs. The main sign above the front door was designed with production in mind. We decided the logo would work best on a routed aluminum pan sign with open face channel letters mounted to the front. Inside the letters, LED tubing was used to represent neon. The framing that illuminates on the sign and the small letters of "By St. Elmo" were produced with push-thru acrylic giving the sign a new level of dimension. The small detail of painting the inside of the channel letters the brand color of gold really pulled the style together. Next, we worked on the design of the tagline to go on the side of the building. Channel letters with white faces were chosen. The font and sizing were determined to best capture the attention from the road. Finally, the perpendicular sign that would be mounted on the opposite side of the building was crafted. The perpendicular sign was created with routed aluminum. The letters of 1933 Lounge were also to be made with push-thru acrylic to stick out about inch. The band that wraps around the top of the sign is made of wrapped polycarp with LED strips behind it; this allowed for more illumination. Our team worked closely with the sign manufacturer to ensure the desired style was portrayed using the determined production elements. Once the designs and production were approved, our team had to fulfill the last couple of steps in the sign process. The custom fabrication process took about six weeks to complete all the different pieces. Our sign technicians were on stand-by for the completion of manufacturing. With the deadline approaching, our sign team scheduled installation days. It took our sign installers two days to complete the sign package at The 1933 Lounge. The installation went off without a hitch and the owners and general contractors were impressed by our streamline of the process. Everyone was very happy about how the signs turned out and to this day, it was one of our favorite projects to work on.
The fabrication to installation sign process only took about 8 weeks to complete. We would like to thank our team for their ability to bring this project to fruition so efficiently. They did so by guiding the sign project through design, production, and installation. It was a privilege to guide The 1933 Lounge through a sign process that could have been a bigger obstacle if not for the experience and talents of our team. Make sure you make a point to stop by The 1933 Lounge next time you are in Fishers. We look forward to a continued relationship with The 1933 Lounge and its sister restaurants.
