DOMINION ENTERPRISES CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS HIGH-RISE BRANDING SIGNAGE

Corporate Identity By Day

Dominion Enterprises, based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA, moved into a new high-rise building in downtown Norfolk and needed to brand it and make a 24/7 statement for the corporate headquarters. Holiday Signs was selected as the sign contractor for the project because of our technical expertise with signage for high-rise applications.

One critical and overlooked aspect of any high-rise project is the impact of design on the future costs of sign maintenance and repair. The design and manufacture of signs installed at high elevations is significantly different than signs installed at ground level. Issues of strength, structural integrity, illumination, visibility, reliability and serviceability are all magnified due to higher wind loads, tougher service environment, much greater viewing distance and limited or significantly more difficult access to both front and rear of the sign. Even more import- antly, signs installed at a company’s headquarters become a symbol of the company itself and require the boldest designs, best construction and reliable performance to make the appropriate  statement  high  above  the  city.

Considering all  this,  Holiday  Signs  proposed a solution for effective corporate identity signs at this location including provisions for efficient maintenance. When the architect and general contractor compared our proposal with another, they liked that our approach used LED lighting and accessible power supplies while the other recommended a neon lighting  system  with  transformers installed inside the letters. Not only was neon a bad choice for overall power consumption, but reliability and maintenance concerns stemming from a neon system far exceeded the excessive power costs.

 

Corporate Identity at Night

Another important element of our solution that set us apart was that we recommended gray and red as the daytime colors of choice considering the building colors and achievement of the best possible contrast. Then we suggested a 3M Dual Color film for the face material so the logo  would  shine  white during the night. The competing firm proposed all white graphics for both day and night and the contrast of the white letters against the light-colored cast stone walls of the building would have provided a very weak projection of the company’s corporate identity during the daytime.

To ensure the finished product did its job, we prepared prototype models of the lettering prior to final production with three levels of lighting: one was as specified in the design drawings engineered by others; another was what we recommended for lighting; and a third was a sample halfway in between one and two. By presenting actual lighted samples  at nighttime on the wall 32 stories high to the CEO, CFO and other Dominion executives, we showed them without a doubt how to best illuminate their image.