Reade Blog

Municipal signs pointing to the post office or the park can just be functional or they can add something to the environment. At Reade Signs we always enjoy working with local authorities who want to make public spaces more attractive while providing a public service. Gravesham Borough Council asked Reade Signs for a series of monolith signs, which feature historic images and inform the public about Gravesend’s rich historic connection with the Thames. The council wanted the monoliths to be put in place with as little fuss or disruption as possible in the run-up to Christmas. So, rather than spend weeks fencing off pedestrian areas one at a time to install the concrete foundations and signage, we did all the groundwork first, setting a custom ground cage and frame into concrete foundations at the various locations around the town. We then fitted a temporary cover plate over each one so that pedestrians could safely walk over them. The SolutionOur fitting team installed all the monoliths in one day, simply ‘plugging in’ and bolting them down into the waiting sockets so they seemed to appear overnight to the public. Not only did the plan add to the ‘wow’ factor, it also cut down inconvenience to the public and saved the council money by avoiding the need for expensive route closure licences. We also refurbished the town’s existing 11 tourist wayfinding finger-posts and added seven more with a modern sign system incorporating a beautiful finial on the top of each one in the shape of a Thames barge. The council commissioned the unique sculpture and we then developed several prototypes for a custom mounting point and corresponding base plate for all of the signs, coming up with a design that allowed the two parts to come together seamlessly. Kent County Council

Dog House is a unique workspace for sole traders and business owners in Reading. It’s a refurbished, Grade II listed building designed to create a surprising and inspiring environment. The building is owned by TCN, which regenerates unloved buildings and creates surprising places for people to work. The design brief was to create signage with a playful twist to complement the exposed brick finishes, wooden floors and grand staircase. Reade Signs was selected to manufacture and install the signage. Our team worked closely with the design concepts to recreate them using the right materials for the desired effect. This project included fret-cut exterior logos, vinyl logos, tenant boards, lightboxes, toilet signage, meeting room signs, directional signage, gold floor numbers, funny quotes, 3D metal effect lettering, frosted glass graphics, wall vinyls and wayfinding. The final signage is stunning and quirky and is guaranteed to put a smile on visitors’ faces!

Working with main contractor to build and install these impressive 1300mm high letters to advertise the new Children’s Centre (which is attached to the Gainsborough Primary School in Hackney). The letters were manufactured in descaled stainless Steel and stove enamelled, creating an extremely durable finish. Led illumination was built into the trough at the base of the letters so that the light washes up the letters giving them a soft glow at night. Planters built in the same material as the sign were included as part of the scope The client was delighted with the finished sign.

The award-winning V&A Wayfinding assignment was one of the most rewarding projects we have completed in recent years.  There were so many factors to be considered, not least the need to cause minimal disruption so that visitors and private events (which are the museums life blood) could continue. Most of the works were therefore carried out overnight and over several weeks. We worked closely with the museum’s estates team to ensure we could get the signs from one location to another and with limited storage space available on-site, staged deliveries were needed. Fixing into the walls and ceilings of one of London’s most iconic listed buildings is not for the faint hearted either, with extensive testing and sampling taking place before installation. There are over 400 signs in all, ranging from totem signs clad in black tulip wood, to projecting, wall mounted facilities signs, maps and hanging gallery signs. Each sign was fabricated by hand, with direct to media print being applied for the graphic elements, giving a durable, unbelievably sharp finish. The signage and wayfinding scheme won the coveted SEDG (Society for Experiential Graphic Design) ‘HONORS AWARD’ in 2020. Furthermore, the V&A undertakes continual visitor surveys and the results speak for themselves: 74 percent of visitors said that they found navigating easy or very easy, compared to 58 percent in the same period the prior year. The proportion of visitors answering “difficult” or “other” fell from 18 percent to just 3 percent.(Source V&A)

We were tasked with manufacturing and installing the 1.5 mtr high letters and logo on the top of No. 1 Sugar House Lane, the gateway to the new Sugar House Island development by international developer Vastint. Before the final letters could be manufactured we produced a full size sample and secured it in position on the roof so that the stake holders could view it from all angles and approve for production. Finally, the huge letters, with Cabochon lighting were fixed directly into the building’s steel work and cleverly designed by our team to hinge backwards to allow maintenance from the roof.  Dominating the skyline from the High Street, Stratford, they create a lasting landmark within the local area. The Logo and Visual Identity were designed by Kurz Gestaltung, Berlin.

The Reade Signs’ team enjoyed this exciting project of transforming an average looking office into a dazzling workspace that would excite and inspire staff and clients alike The Brief To produce stand-out graphics to dress the walls at the London Cityzen office not only to create that wow-factor, but to also disguise any structural defects and irregularities of the building, including undulating walls and boxed in areas prone to damp. The Solution Using images chosen by the client, and in line with their brand guidelines, Reade Signs designed a wall cladding on brushed stainless steel and ebony using full colour images. This required a lot of bespoke modelling of the clad to accommodate the unevenness of the walls, but the pictures speak for themselves! The results are outstanding. Reade Signs’ experienced and dedicated team created this modern, inspiring and exciting environment and enabled Cityzen’s vision to become a reality. “We employed Reade Signs to re-design our office. The end result was exactly what we were after and we often get compliments on our office from clients and passers-by. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Reade Signs to anyone and in fact we have used them again recently to create logos for our company cars.” Warren Black, Co-Founder, Cityzen