How a Commercial Sign Project Works, Step by Step

Discovery is part interview, part survey. First we want to know what the sign needs to accomplish: pull drivers off a busy road, mark an entrance, carry a new brand or match signs at other locations. Then we go to the property to measure it, photograph it and look at it the way your customers will, from the road, the parking lot and the sidewalk.

We also look for the constraints that shape everything afterward: where power is available, which signs or structures already exist, whether a lease includes sign criteria and which city will review the permit. Finding these now costs far less than finding them after design.

Design starts from the survey, not a blank page. Letter heights, panel sizes and lighting are set for the distance and angle people see the sign from, and for the space the building and code allow. We place the design on a photo of your actual property so you can judge its scale and color in context.

The design is also a specification. Materials, colors, illumination and mounting are chosen at this stage, because each one affects cost, approvals and how the sign is built. Revisions belong here too, where a change costs a drawing rather than a rebuilt part.

A sign has to hold up to Texas wind, heat and storms for years, whether it hangs on a wall or stands on its own foundation. Engineering settles how: the attachment to the wall, the size of the pole, the foundation for a ground sign and the path power takes to reach it.

We prepare engineering details for each sign. Where a city or property calls for sealed drawings, we coordinate them with a licensed engineer. The result is a set of shop drawings that the permit reviewer, the fabrication team and the installation crew all work from.

A permanent exterior sign needs a permit in most Dallas Fort Worth cities, and the rules change at every city line. We look up the sign code for your address, confirm the design complies and adjust it before submission where it does not. Leased property adds a second review, because many landlords approve signs against their own tenant criteria before the city sees them.

We prepare the drawing package, submit it and respond to reviewer comments until the permit is issued. Fabrication waits for approval: building a sign before its design is approved is the most expensive way to learn that it needs to change.

Once approvals are in hand, the shop drawings go into production at our manufacturing facility in Carrollton. Letters, cabinets, monuments and panels are built to the drawings, and every face, return and finish takes its color from your brand references.

Illuminated signs are lit and checked before they leave the building, the easiest place to catch an uneven LED or a loose connection. Each sign is inspected against the approved drawing, then protected for transport and scheduled for installation.

Installation day starts before the crew arrives. Access, parking and lift placement are confirmed, and for ground signs, buried utilities are marked before any excavation starts. On site, the crew mounts the sign to the approved layout, levels and aligns it and seals every penetration.

Illuminated signs are connected to power by Signs Express under Texas Electrical Sign Contractor #18921. Then we switch the sign on, look at it with you from the road and up close and close out anything that needs attention.