GEM sign

How about this? A friend in Texas cut it from 3/16" steel plate with his plasma cutter. Going to make an octagon back board for it, mount the letters out about 1/4" so there will be some shadow behind them. I'll paint the letters black hammer-tone and the background gray. Comments?

That's going to look really neat Gerry.

Very cool. Always thought the left leg of the M should be slanted like the right to keep the border uniform tho.

Great graphic!

Cool!

Very nice, Gerry. I like your idea to stand the steel logo out from the background and the hammertone against a gray background ought to look really sharp. Now, just a little dramatic lighting on it at night. . . maybe some thin fluorescent or neon lights behind the logo pieces?? Or something else.

Jim,
I see what you mean about cutting the "M" leg on an angle and I agree.
If you look at the original octagon MG emblem, the right leg of the letter "M" falls on the flat bottom part of the octagon. Gerry's "M" in GEM is a reversal of the original, hence the flat bottom.

Click on this link to see the original octagon.
http://www.theautoist.com/

Kim made my design for me years ago. 99% of the people looking at it will never notice it. Just think, I've been using it here for 5 years and y'all are just now noticing it?

Really nice. Yes, use stand offs and some rope light or neon substitute set behind the pieces. As a graphic designer all my life I did a lot of sign designs. Yours will be nice. For your back piece you might consider some formica. There's some really nice stuff out there, even mirrored, diamond plate, turned swirls like old dash boards, etc. Have fun with it. You could even use plexi 1/4" thick and light along the edges with concealed lights. The plexi will glow.

Diamond plate would be sharp, I'm sure whatever you decide on will look great.

Hey Gerry!

Now all you need is the Biggest Bull's Butt you can Find and Brand that Sucker... ;)

Cheers!
Mike

Gerry my first impression was I've seen that sign before. Though I was losing my mind until you made your repy that you had been using it for five years. By the way I've always thought it was great :) :)

That looks super! I can't wait to see the finished product. I agree that some sort of backlighting, LED or otherwise, would look great.

Wish I had a friend with a plasma cutter, haha!

Well, Lee, I'd bet he'd be your friend, too. He's in Texas so you may even be close by

Lee,
Hypertherm (sp), is making one that will be sold thru Home Depot, etc.

Gerry,
It is a strong sign, keep the lighting simple IMHO.

Pat

There won't be any lighting. Don't want to deal with running power to it. It will be out of the weather for the most part, under a 24' lean to roof that spans the front of my shop. It would be easy to mount some LEDS behind the letters so the background would be highlighted, though

Lighting was just an idea stolen from other signs similar to yours. It is always something you could do somewhere down the road if you felt you wanted it. It certainly looks substantial enough to last you a VERY long time, Gerry. You have a very nice friend to have made it up for you.