Hotel embraces luxurious feel of signage

by carly_mchugh | 11 June 2022 3:53 pm

By Courtney Bachar

Situated in the centre of downtown Halifax in the new Queen’s Marque district, a dynamic new waterfront area filled with restaurants, art, shopping, and events, the Muir Hotel offers elevated hospitality and service inspired by the spirit, culture, and natural beauty of Nova Scotia. With unprecedented views and direct ocean access, bespoke interiors, an ultra-premium fitness and vitality centre, and an enviable location in the epicentre of the new culinary district, Muir is a gracious host and one-of-a-kind destination.

When the Muir Hotel was being built, Eyecandy Signs approached the developer of the project, Armour Group Ltd., to offer its services.

“We felt it would be an ideal partnership,” said Jenna Lawrence, director of sales and business development at Eyecandy Signs. “We understood the intention of the Muir Hotel to be a central hub, and icon of the Halifax waterfront, and we felt quite strongly that Eyecandy could provide the level of design, quality, and custom fabrication services needed to meet the extremely high standards of this project.”

The project was initially awarded to Eyecandy in February 2021, with final installation of exterior signage and interior wayfinding completed in late November 2021, ahead of their opening that December.

The project included full-scale interior wayfinding and illuminated exterior signage. Interior signage included custom fabricated suite signs, hallway directional, back-of-house signage, and signage for the spa area, wellness centre, pool, art gallery, parkade, and more.

“No detail was overlooked on the project, right down to the customer signage for boat mooring cleats on the waterfront side of the building,” said Lawrence.

The majority of the interior package was designed in-house at Eyecandy, with the exception of the suite entry signage, which was designed by Studio Munge.

“The hotel had a strongly established brand prior to our partnership, which was used as a jumping off point for our package and we worked directly and collaboratively with the client throughout the design phase,” Lawrence continued, noting the fabrication process for many elements of the project were labour intensive due to the custom finishing required throughout.

The exterior of the Muir Hotel is cladded in Muntz metal, which is a form of alpha-beta brass with about 60 per cent copper, 40 per cent zinc, and a trace of iron.

“We had to do extensive sampling in order to create a custom textured paint finish intended to emulate the Muntz metal look.”

This custom finish was applied to the exterior building signage and carried throughout the interior sign package as well.

The interior wayfinding was extremely dynamic, making use of various substrates such as custom-painted aluminum, acrylic, brass, and dark oxidized bronze. The suite entry signs were handmade using stainless steel formed tubing. In keeping with accessibility standards, raster bead Braille elements were incorporated throughout.

The exterior signs were made from a combination of fabricated stainless steel with a ‘Muntz’ custom-painted finish, backed with 38.1-mm (1.5-in.) thick acrylic, and internally illuminated with warm LEDs, creating a stunning halo effect.

Lawrence said achieving the client’s vision of warm lighting around the exterior letters and logo elements required extensive research and development.

“We fabricated a full-sized illuminated letter in-house and tried varying LED tones and thicknesses of acrylic before determining the signs would illuminate effectively,” she explained, noting, the standard for edge-lit acrylic letters typically incorporates a 12.7-mm (.5-in.) thick backer panel, so the 38.1-mm thickness was a departure from their previous experience. Sampling was required to determine how effectively the light would travel through the thick acrylic substrate.

“We were excited to be able to make this work, and the end result was stunning and represented the client’s vision perfectly.”

Lawrence said signage sets the tone for a business and its brand and creates a lasting impact for any business wishing to set the stage for the ultimate customer experience.

“Eyecandy is extremely proud of our work on this project and have continued to work with the various commercial tenants in and around this development, creating many more extremely unique and beautifully illuminated signs.”

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/hotel-embraces-luxurious-feel-signage/

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