Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1482193
G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2 • G R A P H I C S P R O 2 7 need to be connected to either the next channel letter in line, or the power sup- ply, etc. (Photo 1) Every channel letter requires at least four anchor points on the back of the letter to secure it to the wall, plus one more "through-hole" that goes all the way through the wall to the power source located on the other side of the wall. Most landlords agree that flush mounted chan- nel letters create unsightly "bullet-hole" problems if the tenant decides to move out. A raceway provides a less-damaging way to install channel letters. Letters are attached with the same 4-point attachment, plus a pass-thru hole. Using a raceway also provides an added benefit that saves install- ers a lot of time and headache. By allow- ing the fabricators to "mount" the channel Photo 1: A typical example of a logo after being redrawn as a set of channel letters on a raceway. The cat head is the icon of their logo. (The raceway is pink in this example for clarity of detail only) The basic raceway option involves an enclosed box that can be fabricated or an extruded raceway, with a water-tight lid or a hinged face -- or it can be stick-built with an internal framework for larger, heavier letter sets. It's typically used when the letter set is simple, budgets are low and the client or landlord want's simplistic consistency with all of the tenant's channel letter signs. But, the landlord doesn't want a boring "Velveeta cheese box" mounting plan for his tenants signs, they are very much interested in tenants having signs with creative wireways that utilize a unique graphic shape of something related to the business. In this case, the cat was the perfect graphic icon to expand upon. I have created a basic, simple 3D image to help you visualize what the cat wireway might look like. FYI... I used the CorelDRAW Block Shadow and Perspective tools to quickly render this in 3D. The Channel letters are mounted flush to the face of the cat wireway. They are what I call a "channel uni-letter" which means that the letters are joined, so it's a large-shaped channel letter that results in fabricating two channel letters for attachment. So this is what you get when you apply fat outlines around the letters, before you separate them as individual letter channels. Nothing wrong at all with building letters like this, as one unified joined letter, in fact it saves time and materials in most cases. How long does it take to build the letters one at a time, verses building two of these?