The brief
An automotive dealership group in the Netherlands was rebuilding the principal elevation of one of its larger sites — a two-storey glass curtain wall through which the cars on the showroom floor are visible from the forecourt. The group wanted its name carried across that elevation in large, three-dimensional metal letters: solid brushed steel in daylight, with a soft halo glowing behind each letter after dark, rather than another flat illuminated panel fixed to the front of the glazing.
Two constraints shaped the whole job. First, the letters had to live on a curtain wall, which meant no fixings through the glazing and no clutter of brackets, cable trays or transformers reading across the glass from inside the showroom. Second, the elevation faces the Dutch weather cycle head-on — driving rain, strong cross-winds and winter frost — so the set had to hold both its metallic finish and its light output year-round, and it had to stay serviceable letter by letter without putting scaffolding across the whole dealership front.
What we built
We produced a large-format back-lit letter set in electroplated stainless steel, sized to carry the dealership name across the full width of the curtain wall and engineered as one matched group — a single stroke weight, a single return depth and a single colour temperature across every letter, so the elevation reads as one piece of typography rather than a row of separate signs.
- Letter construction: electroplated stainless steel return with a hand-finished brushed metal face (matching catalogue spec: Stainless Steel + Electroplated Finish + LED Backlight)
- Illumination: back-lit (halo) LED — SMD 2835 / 5050 modules rated for more than 50,000 hours, driven by MEAN WELL™ constant-current drivers at 12V/24V DC
- Weather sealing: sealed LED compartments rated IP65, with drainage paths behind each return so water cannot stand on the glass or inside the letter
- Return depth: 100 mm return, within our standard 30 mm – 150 mm letter-depth range, set so the halo washes evenly along the long horizontal strokes
- Mounting: letters carried on a powder-coated aluminium rail tied back to the structural mullions, so every mechanical fixing stays off the glazing itself
- Serviceability: each letter wired and removable on its own studs, supplied with a 1:1 layout template, wiring diagram and installation notes
Because the group also has secondary elevations where illumination would compete with the showroom lighting, the same letter geometry can be produced in the non-illuminated stainless build held in our catalogue — identical stroke weight, identical return depth, no light source behind it. That keeps any later signage on the site visually consistent with the main facade.
How the project ran
Signage on a building the client cannot easily rework is worth settling on the bench, not on site, so the process was deliberately front-loaded. The dealership’s design team supplied the name as vector artwork together with photographs, survey dimensions and the mullion spacing of the curtain wall. We returned a scaled 1:1 letter layout showing stroke weight, letter spacing, return depth, stand-off height and the total elevation width, and that layout was signed off before any metal was cut.
The engineering question on this elevation was the carrier rail. Large-format letters present a real wind load, and on a glass facade the load cannot be taken by the glazing — so the rail was positioned to land on the structural mullions, distributing the weight of the set along the frame rather than concentrating it behind individual letters. Working the rail geometry out at drawing stage also let us confirm that no fixing, cable or driver would be visible through the glass from the showroom side.
We then produced a single prototype letter so the group could judge the brushed finish and the halo intensity — in daylight, under forecourt lighting and after dark — before the rest of the set went into production. On a back-lit metal job the stand-off depth is the whole effect: too shallow and the halo collapses into a hard shadow line behind the metal; too deep and the letters look detached from the building. Once the prototype was approved, the remaining letters were cut and finished to the same matched specification and individually wired so that any single unit can later be lifted off its own studs.
Delivery and installation
The finished letters shipped by air freight in cushioned crates, each letter protected on its finished face. Every crate carried its own 1:1 mounting template and wiring diagram, so the dealership’s appointed local installer could set out, drill and fix the set without us on site — which kept access to the forecourt and the showroom under the client’s own control rather than tied to our schedule.
Installation followed the template: fix the carrier rail to the mullions, hang the numbered letters on their studs, connect each pre-wired unit back to its driver, and commission the circuit. Because the letters were numbered and mapped to the template during production, the fit-out needed no on-site guesswork about which letter belonged where, and the elevation could be worked section by section outside opening hours.
Outcome
The dealership now carries a solid-metal name sign that reads as polished typography across the curtain wall in daylight and glows softly behind each letter after dark, with nothing but the letters themselves visible from inside the showroom. Because the set is individually mounted and wired, a damaged or weathered unit can be replaced against the original production file without disturbing the rest of the name, and any future change to the fascia — a second brand line, a service entrance — can be added in the same stroke weight, depth and glow.
