Element Frontdoor Sign Header

Pre­con­struc­tion Plan­ning Cre­ates a Seam­less Sig­nage Expe­ri­ence in a Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Environment

October 15, 2019

Bring­ing a sig­nage part­ner on board ear­ly is impor­tant. In this hos­pi­tal­i­ty project the ear­ly col­lab­o­ra­tion with the devel­op­er allowed the abil­i­ty to see and solve poten­tial archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage issues before they became a prob­lem for the hote­lier. A plan to win for everyone.

Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Part­ner­ship With Clear Focus

With atten­tion to detail and respon­sive project man­age­ment, Lat­i­tude fix­es issues before they become prob­lems for our clients.

In the hos­pi­tal­i­ty indus­try, vis­i­tors are con­stant­ly have mov­ing in and out of spaces, so hotel signs serve many pur­pos­es. The design, func­tion­al­i­ty, and clar­i­ty of sig­nage con­nects con­sumers to the hotel’s brand, directs guests where to go, and keeps guests safe with emer­gency instructions.

Part­ner­ing ear­ly with the devel­op­er of this project, the inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or sig­nage for the Ele­ment by West­in hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa went off with­out a hitch. This mod­ern hotel is com­mit­ted to eco-friend­ly prac­tices and healthy liv­ing. The sig­nage goal was to match the hotel’s sleek style and focus on sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The hotel’s com­plex series of sig­nage required a hands-on approach to design, man­u­fac­tur­ing, qual­i­ty con­trol, and installation.

Element Exterior Collage

Tricky Trans­form­ers: Exte­ri­or Sig­nage Prob­lem Solving

Draw­ing col­ors from the Ele­ment hotel’s logo, the exte­ri­or alu­minum and acrylic signs are dark gray with pops of lime green. LED illu­mi­na­tion is a savvy choice with low-ener­gy costs and min­i­mal maintenance.

Luck­i­ly, we were engaged ear­ly in the process. A poten­tial issue was iden­ti­fied with an exte­ri­or illu­mi­nat­ed let­ter set and it was nec­es­sary to craft a solu­tion before it became an expen­sive prob­lem for the client. Direct­ly behind the let­ters of the exte­ri­or sign with the hotel’s name was a guest room. To avoid inter­rupt­ing the guests’ expe­ri­ence with bulky trans­former box­es, Lat­i­tude was able to mobi­lize sev­er­al months ear­ly in the over­all con­struc­tion process & install sec­ondary LED wiring nec­es­sary for the illu­mi­na­tion and relo­cate the trans­form­ers to an inte­ri­or hall­way. This solu­tion allows easy access to the trans­former box with­out imped­ing on a guest’s space. Illu­mi­nat­ing exte­ri­or sig­nage is an impor­tant aspect to all busi­ness­es, read more illu­mi­na­tion and brand­ing here.

Having a partner that is willing to run with signage on a hospitality project in a turnkey fashion is critical for us

Dave Thorpe, Managing Director, Design & Construction

Sleek & Attrac­tive Wayfind­ing Signage

Interior Directional Sign Hospitality

Sign place­ment and mes­sag­ing are crit­i­cal to wayfind­ing sig­nage with­in the hotel. With local project man­agers onsite, Lat­i­tude sig­nage experts could adapt sig­nage from the orig­i­nal archi­tec­tur­al plans to match the ele­ments in the fin­ished prod­uct. For exam­ple, a grassy court­yard design was updat­ed dur­ing con­struc­tion, and instead of plac­ing the sign in the mid­dle of a new side­walk, Lat­i­tude was able to update the loca­tion and install it in the best place.

The signs also had to blend seam­less­ly with the hotel’s smart, styl­ish look. Laser etch­ing on frost­ed acrylic that appears to float over a bam­boo back­drop pro­vides direc­tion­al sig­nage that suits the mod­ern spa-like feel of the hotel.

Code Changes Dur­ing Project: Fire Code Com­pli­ant Emer­gency Exit Signage

Between the design phase and com­plet­ed con­struc­tion on the hotel, the fire code reg­u­la­tions had changed in West Des Moines. Being the ​“local” and hav­ing a rela­tion­ship with the Devel­op­er, we brought these to their atten­tion. Design changes, sig­nage loca­tion updates, and instal­la­tion of new fire code infor­ma­tion on a mul­ti­tude of signs through­out the build­ing. This proac­tive solu­tion saved the client time and stress.

“Hav­ing a part­ner that is will­ing to run with sig­nage on a hos­pi­tal­i­ty project in a turnkey fash­ion is crit­i­cal for us,” says Dave Thor­pe, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, Design & Construction.

It’s ben­e­fi­cial to clients to have local project man­agers and pro­fes­sion­al installers work­ing with archi­tects and con­trac­tors ear­ly in the process to help iden­ti­fy and address issues to pre­vent frus­trat­ing delays lat­er on dur­ing construction. 

Choose a Part­ner Early

Choos­ing a local sign expert that can iden­ti­fy issues before they become a prob­lem is impor­tant. Feel free to poke around and learn more about our sign experts. Have a ques­tion? Shoot us a note, we’re here to help. 

Related Case Studies