CIRCLE OF LIFE
Circle East的标识设计
Less than 15 miles north of Baltimore lies Circle East, a new mixed-used development in Towson, MD. Mixed-use developments have gained popularity in recent years. An alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar retail environments, they blend the resi-dential (apartments, town homes, etc.) and non-residential (retail, restaurants, entertainment), resulting in ease of access in urban and suburban regions. Circle East named for its location east of downtown Towson’s traffic circle is no different, featuring a movie theater, six national restaurants, hundreds of apartments, 850 above- and below-ground parking spaces, and 240,000 sq. ft. of retail space.
位于巴尔的摩以北不到15英里处的是Circle East，这是位于马里兰州陶森的一个新的综合开发项目。综合开发项目近年来越来越受欢迎。作为传统实体零售环境的替代品，它们将住宅（公寓，城镇住宅等）和非住宅（零售，餐馆，娱乐）融为一体，为城市和郊区的居民提供便利。Circle East以其位于陶森市中心交通圈以东的位置而闻名 ，它有一个电影院，六个国家餐厅，数百套公寓，850个地上和地下停车位，以及240,000平方英尺的零售空间。
Ashton Design , a Baltimore-based design firm, formulated Circle East’s logo and branding, and then incorporated that inspiration into exterior building and site signage, parking signage and wayfinding/directory signage. There were many sign placement questions to answer in the project’s early phases, such as whether to insert a sign on the corner of the building facing the traffic circle. “We decided not to, but instead placed the‘Circle East’signs on the flat surfaces [to] integrate and align them with the façade materials,” said Alexey Ikonomou, Ashton’s creative director. Ikonomou noted that Towson’s major roadways feed into the traffic circle, so Ashton designed a clean, white-and-teal color scheme that attracts passersby, particularly with signage that contrasts with the building’s black and gray painted lettering.
阿什顿标识设计公司位于巴尔的摩，他们为Circle East设计了LOGO等一系列品牌标识，然后将LOGO的配色与灵感融入外部建筑、场地标识、停车标识和导向标识中。在项目的早期阶段，有许多标识放置问题需要解决，例如是否可以在交通要道处放置标识。阿什顿标识设计公司创意总监亚历克西·伊科诺穆（Alexey Ikonomou）表示：“我们决定在建筑物外墙的平面上放置'Circle East'的标识，把标识与外墙连接在一起。”伊科诺穆指出，陶森的主要道路面向交通圈，因此阿什顿设计了一种干净的白色和蓝绿色配色方案，并取得的了良好的效果，特别是标识的颜色与建筑的黑灰色颜色形成鲜明对比。
For fabrication and installation, long-time Ashton collaborator Triangle Sign & Service (Baltimore) was brought in to produce one of their specialties: signage for retail environments. “They’re the idea [people], and we’re the ones that bring it to life,”said Triangle Sign account rep Zach Fener, speaking to Triangle’s frequent work with design firms. In this instance, Fener and Ikonomou combined on budget numbers and the execution of possible design concepts. Excluding the painted lettering, Triangle fabricated all of Circle East’s exterior signage – channel letters, blade signs, the large wall-mounted directory sign and the free-standing map directory sign, fulfilling Ashton’s ideals on attracting consumers, directing pedestrians around the site, and creating a neighborhood destination.
为了制作和安装标识，与Circle East长期合作的艾什顿三角标识服务公司(巴尔的摩)被请来进行标识工作。艾什顿三角标识服务公司的销售扎克·费纳（Zach Fener）在谈到艾什顿三角标识服务公司的合作说:“他们的主要任务是想出创意，而我们的任务是把创意变成现实。”在这个例子中，费纳和伊科诺穆结合预算资金和可行性的设计概念。除了喷绘的字母，三角标识服务公司负责制作安装Circle East的所有外部标识，包括发光字、大型壁挂式标识和独立地图导向标识，以达到阿什顿吸引消费者、引导行人游玩社区的目的。
Installation required some ingenuity; the channel letters are stationed on the exterior part of the building that houses a storage facility, so there were storage lockers directly behind where wiring was required. Triangle engineered a solution that wouldn’t require notifying the storage facility if an outage occurred.“We found areas where we could run longer feeds so that the power supplies and could be located where they are easily accessible,”Fener said. Fener, who attended nearby Towson University, said the Circle East project“absolutely”fit a need for Towson’s downtown.“It’s a booming area. There are several colleges around, including Towson,”he said.“There’s a lot of new construction and remodeling going on within the area.”
艾什顿三角标识服务公司用独创性的安装方式安装标识，发光字放置在建筑的外部，那里有一个安装底座，在需要布线的地方后面放置一个储物柜。他们可以在储物柜里面放电源设备。费纳说：“我们可以利用这个区域，在这里我们可以做到更长的供电时间，这样就可以方便地获取电力供应。”费纳就读于附近的陶森大学，他说Circle East项目绝对符合陶森市中心的需求。“这是一个蓬勃发展的地区。附近有几所大学，包括陶森学院。”他说，“该地区正在进行大规模的改造。”
A HAPPY ACCIDENT
一次有趣的“意外”
Avisos Architectural Signage fabricated and installed this monument sign for an Amazon facility in Jefferson, GA.
阿维索斯建筑标识制作公司为乔治亚州杰斐逊的亚马逊工厂制作并安装了这座纪念碑标识。
When most people vacation in Miami, work is the furthest thing from their minds. Too much Cuban food to eat, beaches to visit, clubs to enjoy. Humberto Perez visited Miami – and accidentally found a job. After graduating from architecture school in Colombia, Perez travelled north to see his brother in Miami. A client of Perez’s brother was starting a new company in the tradeshow industry and needed some renderings completed. “He wanted to talk to me, but I didn’t speak English at all back in the day,” Perez recalled. “Two days later, I showed up with my drawings. He hired me on the spot.”
当大多数人在迈阿密度假时，工作是他们最不想做的事。数不尽的古巴食物，望不到边的海滩，太多的俱乐部。亨贝托·佩雷斯（Humberto Perez）去迈阿密游玩的时候，意外地找到了一份工作。从哥伦比亚建筑学院毕业后，佩雷斯就前往北部迈阿密看望他的兄弟。佩雷斯兄弟的一个客户在贸易展行业创办了一家新公司，需要完成一些效果图。佩雷斯回忆说:“他想和我说话，但我当时根本不会说英语。两天后，我拿出了我画的效果图给他看，他当场雇用了我。”
Even when he was a full-time architect in Atlanta, Perez didn’t shed his tradeshow past; he purchased a 24-in.-wide Roland plotter and started making vinyl signs in his basement as a side gig. “When I was in the tradeshow business and I started printing and cutting, I was fascinated by it,” Perez remembered. “I said, One day, I’ll do this on my own.’”After the recession cost him his job as an architect in 2009, Perez rented an office space, ordered a 54-in. Roland VersaCAMM and founded Avisos Digital Graphics & Signage. Over time, Avisos relocated to Smyrna, GA, rebranded as Avisos Architectural Signage , and expanded its production capabilities, completing more ADA, monument and, yes, architectural signage projects.
即使当佩雷斯在亚特兰大做全职建筑师时，他也没有放弃自己过去的生意，他买了一个24英寸的制作标识的机器。开始在自己的地下室制作乙烯基标识，作为一项兼职。佩雷斯回忆说:“当我从一开始打算作为兼职进行这项生意时，我就开始学习印刷和切割，说实话我被它深深的迷住了。我下定决心总有一天，我会自己成立公司。”2009年，经济衰退让佩雷斯失去了建筑师的工作，于是他租了一间办公室，大概54英寸(约合28平方米)。罗兰·韦尔萨（Roland Versa）创立了阿维索斯数字标识公司。随着时间的推移，阿维索斯搬迁至乔治亚州士麦那市，更名为阿维索斯建筑标识制作公司，并扩大了生产规模，完成了更多的ADA、纪念碑标识以及建筑标识项目。
A 14 x 9-ft. tall monument sign that provides clear wayfinding outside of Amazon’s 850,000-sq.-ft. facility in Jefferson, GA, reflects Avisos’ refocused direction. Before each project, Avisos holds a staff meeting to determine the best way forward for a particular sign project. In this case, the priorities were to make the sign light enough to be handled with relative ease during fabrication in Avisos’s warehouse and so the sign could be installed in no more than four hours. Perez completed the fabrication specifications, routed the aluminum tubes, plates and sheets on Avisos’s AXYZ CNC machine, and then passed the sign on to his co-workers for assembly and attachment. For this job, Avisos also used a Miller Millermatic 252 welder, a custom orange ORACAL translucent vinyl and Matthews Paint.
一个14 x 9英尺高的纪念碑标识，是为亚马逊定制的850,000平方英尺以外依然能够看清的导向标识。乔治亚州杰斐逊市的工厂帮助阿维索斯重新调整了方向。在每个项目之前，阿维索斯建筑标识制作公司都会召开一次员工会议，以确定标识项目的最佳安装计划。在一般的项目中，优先考虑的是标识的重量，只有标识足够轻，才能在制造过程中相对容易地处理，因此标识的安装时间也可以控制在四个小时之内。佩雷斯确定好标识的制造规格，在阿维索斯的AXYZ数控机床上对铝管、板材和薄板进行了加工，然后将标识传递给他的同事进行组装和安装。在这项工作中，阿维索斯还使用了米勒米252焊机，定制的橙色ORACAL半透明乙烯基和马修斯油漆。
Perez prefers to stay involved at every step of the process, and he assumed an even larger role for this particular job because Avisos was breaking in a new production manager. “We look like ants in the warehouse – everyone knows what to do,” Perez said. “I tell them never have a doubt – ask me if you have a question.” Avisos’s client list includes Georgia Tech and Gensler, an architecture firm that hired Avisos to do a sign project for Salesforce’s new Atlanta office. “My company has been growing organically since I bought the plotter,” Perez said. “My dream was always to be an architectural sign company. The last two years, that’s the path the company has been taking.”
佩雷斯更喜欢参与过程的每一步，他承担了这个特殊工作的更大的角色，因为阿维索斯正在招聘一个新的生产经理。“我们就像仓库里的蚂蚁——每个人都知道该怎么做。”佩雷斯说，“我告诉他们永远不要犹豫，有问题就问我。”阿维索斯的客户包括佐治亚理工学院(Georgia Tech)和根斯勒建筑公司（Gensler），后者聘请阿维索斯为Salesforce在亚特兰大的新办公室做一个标识项目。“自从我买了绘图仪以来，我的公司业绩一直在增长，”佩雷斯说。 “我的梦想始终是成为一家专业的建筑标识公司。过去两年，这是公司一直走的道路。”
LOCAL FLAVOR
“历史定格”标识
Architectural Sign Designs produced ADA signage for a construction contractor in Tulsa that features snippets of the city’s history.
建筑标识设计公司（Architectural Sign Designs）为塔尔萨的一家建筑承包商制作了ADA标识，要求标识要展示这座城市的历史照片。
Architectural Sign Designs (ASD; Owasso, OK) President Ryan Neurohr has a similar backstory to Humberto Perez; he started with one career path and then diverted to another. Looking for a change from the insurance business, Neurohr bought ASD five years ago without any experience in the sign industry. “I wanted to get into manufacturing. I loved the [sign] business when I learned about it,” Neurohr said. “It’s like any other business; it’s all about relationships and taking care of your customers.”
建筑标识设计公司的总裁瑞恩·内尼尔与亨贝托·佩雷斯有着相似的背景故事，他也是后来转行开始做标识。内尼尔在五年前收购了建筑标识设计公司，当时内尼尔还没有任何标识行业的经验。内尼尔说：“我想进入制造业，因为我喜欢标识制作。”
ASD was founded not long after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; thus, its longtime focus has been custom ADA signage. The majority of ASD’s business is wholesale, but the company retains local customers in nearby Tulsa, where a unique project recently transpired.
建筑标识设计公司成立于1990年，正好是美国残疾人法案通过后不久。它的长期关注点是定制的ADA标识。该公司的大部分业务都是批发业务，但它保留了附近塔尔萨的当地客户，因为最近在那里有一个独特的标识服务项目。
Ross Group, a large, local construction contractor, was renovating an older building for office purposes, and decided it wanted office signs that displayed historical Tulsa landmarks. ASD matted the subsurface landmark images on glass for the front of the signs, and instead of inserting a blank backer on the rear side of the sign/glass to hide the double stick tape, they pitched inserting short bios of the landmarks. Ross approved, with one request being the addition of the Ross logo in the background of the text, which can be read from the interior of the rooms.
当地一家大型建筑承包商罗斯集团（Ross Group）正在翻新旧建筑用于办公，并决定要在办公室标识上展示历史悠久的塔尔萨地标图片。建筑标识设计公司选择在标识的正面玻璃上放置了地标图像，而不是在标识玻璃的背面插入背景画。因为这样可以达到标识两面都可以使用的效果，一面放置城市历史定格图像，另一面放置罗斯公司的LOGO。
ASD used a Universal Laser Systems PLS4.75 laser system to cut the P95 frosted acrylic (to give the front layer of the sign a flame-polished edge) and the tactile copy. A Vision 2550 router was used to drill holes for the braille and braille spheres on the front of the signs. A Rowmark Smooth Silver back plate provided extra depth to cap off the signage with a special local significance. To be sure, not all signmaking moonshots will wow the customer, but these three projects emphasize the upshot of risk-taking – a happy and impressed client who is likely to come back again and again.
建筑标识设计公司使用通用的PLS4.75激光系统切割P95磨砂丙烯酸(给标识的前一层的边缘进行火焰抛光)。最后使用了Vision 2550切割机在标识前面为盲文和盲文球钻孔，这样标识就已经完成制作。无论是建筑标识设计公司，还是阿维索斯建筑标识制作公司，他们的每一步都走的十分艰辛，但是最后的结果是振奋人心的，他们在标识行业有了一定的客户与经验，所有人都向着美好未来奋力直追。
