Using Custom Signage for Branding
By Frances Putman

With a sanctuary seating 10,000 people and three weekend services filling those seats, Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, is a large and quickly growing congregation. So, when the church decided to add a coffee shop within its walls, it wasn’t a quaint and cozy little space it had in mind, but rather a large, spacious facility with seating for 200. It would be a place where its staff, which numbers more than 300, as well as members, might hold meetings, meet friends, or invite newcomers for a quick cup of coffee before or after a service or small group encounter. The coffee shop was named Café 920 for the church’s street address.
    
By the time Jeff Maggard was hired to manage the new coffee shop, construction was well under way. For months, architects and designers had been working on creating the perfect stylish and contemporary space. With a background in cafe management, Maggard knew the importance of menu boards for branding an establishment and publicizing daily specials. But when he began to ask about the boards, he discovered none had been ordered. With only weeks to go until the shop was to open, this posed quite a dilemma.
 
“I thought we might have to do something very simple or maybe something temporary, unless we could find someone who would come in and really kick it and make it happen,” said Maggard. 
  
He interviewed several firms before choosing Edd and Amy Johannemann, owners of Sign-a-Rama of East Louisville, www.signarama.com.
  
“Edd came in and looked at the space. There’s a serpentine counter, and he wanted to mirror that in the sign design,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like the one they created. It’s functional and fits in perfectly. You would never guess it wasn’t part of the original design.”
   
But, he pointed out, while architects had months to work on the rest of the facility, the Johannemanns created the sign in only a few weeks.

“We came in during the construction stage, so we were able to see the plans,” noted Edd Johannemann. “They had a logo already designed but weren’t sure exactly how the sign should look.”
 
The challenge was to design and create an attractive and functional, one-of-a-kind, 30-foot menu board for this area and deliver it in a very limited time, so it would be in place for the coffee shop’s grand opening.
  
“From the first time we went out and looked at the space until the time the sign needed to be done was three weeks,” Edd Johannemann said.
  
After the first meeting, they came up with an initial concept, which the church liked.  From there, discussions took place over a week or so, working out all the particulars of the design, incorporating just what the church wanted.
    
That included several specifics—something dimensional, with brushed aluminum and a chalkboard so that menu items could be changed from day to day. Originally, the idea was to have a sign against the wall, but that didn’t seem to work in such a large space.  Instead, it was determined that the best option was a sign that suspends from the ceiling, so it is easily readable to all who come in. Parts of the sign also are double-sided, since serving lines come from two directions.
  
“The counter has a nice curve, so it seemed the menu board needed to echo that,” said Edd Johannemann. While a curved sign would be attractive, it presented a bit of a challenge, especially with the chalkboards, which were an important element in the sign’s concept. The solution was to use flexible vinyl panels, which are designed to be written on with chalk. Coffee shop staff can remove the panels, lay them flat, write daily specials in liquid chalk, and then insert them into the menu board.
  
Moving very quickly, the sign was manufactured to meet the church’s specifications and installed just in time for the grand opening. Since the sign was created in a series of pieces, made to fit together at installation, Edd Johannemann was a little nervous about getting the sign into place.
  
“Normally, we try to do a ‘dry fit’ on a sign like this. We put it all together ahead of time to make sure it works,” he noted. “In this case, there just wasn’t time.”
  
The pieces were all delivered to the church and fitted into place there for the first time.  Thanks to careful calculations and planning, everything came together, just as it should.
  
“Everyone we’ve talked with at the church has been pleased,” Amy Johannemann said.  “We feel good about the way it turned out.”
  
Edd Johannemann believes there are several steps necessary for a successful sign design project. First of all, designers should be committed to working closely with clients to create a sign that fits the space, as well as the style and quality that a church has in mind.  That’s why churches should choose a designer they can trust and then be very honest about their needs.
  
“Most of all, be open to ideas,” said Edd Johannemann, adding that churches also should be upfront about the budget. “It helps us to understand what a church is willing to invest.”