It’s a pretty safe bet that at one time or other anyone in the sign business will be asked about channel letters, if not to make them, at least to recommend someplace to get them. Channelⁱ letters are a distinct sign type and have grown in popularity for one simple reason: they are highly visible.
“Businesses looking for signs don’t always know sign industry terms, but they’ve seen channel letters and come in and describe them,” says Paula Diaco, co-owner of Burlington, Vt.-based Sign*A*Rama of Vermont. Those customers and others, who have seen channel letters on the street, in the movies and many other places, believe channel letters are a viable option that will help call attention to their business.
An efficient channel letter fabrication shop is equipped with notchers, benders, brakes, CNC routers, welders and plenty of hand tools. (Courtesy United Wholesale Signs)Thousands of one-of-a-kind channel letters have been hand made on workbenches using a few common fabrication tools and techniques since they became fashionable in the mid-20th Century. When “designer” letters and other shapes are required, the fabrication process becomes more demanding. Most channel letters are also illuminated; and lighting those letters introduces a number of highly skilled production steps. Add to this the time, workspace, certifications and human resources needed—and the production of channel letters takes on a life of its own.
With automated channel letter fabrication equipment by manufacturers including CLN of South Florida (Belle Glade, Fla.), Computerized Cutters (Plano, Texas), or Arete (Denver), it becomes an easy choice for some companies to specialize in making channel letters; and for others the choice may be to outsource the work. Outsourcing the manufacture of channel letters for many sign companies makes good business sense.

Channel letters provide identity for this grocery and are readable both day and night. (Courtesy Best Banner & Sign)MARKETING CHANNEL LETTERS
As Laura Tucker, owner of Rogers, Ark.-based Best Banner & Sign, puts it, “If you only do a few channel letter jobs here and there, it’s not worth getting all set up for manufacturing them. We have manufactured channel letters in the past—and we found that it canⁱ be quite labor intensive. So we stick to what we do, and we’re better off outsourcing the work,” she says.

Diaco says when she and her husband Bob started in business in 1993, it was with the intent to become a full-service sign shop. They invested in production and installation equipment such as CNC routers, digital printers and boom trucks. She says channel letters, which have become a significant part of the business, they purchase wholesale.
The process involves meeting with the clients and learning what their actual needs are, finding out if their zoning allows lighted signs, then working through the logistics of design and production.
On the other hand, Jerry VanHorn, who owns West Liberty, Ohio-based United Wholesale, would rather stick to the wholesale end. VanHorn shifted the focus of his 20-year-old sign company to wholesale work and believes it’s enabled him to expand the reach of the business beyond the small town where he’s located. He appreciates, having done it for many years, the work his sign company clients do with their clients on the front end.

Exposed neon in open faced channel letters. (Courtesy Best Banner & Sign)It’s a dynamic and symbiotic relationship, and it illustrates why some companies do better as wholesalers and others do better working directly with the public. For VanHorn, moving to wholesale eliminates dealing with permits, zoning, indecisive owners, revisions and change orders. For Tucker, it frees up staff for jobs they’re better at doing.
“It’s nice,” VanHorn says. “When they come to me, all of that is done. Once in a while, we make suggestions, but most of the time when they make an order, they know what they want. I like dealing with sign guys; we’re on the same pageⁱ most of the time. We speak the same language.”

DESIGNS AND SPECIFICATIONS
By nature of their business models, wholesalers usually expect a pretty specific protocol to be followed when it comes to dealing with their clients.
“Because we are a wholesale-only company, we are pretty structured as to how we like to have requests for quotes come in,” says Richard Pando, owner of Corona, Calif.-based RNS Channel Letters. Pando believes most sign companies understand UL standards and know how to provide specifications for channel letters.
Sign*A*Rama of Vermont provides shop drawings, handles permits and coordinate installations for channel letter projects. (Courtesy Sign*A*Rama of Vermont)Diaco agrees, adding that “We’ve been open for 16 years, and we know what to specify.”  She says they provide their wholesale fabricators with detailed shop drawings for any channel letter projects they are involved with. They also handle the permits required from the building department and coordinate installation. “We own boom trucks and other equipment,” Diaco adds, “so we also do the installation and we contract with a licensed electrician to hook it up.”

Likewise, Tucker says her staff does everything except build the actual letters and make the final electrical connection. “We can do as much or as little as is needed, from design to pulling permits, going to meetings, installation, maintenance and service.” Tucker says she relies a lot on the expertise of the company that fabricates a lot of their channel letters, Evansville, Ind.-based Husk Signs, regarding what will and what won’t work in a given situation. “I give them a large part of the credit. They are definitely part of our team. We would not be as comfortable without them.”
Pando says the typical channel letter project is straightforward and starts usually with a call or e-mail from a sign company that already has a pretty good idea of what they want including a drawing of the sign, measurements, call-outs of colors and other specs. “We’ll take that information and create an estimate. If they want to proceed, they sign the proposal and send it back. Then we’ll enter it in the databaseⁱ and request full-scale drawings. Then it goes to our engineering department, then production, then the completed project is shipped back to the client.”

An example of channel letters mounted to a raceway. (Courtesy Best Banner & Sign)INSIDE THE BOX
Pando describes his company as being “semi-custom” and capable of not only producing a typical “standard” set of channel letters, but also more complex projects. A “standard” set of letters might include basic five-inch-deep returns, standard pre-painted colors, trim cap and a colored acrylicⁱ face. A more customized set might be something like a project on RNS’s drawing board featuring three tiers of curved raceways with copy between each tier, exposed neon accents, structural vertical pipes and channel letters with exposed neon faces and internal baffles with other lighting in the rear. He says these kinds of projects go beyond what’s usually considered a “standard” channel letter job.

The focus of RNS is “on earning the channel letter business,” says Pando. “If that means providing some of the other elements that go with a set of channel letters, like flatⁱ cut-out letters or push-throughⁱ letters in a backlit cabinet or building a custom raceway, then we can do a complete package as well.” But he says his company would not pursue something like a custom bladeⁱ sign project unless channel letters were also involved “because that’s what we’re best at and how we are structured.”
Pando says the majority of sign companies want a complete turnkey product, which includes letters, installation patterns, wiring diagrams, load calculations, power supplies, insulators, installation instructions and any other components required for a complete code-compliant installation. 
The best part about using a wholesaler for channel letters is that the letters arrive ready to be installed. Everything is wired up, including disconnect switches, whips, photocells if requested, patterns and installation instructions.

VanHorn says he makes a point to find out as much about a project as possible because it eliminates problems and oversights. For example, he’ll collect information about the materials and thickness of the wall so that he can be sure to make the whips long enough to make the connections. “All they need to do is have the power feed connected to the sign once it’s installed,” he says.
Although most are looking for a turnkey product, some sign shops are already UL certified and may only request components. Quite often sign companies make their own channel letter faces. Diaco, for example, says some of the time they fabricate their own faces with acrylic using their laser engraverⁱ or CNC router, but order the rest of the channel letter from wholesalers.
The channel letter market is pretty competitive and it’s easy to “compare apples to apples” because channel letters have to be built to exacting UL standards.
The last thing that a fabricator puts on a channel letter is the UL label, which is done after the product is inspected and meets all quality standards and UL standards. UL’s rules are very specific, and both Pando and VanHorn agree that meeting UL standards is an important part of the sign industry and provides assurance that products are safe.