Electric signage has been a part of American culture since  before the 20^th Century. From light bulbs to neon to plastic or acrylic cabinet signs, lit signs have been doing a great job of identifying businesses and attracting customers for over a century (fun fact: the first electric sign was installed in 1881 in London, England utilizing flashing light bulbs to spell the name “Edison”). One of the most popular forms of electrical signage today—and one that you probably see all the time without even realizing it—is channel lettering.

Channel letters are three dimensional, lighted letters made out metal. They start out as hollow metal shapes called "cans." They look kind of like alphabet cookie cutters before they are finished, see?

These are vintage channel letters displayed in the window of an antique store in Franklin, TN. Doesn't that blue F look like the Facebook icon?

We take these metal cans and connect lighting components to the inside. LED and neon lights can be used to light up the letters, and then the open face of the letter is either covered in acrylic or metal.

There's a lot of hardware that goes into these things! Always hire an installer like
12-Point SignWorks who knows what to do with all of the parts and pieces.
You do not want to short out or mess up your wiring!
(Awesome diagram image courtesy of Direct Sign Wholesale.) 

These channel letters can be formed in a few different varieties:

• Standard Channel Letters: These letters have a plastic or acrylic faces that allows light to shine directly out from the letter. You can use colored acrylic to incorporate your brand’s color palette into the lettering, or stick with white letters.

This restaurant contrasted white letters with a bright red background to make the text really pop.

• “Halo” or Reverse Lit Channel Letters: With this type of lettering, the face of the letter is covered in metal so that the light is forced backward instead of shining out. The light escapes from behind and on the sides of the channel letter creating a halo effect.

• Exposed Channel Letters: The lighting component (usually neon) will be visible with these letters because they are only covered with a clear acrylic face instead of an opaque one. It’s important to still cover the face of your letters with clear acrylic even if you want the neon tubing to be visible because it will prevent birds from nesting in your letters. You don’t want to constantly have to evict pigeons and bugs from around delicate neon tubing!

Many sign installers are pushing away from using neon, but it is still possible to do this if you love the way it looks. (Image courtesy of Direct Sign Wholesale.)

• Push-thru Channel Letters: Where the other types of channel lettering can be installed independently of a backer, push-thru lettering actually needs a sign to push through, hence the name. A sign backer (usually metal or plastic) will have the shape of the letters or any graphics routed out of it so it will look like a stencil. Then the letters are pushed through the stenciled-out shapes to fit like snug puzzle pieces.

The push-thru method looks great paired with reverse lit lettering.

Any of these options would be great for attracting customers to your business. The human eye is first attracted to light, motion, and color so having colorful lighted letters as your storefront signage will be very effective at alerting people passing by that YOU ARE HERE. (See what we did there?) Channel lettering is one of the most popular options for brick and mortar storefront signage for large corporations and franchises like Walgreens, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, as well as many others. It's a method that obviously works or it wouldn't be used over and over again by countless business owners!

If you’re interested in getting channel letters put up as your business signage, contact us today to get a free quote. We’d love to help you get more business into your store!