Brushed metal is a great way to add a touch of class and modernity to the look of your storefront. Because it looks so sturdy and solid, many people unconciously assume that signs with metal elements are more "professional" than those without them. This makes it a great material for signs for hospitals, law offices, high-end retail stores, marketing firms, and any other company trying to promote the idea that they are serious, high-end, and professional. 

A lot of people like to use the brushed metal panel as a backer for acrylic letters and graphics.

Brushed metal panels are created by "brushing" the surface of a metal sheet with a gritted material, much like sandpaper. The material is stroked across the surface to create a textured "brushed" look—very similar to a wood grain. You can order a sign to be made out of solid metal, but we generally use a composite panel like Aluminum Composite (ACP) because it has the brushed metal look for a greatly reduced price. ACP does contain actual brushed aluminum, but it's a very thin layer. The ACP is made up kind of like an ice cream sandwich: the brushed metal is the chocolate cookie part and a substrate (like foamboard, PVC, or acrylic) is the vanilla ice cream. This makes the sign a lot lighter and easier to route than full metal aluminum panels would be. 

See the grain on this brushed aluminum letter? It's important that the other letters used for this signage have the same grain.

One challenge of making any sign with a brushed metal finish is that you have to cut as much of your sign as you possibly can from the same panel so that the "grain" of the finish looks uniform. Many people like the look of brushed metal letters, so when we make those we have to cut all the letters from the same panel coming from the same direction. You don't want half to have a vertical grain and the other half to have a horizontal grain! 

These letters and logo for Centric turned out great! Wouldn't you be tempted to trust this company based on the professionalism of their typefont and sign alone? 

Although the most popular style for brushed metal signs is silver, you can also do some really cool things with copper or gold colored brushed metal, like some of the signs we've made for clients in the past. If you're a new company starting out that wants to be taken seriously, we would definitely suggest getting metal signage for outside your office or in your lobby. What do you think? Is brushed metal the most professional looking type of signage, in your opinion?