Church of the City is a family of diverse churches that are working together for the common good and the renewal of the city of Nashville. The vision of the church is to reach out to the growing number of residents in Nashville who do not have a church family. (According to their website, that's 800,000 people!)

As part of their church strategy, Church of the City (COTC) opened two neighborhood churches in Franklin and East Nashville on March 31, 2013 (Easter Sunday). For almost two years, the Franklin location has met at Hunter's Bend Elementary. As the church family expanded, they outgrew the space in the school. In January 2015, they announced that they would be moving into the Centennial High School Performing Arts Center. Just this past Sunday (March 1, 2015), they had their very first service in the new 500-seat auditorium. (Their Twitter account shows that it was pretty much a packed house!) We were fortunate to have fabricated the signage for the new Franklin COTC location.

The new eight foot by seventeen foot mesh banner we fabricated. 
You can't miss it on Sundays!

We really enjoyed this project because we were able to create so many different types of signs to be displayed around the auditorium space - and the KidCity brand is a lot of fun! COTC provided all of the artwork for us so we had very little design time. Prior to printing and fabricating, we just took the artwork and sized it to properly fit the specifics of each type of sign. Here's a little rundown of the different signs we made:

• An outdoor mesh banner
• Tensioned fabric walls
• Hanging signs
• Custom "traffic" signs 
• Banners
• A-frame signs
• Floor graphics

As you can see in the photo above, a large mesh banner hangs on the front of the Centennial Performing Arts Center on Sundays. The edges of this eight foot by seventeen foot banner are reinforced with webbing and grommets for hanging outside. The material and reinforced edges are designed to help the banner survive windy conditions. 

We fabricated five tensioned fabric walls that are self-standing and fit snuggly over tubular aluminum frames. The frames are quite simple to assemble, and the printed fabric slides over the top of the frames and zips at the bottom to create a very finished look. Four of the walls feature the KidCity brand printed on both sides of fabric, with two being five feet wide and two being ten feet wide. These walls are used in the building as displays and to create temporary rooms for the children in the KidCity program. The remaining wall displays the COTC logo on one side of a ten foot wide frame. All of the walls are easy to assemble, compact to store and simple to move around.

These photos show a variety of the new signage for the COTC Franklin location, including the tensioned fabric walls, hanging signs and "traffic" signs. The photo on the left provides a great shot of two of the KidCity walls with a colorful illustration of the Nashville skyline. (You can also see another five foot wall in the background of the photo on the right!)

In the photos above you can see two of the four hanging signs we created for COTC. (We have another three in the works right now, too!) The designs for the signs were digitally printed on matte vinyl material and mounted onto 1/8" thick PVC. A protective matte laminate was installed over the full color graphics. The signs include a header rail and hanging hardware for easy installation on drop ceilings in the building. 

Now for one of my favorite types of signs we created for COTC: the seven custom "traffic" signs! We digitally printed the various designs and mounted them on 1/4" white PVC with a matte polycarbonate laminate. The signs were installed on posts with weighted bases. The signs are used for the various age groups within COTC and also for "stroller parking." (You can see a few of them in the photo to the left.)

We printed two banners for COTC that feature the KidCity brand. (Sadly, we don't have a photo of them, but you can see a glimpse of them at the beginning of the video below.) They were digitally printed on standard 13oz. vinyl and can be seen wrapped around two outdoor columns as you approach the Performing Arts Center on Sundays.

Also visible as you approach the building on Sundays are the eleven A-frame signs we created for the church. These wayfinding displays are double-sided and feature the COTC logo on one side. The second side varies with some featuring directional arrows to the auditorium and others indicating KidCity check-in. Each side has a protective matte laminate to shield the A-frame signs from various weather conditions.  

The final type of signage we created is another fun and creative piece for COTC. (This one may compete as my favorite with the "traffic" signs!) We digitally printed four 24" diameter floor graphics that look like manholes. The graphics enhance the urban feel of KidCity. They are printed on vinyl with a removable adhesive and slip-resistant protective material. COTC thinks of everything! From custom signs to manholes, they make the environment fun and inviting for kids of all ages!

We truly enjoyed watching the pieces of this project come together in our shop. The signs were fun to make and they allowed us to create a variety of different types of signage. Now we just need to wrap a vehicle for them, and we are set!

Check out our Facebook page and YouTube for a video made by Brad, the Family & Children's Pastor at COTC, that shows most of the signage coming together!

If your project is big or small, we can help you out! Contact us today to get started on any and all of your signage needs!