LED Edge Lit Signs,Acrylic Edge Lit Signs,3d Edge Lit Signage

With the growing accessibility of light emitting diodes, more commonly known as “LEDs,” sign shops have more options when designing markers. This has led to the increasing popularity of illuminated lobby signs. Two of the most popular styles are edge-lit and back-lit lobby signs, while what are differences between those two design?

Back lit letters

Essentially, a back-lit sign is any marker that is illuminated from behind. Back-lit signs offer an excellent way to stand out, have your message seen, and increase readability.

To avoid hot spots, where the lighting is concentrated and thus messy looking, it is important to only use high performance translucent vinyl and sign grade acrylics for back-lit graphics. The lightbox is housed behind the graphics with the LEDs spaced according to the manufacturer’s specifications for an even illumination.

There is another type of back-lit graphic that does not involve the light shining through the graphics. Take a moment to look at the job we did for Kajabi. In this instance, we used brushed aluminum letters for the sign, and these were standoff mounted to a patina panel. The light source comes from behind the letters creating a nice halo effect that is as cutting edge as the business the lobby sign was designed for.

Edge lit letters

The most basic definition for edge-lit markers is that they are illuminated signs where the light source comes from the outside of the sign face along one or more of the edges. The light is then shined back onto the sign face. The LEDs shine into a diffuser, which allows the light to be dispersed evenly across the image.

As with the back-lit lobby sign, you need to have graphics and a light source. The most common graphics are letters and images laser cut into clear acrylic. The illumination comes from LED strips or tape, which consist of evenly distributed and diffused LED modules. Getting the combination of lights, mounting methods, and acrylic just right takes a skilled professional.

We used LED lights that matched the company colors, so that the logo we laser cut into the acrylic would match their other marketing materials. As the name would suggest, back-lit signs are lit from the back, but the light from edge-lit signs come from the edges.