Royal Borough of Kingston
Car Park Signage

The Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) visited Spanlite‘s stand at the Energy Solutions show in the Spring of 2013, to discuss the possibility of replacing their ageing car park signage at a number of sites in Kingston town centre, south-west London.

The existing illuminated signage across the car parks incorprated light-boxes using fluorescent  tubes. Many of these weren’t working, and the signs were in a generally poor state of repair, making for costly maintenance and a poor customer experience.

COLLABORATION

Taking advantage of Spanlite’s technical and creative services, RBK invited Spanlite to produce samples using their LS-Frame-1 LED lightbox solution. This incorporates super-slim LED edge-lighting technology that back-lights a 3-5mm graphic panel. At 30mm deep, with even brightness across the whole panel and a rugged outdoor-rated construction, the LS-Frame-1 provided the ideal replacement for older fluorescent-tube lightboxes.

Working closely with RBK brand and estates management, Spanlite’s full service studio designed a signage format that worked in all public areas, and across other RBK media if so required in the future. The main signage requirements included general information signs, plus emergency and wayfinding signs throughout three sites in central Kingston.

The Spanlite studio liaised directly with RBK to ensure all artworks were correct and signed-off prior to print.

SOLUTIONS

Close liason between Spanlite and Smith & Byford, RBK’s selected contractor, was also important for a smooth install programme. Spanlite provided clear instructions for the installation of electrical enclosures, emergency battery packs and mounting fixtures.

The signs themselves also needed to be easily viewable when not backlit, if for whatever reason there was no power. Making use of the latest printing techniques, Spanlite now offers ‘day/night’ image production. This means that unlike traditional backlit media (duratrans) which appears dull and dark when not backlit,  Spanlite’s graphics stay bright and colour-accurate whether backlit or not. This is especially useful for signage or graphics display projects where energy consumption for illumination during the day is not desirable.

RESULTS

The result is a bright and evenly lit, sturdy signage solution, using the minimum of depth and the minimum of energy. Customer experience has been significantly improved across all car park sites. The reliability of Spanlite’s LED systems means that there is no regular maintenance required, and in the event of a change to the signage information, the graphics panel can be easily replaced.

TEAM

Client: Royal Borough of Kingston
Main Contractor: Smith & Byford
Edge-lit Signage: Spanlite