Some of the most compelling work we do doesn’t fit the category of signage at all. We’ve served as fabrication partners for artists, cultural institutions, and public art programs — building works that require technical precision, creative problem-solving, and the ability to execute someone else’s vision exactly as they imagined it.
The Role We Play
When an artist or institution brings us a concept, our job is to disappear into it. We’re not here to leave our mark on the work — we’re here to solve the fabrication problems that stand between a drawing or model and a finished piece that performs exactly as conceived. The projects below represent some of the range of what that looks like in practice.
Public Art Fund / Whitney Biennial — Central Park, 2004
In collaboration with the Public Art Fund and the Whitney Museum of American Art, we served as fabrication partner for a series of installations presented as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Two of those installations were among the most technically and logistically demanding public art projects we’ve undertaken. For artist assume vivid astro focus — the alias of Eli Sudbrack — we produced and installed a monumental floor graphic at the Central Park Skate Circle: thousands of square feet of vibrantly illustrated vinyl, printed at photographic fidelity and installed across outdoor pavement that needed to withstand foot traffic, rollerblade wheels, and the full unpredictability of a New York spring. The result transformed a stretch of city pavement into an immersive, joyful environment that drew crowds every weekend it was installed.
Our Starry Night — James Yamada, Central Park
The second Public Art Fund installation was a different kind of challenge entirely. Artist James Yamada conceived Our Starry Night as a twelve-foot-tall interactive sculpture that functioned as a passageway into Central Park — a monumental form that would illuminate in response to each visitor who walked through it, at all hours of the day and night. We fabricated the structure from powder-coated aluminum, punctuated with 1,900 individually addressable colored LED lights that brought the interactive concept to life. The organic, multi-lobed silhouette of the sculpture required precise metalwork to achieve the flowing form Yamada envisioned. The finished piece was exactly what the artist conceived: a living, responsive presence in the park that changed with every person who encountered it.
Craig Redman & Karl Maier — Sephora Union Square, New York City
When artists Craig Redman and Karl Maier were commissioned to create an installation for the Sephora store at Union Square, they came to us to bring the concept to life. We managed every aspect of the project from the ground up: surveying the location, engineering the installation, producing color renderings and material samples for approval, and fabricating and installing the finished work. The centerpiece was a large circular backlit panel mounted to the ceiling — a bold graphic portrait rendered in high-contrast stripes, with vivid color accents breaking through the composition. Surrounding it, diagonal stripe vinyl wrapped the ceiling in a field that extended the visual language of the piece into the full space. The result was an installation that stopped shoppers in their tracks — exactly as intended.
Spencer Finch Lightbox — Law Firm, Washington DC Metro Area
Artist Spencer Finch works at the intersection of perception, light, and memory — and his commissioned works are characterized by a precision and quiet intensity that places enormous demands on fabrication. For a law firm in the Washington DC metropolitan area, we fabricated a large-scale custom lightbox to Finch’s specification: a long, horizontal backlit panel displaying a composition of vertical color bands in varying widths, mounted flush to the wall of the firm’s lobby. The even, carefully calibrated illumination across the face of the piece was critical to the work’s effect — and achieving it required the kind of technical attention to detail that Finch’s practice demands. The finished installation brought a quality of contemplative, luminous presence to a corporate environment in a way that only art can.
Hear What Our Clients Have To Say
Great signage starts with a great partnership. These are just a few of the clients who’ve trusted us to get it right.
Cedar
MoMa
Other Case Studies
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Graham Windham
Featuring a different national park in each conference space, the new flexible offices at Cedar expand on the modern work environment.
Shutterstock
Featuring a different national park in each conference space, the new flexible offices at Cedar expand on the modern work environment.
The Guggenheim Museum / Philippe Parreno
Featuring a different national park in each conference space, the new flexible offices at Cedar expand on the modern work environment.