3D Letters and Cut Out Lettering

Individual letters mounted to a wall look considerably more expensive than they cost, which is a large part of why they turn up on so many good looking shopfronts, reception walls and building entries.

There is no panel behind them and no border around them. The letters sit on the surface and cast a shadow, and the eye reads that as quality straight away. We cut and install them in acrylic, aluminium, stainless steel and timber right across the Sunshine Coast.

Materials

Acrylic. The most common choice and the most flexible. Available in a huge colour range, or clear and painted to your exact brand colour. Cuts cleanly, holds a crisp edge, and works in thicknesses from three millimetres up to fifty. Best value of the lot.

Aluminium and aluminium composite. Lighter than steel and it will not rust. Powder coated or two pack sprayed to any Colorbond or PMS colour. Good for larger letters where weight matters.

Stainless steel. Brushed or polished, usually 316 grade for coastal work. Expensive and worth it in the right setting. It is the finish you see on law firms, medical suites and high end retail.

Timber. Marine ply, hardwood or reclaimed timber, routed and sealed. Suits hospitality, wellness and anything that wants to feel warm rather than corporate. Needs to be under cover or it will weather.

How they mount

The mounting method changes the look more than most people expect.

Flat mounted. Letters sit directly against the wall, glued and pinned. Clean and low profile.

Pin fixed and spaced off. Letters stand ten to twenty five millimetres off the wall on stainless standoffs. The gap creates a shadow line and lifts the whole thing. This is the one we recommend most often.

Halo lit. Letters spaced off the wall with LEDs behind them, so a glow spills onto the wall around each letter. Looks superb at night. Worth doing if the wall behind is a decent colour and reasonably flat.

Face lit fabricated letters. Built up letters with an acrylic face and returns, lit from inside so the face itself glows. This is the classic illuminated shopfront letter. More detail on the illuminated signs page.

Fonts, sizes and getting the proportions right

You can have letters cut in almost any typeface, but some fonts do not survive the transition to physical objects. Very fine strokes get fragile in acrylic, tight counters fill up with shadow, and scripts with thin connecting strokes are a problem in anything under fifty millimetres thick.

We will tell you if your font is going to be a problem and suggest a fix, usually a weight change or a slight adjustment to the letterforms that nobody will notice but which makes the sign far more robust.

On sizing, the rule of thumb is roughly twenty five millimetres of letter height for every ten metres of viewing distance for comfortable reading. For a shopfront read from across a car park, that generally puts you somewhere between two hundred and four hundred millimetres.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between cut out lettering and 3D letters?

In practice they overlap. Cut out lettering generally means letters routed from a flat sheet, anywhere from three to twenty five millimetres thick. 3D or fabricated letters are built up with a face and returns, usually thirty millimetres deep or more, and can be illuminated from within. Thicker letters read better from a distance and hold up better outdoors.

Can you match my brand colour exactly?

Yes. We spray to PMS, Dulux or Colorbond references. If all you have is a printed sample or a business card, bring it in and we will match to it.

How are they installed on a rendered or brick wall?

Letters are pin fixed into the substrate with stainless studs set in chemical anchor, with a drilling template so the spacing and level are right. On rendered walls we take care with the anchor depth so we are fixing into the block behind, not just the render.