Free-standing red 3D LED letters on the terrace of CTR’s factory, Nagar Road, Pune

The brief

Most sign boards have something behind them: an ACP board, a wall, a fascia. CTR’s factory on Nagar Road had none of that to offer, only the low parapet at the edge of a terrace full of solar panels, where CTR’s older sign stood. CTR wanted its initials up there, readable from the busy Nagar Road below, and wanted the letters to look as if they simply stood there.

What we made

We made the three letters and the dots as 3D boxes in glossy red acrylic: red faces and red sides, about 2.5 in deep, closed with an ACP back. LED modules inside each letter light it up after dark.

Behind the letters we built a black steel frame: uprights bolted to the parapet and a rail along the top of it, with each letter fixed to the frame from the back. Seen from the road, the frame sits in the letters’ shadow, so the letters seem to stand on their own. Only from the side, standing on the terrace, do you see the steel.

The cables run along the frame to each letter, and the LED power supply sits in a housing cabinet on the terrace, out of the rain.

We took down the older sign and set it aside on the terrace, then fabricated the letters and the frame, transported them to the factory, carried them up and installed them: one team, from the workshop to the switch-on. The job was billed at ₹48,800 + GST for 28 sq ft, about ₹1,750 per sq ft, with the frame, transport and installation included.

On this page: the photos are real job photos, light and colour corrected; in the side view, roadside hoardings are blurred.