Her­itage, Com­mu­ni­ty, and Inspi­ra­tion Come to Life through the New Arie Crown Hebrew Day School Signage

Sign Design Challenges

Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design col­lab­o­rat­ed to cre­ate a full Design-Build sig­nage pro­gram. This includ­ed plan­ning, design, man­u­fac­tur­ing, and instal­la­tion of donor and his­to­ry dis­plays, wall graph­ics, ADA room signs, and spe­cial­ty pieces. The cre­ative vision aimed to infuse the school’s envi­ron­ment with vibrant and inspir­ing ele­ments, mak­ing it a place where stu­dents feel a sense of belong­ing and inspiration.

The design phase faced sev­er­al chal­lenges, includ­ing an elec­tri­cal fire at the new site. The fire shut down the build­ing and all con­struc­tion for more than six months. Dur­ing that time, the Lat­i­tude team and Arie Crown stake­hold­ers began the plan­ning phase, which includ­ed iden­ti­fy­ing sig­nage loca­tions and cre­at­ing mes­sag­ing sched­ules from plans. From there, design began with coor­di­nat­ing the col­ors they would use to col­or code the school based on class­room or grade level. 

Sev­en col­ors were cho­sen to coor­di­nate with the architect’s vision and the fur­nish­ings select­ed by the inte­ri­or design­er. While it may sound easy, that process includ­ed sev­er­al rounds of pro­to­types and sam­ples as the team decid­ed where and how each col­or would be used. 

Bilin­gual Signs: Cus­tomiza­tion Is Key

A unique aspect of this project turned into a fas­ci­nat­ing learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty for the Lat­i­tude team. In keep­ing with Arie Crown’s her­itage, all room iden­ti­fi­ca­tion signs need­ed to fea­ture both Eng­lish and Hebrew text. The Hebrew lan­guage car­ries deep cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cance and plays a vital role in pre­serv­ing Jew­ish tra­di­tion, so get­ting the text right was imperative. 

Lat­i­tude nev­er shies away from a cus­tom project, so the team got a deep-dive on the lan­guage, which is writ­ten right to left, has no cap­i­tal let­ters, and incor­po­rates intri­cate sym­bols. Arie Crown’s team pro­vid­ed invalu­able guid­ance and exper­tise, proof­read­ing and explain­ing cor­rec­tions every step of the way.

Donor Wall: Hon­or­ing Donors and Community

The school’s new facil­i­ty was made pos­si­ble in large part by donor con­tri­bu­tions. In fact, donors were heav­i­ly involved with the design and con­struc­tion process, help­ing to review plans and pro­vide their feed­back through­out the project. The Arie Crown com­mit­tee stressed the impor­tance of pay­ing trib­ute to their donors’ gen­eros­i­ty to help build a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and shared achievement. 

What start­ed as a 6‑foot-tall x 18-foot-wide donor wall in the entry­way evolved into 20 dif­fer­ent donor signs that can be found through­out the Arie Crown cam­pus. The sign types mark the cat­e­go­ry and lev­el of dona­tion. Many patrons donat­ed funds for class­rooms, entrances, and play­grounds. Gen­er­al donors are hon­ored in the main donor recog­ni­tion dis­play, which can be expand­ed as needed.

Oth­er dis­plays include an Arie Crown his­to­ry wall, a 3‑foot by 8‑foot ​“Thank you” to pre­vi­ous homes of the school in the com­mu­ni­ty, and an alum­ni dis­play wall. The school is a mean­ing­ful insti­tu­tion for many fam­i­lies in the Chica­go area, and as they relo­cat­ed, they want­ed to pre­serve the his­to­ry and tra­di­tions intact. 

Build­ing a His­to­ry Wall

The his­to­ry wall tells the sto­ry of Arie Crown from the 1940’s to present. The school’s long his­to­ry required close col­lab­o­ra­tion with sub­ject mat­ter experts. Mate­ri­als were sub­mit­ted, then orga­nized and designed into a high­ly visu­al dis­play that spans two walls. The entire piece was over 35 feet long, about six feet high, and turned the cor­ner beautifully.

Because the dis­play walls are in high-traf­fic areas, durable mate­ri­als and mount­ing meth­ods were cho­sen so that the ele­ments will with­stand gen­er­a­tions of kids touch­ing or lean­ing on them.
Mate­ri­als included: 

• 3M white con­trol-tac wall graphics
• Flat-cut clear acrylic let­ters and numbers
• VHB mount­ing tape

The Grand Reveal

The project cul­mi­nat­ed in March 2025 when Arie Crown host­ed their first event in the new facil­i­ty for donors and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers. The exte­ri­or sig­nage that wel­comed them includ­ed alu­minum let­ter­ing on the build­ing that align with the clean exte­ri­or façade. In addi­tion, mon­u­ment signs keep the nat­ur­al feel with faux-corten and white for the large main mon­u­ment and the corner/​address mon­u­ment sign. The donor-spe­cif­ic mon­u­ment sig­nage, how­ev­er, com­ple­ment­ed well with the inte­ri­or donor sig­nage col­ors.
While many con­struc­tion projects had been delayed due to the fire and oth­er unfore­seen chal­lenges, all sig­nage ele­ments were in place and ready to be viewed. The event show­cased the space’s trans­for­ma­tion from a lack­lus­ter office build­ing to fun and inspir­ing school. 

This project would not have been pos­si­ble with­out the close col­lab­o­ra­tion with Arie Crown’s team, which treat­ed Lat­i­tude like true part­ners. Work­ing togeth­er and stay­ing pos­i­tive through every chal­lenge allowed every­one to deliv­er the best work possible. 

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