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High School Rebrand + Ath­let­ic Addi­tion: Sig­nage to Inspire the Future at Mason City High School

School spir­it is impor­tant in this com­mu­ni­ty. Solid­i­fy­ing their new River­hawk brand and an ath­let­ic addi­tion, fund­ed by the com­mu­ni­ty, is what this project is all about. 

This project has helped our school become the benchmark standard for new facilities looking to provide an all-around, first-class experience for all that come through.

Dan Long, Principal at Mason City High School
MCHS MCC Hannel Letter 500

Every stu­dent ath­lete dreams of mak­ing that last-sec­ond shot to secure their team’s des­tiny as state cham­pi­ons and the new­ly rebrand­ed ​“River­hawks” of Mason City have a rich lega­cy of win­ning state cham­pi­onships, dat­ing all the way back to 1918. To hon­or their school’s his­to­ry and to facil­i­tate future suc­cess, the com­mu­ni­ty raised funds to build a new field­house, weight room, and nata­to­ri­um for the high school.

These state-of-the-art train­ing facil­i­ties deserve inno­v­a­tive donor wall sig­nage to rec­og­nize the many com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers ded­i­cat­ed to sup­port­ing Mason City’s lega­cy. We were hon­ored to part­ner with the Mason City High School, Berg­land & Cram archi­tec­tur­al firm, and com­mu­ni­ty fundrais­ing lead­ers to col­lab­o­rate on a design-build approach to cre­ate cus­tom sig­nage solu­tions that take school spir­it to the next level.

MCHS Natatorium Fullwidth

Cus­tom Donor Wall Takes Flight

I think the client was expecting a more traditional approach when it came to donor recognition and they were quite astounded when the concepts were presented. It’s always fun to exceed expectations.

Andrej Steinbergs, Experiential Graphic Designer at Latitude Signage + Design
MCHS Riverhawk Donor Wall 500

One of the most eye-catch­ing signs in this project is the main donor wall. Inspired by the mas­cot, the donor wall looks like a river­hawk in flight. ​“There’s so much move­ment in the design of the donor wall,” says Tony Squire, Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er. ​“Some pan­els look like feath­ers on an out­stretched wing, and the wave pat­tern on the pan­els gives the feel of a flow­ing riv­er. It’s real­ly an awe­some sight.”

Andrej Stein­bergs, Expe­ri­en­tial Graph­ic Design­er at Lat­i­tude, cre­at­ed all of the designs and shares, ​“River­hawks are a majes­tic bird of prey, amaz­ing aeri­al­ists, and capa­ble of reach­ing great speeds. I want­ed to con­vey this speed and the grandeur of the bird in motion so the bird’s wings became a focal point and the can­vas for the place­ment of inspi­ra­tional quotes and donor name hier­ar­chy. The design sug­gest­ed the momen­tum of the bird in flight giv­ing the impres­sion of motion and swift­ness. I think the client was expect­ing a more tra­di­tion­al approach when it came to donor recog­ni­tion and they were quite astound­ed when the con­cepts were pre­sent­ed. It’s always fun to exceed expectations.”

The pan­els of the donor wall are made with MDF cov­ered in Chemet­al lam­i­nate to give it that undu­lat­ing wave design. Donor names are print­ed on the back of clear acrylic and attached to the lam­i­nate. This design solu­tion makes it easy to update the donor wall if there are addi­tion­al donor names to add over time, and it pro­tects the sign from vandalism. 

There are three more donors walls with­in the project, as some donors con­tributed funds direct­ly to the weight room project, the field­house, or the nata­to­ri­um build­ing. In all of these loca­tions, the donor walls are made of MDF with lam­i­nate in alter­nat­ing red and black pan­els. The pan­els were designed at an angle and with feath­er-shaped cutouts that com­ple­ment the move­ment of the main donor wall. On these signs, the names are print­ed direct­ly on the laminate. 

MCHS Donor Walls Wrestling Natatorium Fieldhouse

Illu­mi­nat­ed Chan­nel Let­ters Make a Big Impact

As you walk into the new facil­i­ties, we pro­duced sev­er­al logo and brand­ing sig­nage pieces. The words ​“Mason City High School” are bot­tom mount­ed and vis­i­ble imme­di­ate­ly when walk­ing into the space. The over­sized red fab­ri­cat­ed back­ers have red let­ters that are illu­mi­nat­ed. ​“This treat­ment makes the let­ters stand out in sharp con­trast,” Squire says. ​“And when it’s dark, the red let­ters are illu­mi­nat­ed from behind and cre­ate a real­ly cool silhouette.”

Anoth­er cus­tom exte­ri­or archi­tec­tur­al sign is on the exte­ri­or of the Field­house. It reads ​“River­hawk Ath­let­ics” in large black let­ters with halo illu­mi­na­tion. One of the most inter­est­ing fea­tures of this sign is the inno­v­a­tive instal­la­tion process that made use of the building’s girt sys­tem. The let­ters are attached direct­ly to the sup­port sys­tem inside the build­ing and all of the wiring runs through the girts, hor­i­zon­tal struc­tur­al sup­ports, giv­ing the let­ters a seam­less look inside and out. 

Sig­nage to Inspire the Future

With such mod­ern facil­i­ties for their ath­let­ics, Mason City High School want­ed the sig­nage to also reflect their pride in the school. We knew that we had to deliv­er sig­nage that would cap­ture their school spir­it and inspire stu­dents and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to con­tin­ue Mason City’s his­to­ry of excellence.

“This project has helped our school become the bench­mark stan­dard for new facil­i­ties look­ing to pro­vide an all-around, first-class expe­ri­ence for all that come through,” says Dan Long, Prin­ci­pal at Mason City High School. ​“Their work puts a high mark on the rich his­to­ry and pride for those that have come before us and gen­er­ates a lev­el of excite­ment for those that are cur­rent­ly involved and look­ing to be a part of our future!”

Latitude Signage was great to work with from the very start. They take a personalized approach and work with you every step along the way to ensure your needs are met.

Dan Long, Principal at Mason City High School

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