High School Sports: A Legacy of Champions Sign at Van Meter High School
Recognizing the legacy of teams, from all sports, that have achieved the greatest high school athletics success was the goal of this project. Van Meter Community Schools have a rich history and hope to have a fruitful future for their sporting teams. This signage project, a records board, honors those great teams. Learn more here.
Van Meter Schools Celebrate State Champions with New Record Board Sign
“Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame…”
Luckily for Van Meter Schools, they seem to win — A LOT! In fact, this growing Iowa community, located just 20 miles from West Des Moines, has had so much success in high school athletics that the Van Meter Booster Club decided they needed an illuminated monument sign outside the high school to celebrate all the state championship teams.
“Originally, they came to us wanting a tall sign with one panel for each state title. But that would have made the structure extremely tall and wouldn’t have left much room for future championships,” says Tony Squire, Business Development Manager for Latitude Latimer Group. “It’s a great problem to have, but we worked out a design that would be more affordable and easier to update in the future.”
School Sign Elements
The top of the sign has dynamic dimensional graphics with the school’s VM logo and routed letters with translucent acrylic that is illuminated with LEDs. It reads “Go Dawgs” vertically on the narrow side that faces the road.
“We designed the sign to have one panel for each sport, and then we listed the years of the state titles below in vinyl,” Squire says. “This makes it easy to update over time without the risk of running out of space in a few years.”
Monument Sign Approval Process
Record board signs are a collaborative effort. In Van Meter, the booster club was sponsoring the sign project, but the designs and maintenance plan had to be approved by the administration since it would be installed on school property and connected to the school’s electrical system.
Similar to donor wall signage, record board signs also require a lot of fact-checking and working to ensure that historical information is accurate before the sign is produced.
“Projects like this are a labor of love. There is an enormous sense of community pride when people see a school sign installed. We want to make sure we knock it out of the park for them.”
- Tony Squire, Central Iowa Sign Expert
Flexible Signage Design
School record board signs are all about celebrating the students’ achievements. “You can always find a way to make it all fit,” Squire says. “There’s no reason to cut out a part of history. The design should include all their state titles. We can rethink the space and the design to include everyone — including future champions.”
And it’s a good thing Van Meter made a plan for the future. After the sign was installed this summer, the Van Metter boys baseball team won the 2A State Championship. Guess it’s time for Tony to order “2020” to add to the Boys Baseball panel. Go Dawgs!
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