Hon­or­ing Red Oak Iowa Grand The­atre His­to­ry with Clas­sic Mar­quee Signage

With a clas­sic nod to the past, but designed for today’s movie­go­ers. Orig­i­nal­ly opened in 1935, the mar­quee for his­toric Red Oak Grand The­atre exte­ri­or sig­nage was unveiled in Octo­ber 2019. A flip of the switch and the mar­quee light­ing brought the charm of this com­mu­ni­ty the­atre to life.

The­atre board mem­ber, Jean­ice Lester, expressed just how impor­tant light­ing the new sign is to the com­mu­ni­ty, the val­ue of the rela­tion­ship with our sig­nage team and how mov­ing the project for­ward is anoth­er step toward a great future for Red Oak.

“Our com­mit­ment to hav­ing a new mar­quee was of utmost impor­tance to the board. I feel like I have a new extend­ed fam­i­ly with the employ­ees who under­stood what we were all about and strived to make the mar­quee possible.”

The Red Oak Grand The­atre, at 410 East Cool­baugh Street in Red Oak, Iowa, is a 501c (3) orga­ni­za­tion, sole­ly dona­tion-based and vol­un­teer-oper­at­ed. Among the best movie-going val­ue in Iowa, tick­ets are only $2 for fea­ture films that play on Fri­day, Sat­ur­day, and Sunday.

The his­toric the­atre reopened in Sep­tem­ber 2010 with a mis­sion to cre­ate afford­able, fam­i­ly-friend­ly enter­tain­ment. With the help of a sig­nage part­ner, they were able to bring the his­to­ry of the small town, south­west Iowa the­atre to life and cre­ate a one-of-a-kind expe­ri­ence for the mem­bers of their community.

Key Fac­tors in Design­ing Sig­nage for the Red Oak Grand Theatre

Sig­nage Instal­la­tion: The Canopy Challenge

Var­i­ous fac­tors impact sig­nage; weath­er, weight, dura­bil­i­ty are just some of the con­sid­er­a­tions our team encoun­ters. Some­times a sign project has to adjust to the envi­ron­ment. In this case, the theatre’s exist­ing canopy need­ed to be addressed before the sig­nage could be installed. 

Since the weight of snow is a real­i­ty in Iowa, an engi­neer was hired to design a new canopy that would allow the mar­quee to be struc­tural­ly sound on the canopy. 

The­atre board mem­ber, Jean­ice Lester, said, ​“As our plans were mov­ing along steadi­ly with the new mar­quee, the the­ater board dis­cov­ered from a sec­ond struc­tur­al engi­neer that our cur­rent awning would not be suf­fi­cient to hold our beau­ti­ful new mar­quee and snow loads. Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design took us under their wings and guid­ed us to a com­ple­tion date in Octo­ber 2019.”

While the new canopy was not part of the orig­i­nal cost pro­jec­tions, sales rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Erin Carey, sug­gest­ed some cost-sav­ing solu­tions that reduced the num­ber of signs and placed it in the most promi­nent view for the town square loca­tion. This new idea reduced costs, sav­ing the board and the sig­nage project thou­sands of dollars. 

The Col­lab­o­ra­tion Beyond the Sign

Great solu­tions come from great rela­tion­ships. Our team prides itself on being a part­ner and con­sul­tant on all projects. This con­nec­tion through­out the process which ensures a more seam­less deliv­ery and com­mu­ni­ca­tion throughout.

“I devel­oped a great rela­tion­ship with Jean­ice. The rela­tion­ships built are my favorite part of every project,” said Carey. 

Carey was instru­men­tal in pro­vid­ing a direct line of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It was con­stant and can­did, which the board mem­bers seemed to appre­ci­ate. ​“We are part­ners, I want­ed to ensure they got the most they could for their bud­get,” Carey said. 

It nev­er ceas­es to amaze Carey just how impor­tant every detail is in a sig­nage project, espe­cial­ly when it comes to a non­prof­it board. Erin expressed, ​“being thought­ful with donor mon­ey is my top pri­or­i­ty.” It couldn’t be done with­out a team, and there were near­ly 10 peo­ple involved in this par­tic­u­lar project, which is more than most. Erin said she had just a ​“small part,” but was involved through­out the entire process. It is impor­tant for her to respond quick­ly and pro­vide qual­i­ty answers to the client. 

Light Up the Marquee

The right part­ners make a project suc­cess­ful. Trust, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and bring­ing the solu­tions that meet the out­comes to the project are essential. 

“Bot­tom line… I am pret­ty sure we could not have com­plet­ed it with­out the help of our friends at Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design,” Lester said.” “ I had the priv­i­lege with anoth­er board mem­ber (Car­ol) to vis­it their loca­tion in Grin­nell, Iowa and we were impressed with the facil­i­ties and employ­ees. If need­ed in the future, they would be tops on our list.” 

“It felt good to do some­thing for a small com­mu­ni­ty,” Carey said. ​“The rela­tion­ship devel­oped and a goal to sup­port the client was what made this project a suc­cess. Any time you do that, it goes a long way towards future projects and estab­lish­ing your­self as a trust­ed sig­nage partner.”

Have ques­tions? Need advice? Want to learn more?

Reach out anytime!

Learn more about Erin Carey, or reach out with ques­tions direct­ly. Click here for Erin.

Learn more about The­atre Sig­nage by click­ing here.