Mus­co Light­ing: A Best-in-Class Exam­ple of Cor­po­rate Sig­nage Systems

When Mus­co Light­ing expand­ed its cor­po­rate head­quar­ters with a new addi­tion and major ren­o­va­tion, they need­ed a sig­nage part­ner capa­ble of bal­anc­ing high-vol­ume inte­ri­or func­tion­al­i­ty with com­plex exte­ri­or engi­neer­ing. Jacyln Tay­lor, CEO of Tay­lor REP, engaged Lat­i­tude Sig­nage + Design as the design-build part­ner to bridge the gap between archi­tec­tur­al vision and oper­a­tional reality.

The Ask: Per­son­al­iz­ing Func­tion­al Signage

The Mus­co team want­ed to cel­e­brate employ­ee longevi­ty by inte­grat­ing mag­net­ic anniver­sary medal­lions into office and work­sta­tion signs. The medal­lions have been a long-stand­ing tra­di­tion in Mus­co Lighting’s com­pa­ny cul­ture, sig­ni­fy­ing mile­stone employ­ee anniversaries.

With hun­dreds of cubi­cles involved, five sign con­cepts were pre­sent­ed to the team, and ideas were refined and revised until we reached an approved final design. That design includ­ed a mag­net­ic area for 1.5”-diameter, 0.25”-deep medal­lions to be dis­played and eas­i­ly swapped with­out dam­ag­ing the sign face, as employ­ees cel­e­brat­ed their years of service.

Next, a cus­tom seam­less hang­er was fab­ri­cat­ed to work with Musco’s work­sta­tion signs. That process start­ed with phys­i­cal pro­to­typ­ing tests to ensure the sys­tem worked pri­or to pro­duc­ing hun­dreds of sign hang­ers. It was designed to be hooked into the fab­ric, allow­ing the top cap of the cubi­cle sys­tem to be detached and replaced, so that the work­sta­tion signs are a har­mo­nious part of the out­er cubi­cle wall. In the end, hun­dreds of sign hang­ers and employ­ee name inserts were fab­ri­cat­ed, print­ed, and installed.

Using the cus­tom anniver­sary name­plates as inspi­ra­tion, our pro­duc­tion design­ers began craft­ing an entire sig­nage fam­i­ly. This includ­ed ADA-com­pli­ant room iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and wayfind­ing. The design of these signs includ­ed dimen­sion­al­ly print­ed wood grain that matched the building’s wood lam­i­nate and nat­ur­al wood fin­ish­es through­out. This design helped inte­grate the sig­nage into the archi­tec­tur­al environment.

The Chal­lenge: Extreme Coor­di­na­tion on Exte­ri­or Signage

An archi­tect-designed illu­mi­nat­ed exte­ri­or mon­u­ment sign fea­tures two types of illu­mi­na­tion: face-lit yel­low for the cir­cu­lar brand ele­ments and halo-lit let­ters that glow against the raw con­crete texture.

The unique, cast-in-place con­crete exte­ri­or mon­u­ment required per­fect coor­di­na­tion before a sin­gle drop of con­crete was poured. The architect’s designs were turned into pro­duc­tion-ready plans with con­duit runs and radius­es. It was cru­cial that every elec­tri­cal pen­e­tra­tion for the illu­mi­na­tion was iden­ti­fied and placed with sur­gi­cal pre­ci­sion pri­or to the pour. This ensured that when the con­crete cured, the Mus­co brand emerged exact­ly as intend­ed — per­ma­nent and powered.

The halo-lit let­ters were espe­cial­ly chal­leng­ing, as each let­ter required an indi­vid­ual pow­er feed. Close col­lab­o­ra­tion among pro­duc­tion, installers, and elec­tri­cal experts led to a suc­cess­ful cast-in-place pour.

The Take­away

Ear­ly involve­ment in the plan­ning stages of a new build­ing or ren­o­va­tion allows us to help clients nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of archi­tec­tur­al sig­nage and high-vol­ume inte­ri­or logis­tics around work­sta­tion signs, ADA/​fire code, and room iden­ti­fi­ca­tion needs. It also gives us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ele­vate seem­ing­ly sim­ple inte­ri­or sig­nage with cohe­sive designs that with­stand the test of the time.

Have ques­tions about this project? Reach out to us at connect@​latitudesignage.​com.

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