A good outdoor sign can do a lot more than just announce your business. It can help customers navigate, showcase special events and promotions, and provide the finishing touch to your building that elevates it to art. We’ve designed, fabricated, and installed a lot of signs since 1992, so choosing just a few favorites wasn’t easy!
A Few of Our Favorite Outdoor Projects
We’ve selected some of our best outdoor business signs to show you just how versatile a sign can be. This is just the tip of the creative iceberg, as you can see in our gallery. We hope this will kickstart your imagination when it’s time for your next outdoor sign.
Cambria Hotel
Housed in one of downtown Houston’s most iconic skyscrapers, the Great Southwest Building, the Cambria Hotel is a fantastic blend of Art Deco architecture and modern sophistication. Guests feel as though they’ve stepped into the roaring 20s yet somehow brought the convenience of technology with them.
The Cambria’s outdoor sign had to fit the hotel’s Prohibition-era aesthetic while also grabbing the attention of drivers and pedestrians in Houston’s bustling downtown area. As you can see from the picture, the classic design wouldn’t be out of place in classic film noir. The lighting is designed to cut through the darkness without being an eyesore. The overall effect is of an elegant establishment, somehow lost in time.
Gallery Furniture
We can hardly talk about the best outdoor signs we’ve made without talking about Gallery Furniture! For those of you who don’t know, Gallery Furniture is the largest furniture store in Houston. The iconic I-45 location includes a giant playground, birds, monkeys, and even free lunch and cookies.
The custom pylon sign is part of what makes that location so special, and it serves as a Houston landmark. Owner Jim McIngvale (aka “Mattress Mack”) has been a larger-than-life personality on television and in personal appearances for decades. His sign had to match that energy and exuberance. Check out the photo, and you’ll see a sign (including an LED panel) that could hold its own on the Vegas strip.
Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
Since 1971, HSPVA has been instructing high school students in vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theatre, visual art, and creative writing. The school has had eight students named US Presidential Scholars in the Arts and was famously attended by Beyoncé Knowles.
In recent years, the school has moved to downtown Houston, and we were thrilled to help bring the new campus to life through eye-catching outdoor signs. This picture shows one of our custom creations celebrating the creativity and artistic daring of the students who walk these halls. We like to think that the next Presidential Scholar (or pop star) is passing under our sign each day.
NRG Stadium Roof
NRG Stadium is the home of the Houston Texans, the Houston Rodeo, and plays host to dozens of concerts and events every year. It’s one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. With a stadium floor larger than 97,000 square feet, this is one venue that doesn’t need much help getting noticed.
Unless, of course, you were flying over it at night. National Signs to the rescue.
We helped to design, fabricate, and install this massive LED roof sign pictured here. It’s a stylish way to keep the stadium’s name and logo in view even during the famous blimp shots during your favorite sporting events. It wasn’t easy, though! Because of the unusual installation, the final pieces of the sign actually had to be carried to the roof by hand.
National Signs
There’s a lot of pressure on a sign company when it comes to making one for their own business. We’re proud to say that we’re still as happy with our custom sign as we were the day we installed it.
Check out the picture of our Houston offices with our National Signs title and logo seemingly cutting right through the building. But this isn’t a cautionary tale of destroying a valuable corner office. It’s a demonstration of the kinds of creative solutions we bring to every job. In this case, having the sign appear to intersect the building allowed us to position it at the perfect viewing angle while also incorporating it into our building.
We can’t picture the place without it.
Ready to Join the List?
Hopefully, this list has given you the spark of imagination you need to start planning your new or updated signage. National Signs is ready to help you from design through installation and beyond. We’d love to have your sign on our next list of the best outdoor business signs.
Want more? Check out our gallery!
