Digital Output Magazine
January 2005

For the last three years, The Store Decor Co., of Rowlett, TX, has completed design work for approximately 20 of 63 Lowe’s Market locations in Texas and New Mexico.

When The Store Decor Co. was asked to update the look of an acquired Lowe’s Family Center (a combined full-line supermarket and Lowe’s ACE Hardware Store totaling 52,000 square feet) in West Odessa, TX, its production department employees began developing a new time-and-materials-saving fabrication method for creating cutout letters with a trim-cap look out of Gatorfoam and Gatorplast graphic display boards by Alcan Composites USA.

That design included everything from departmental wall and hanging signs as well as aisle markers—all created from Gatorfoam and featuring a colorful Western theme of bucking broncos and oil rigs, as well as the Lone Star State’s flag prominently incorporated.

An 8-foot by 20-foot lettered meat department wall-mounted sign features a cow, pig, and chicken surrounding a semi-circle image of the Texas state flag. (These images were direct-printed on multiple layers of .1875-inch, .5-inch and 1-inch thick Gatorfoam with a Vutek Pressvu UV 180/600 digital printer and then cut out with a CNC router.) Similarly fabricated, the large lettered produce department wall-mounted sign features the same Texas state flag image surrounded by overflowing baskets of fruits and vegetables. A large lettered beer wall-mounted sign positioned above a refrigerated storage case features the flag image flanked by a filled beer mug and open can on one side and a filled beer glass and bottle on the other.

Hanging departmental signs, such as the one created to designate the deli meat aisle, repeat the Lone Star theme. A single brown star, decorated with an oil rig gushing rich Texas oil, features a Texas map image printed with the state flag’s colors. A green ribbon lettered with "Fresh Deli" designates the aisle. The hanging signs also were direct-printed on 1-inch thick Gatorfoam and cut out with a CNC router.

The Store Decor Co. turned to Gatorfoam and Gatorplast to create large cutout trim-cap-look letters with the message "Thank You for Shopping Lowe’s" for wall-mounting above the store’s cash register checkout area. The "Thank You for Shopping Lowe’s" letters were specified to be 2-feet tall and cover 64 feet on the wall.

In order to simplify this process, two Store Decor production department employees – Bradley Hall and James Copeland – developed a new fabrication process to create cutout letters with a trim-cap look without applying the trim cap. The BJ Cap Letter process – named after its creators – involved scooping the foam center out of 1-inch thick Gatorfoam (painted blue), routing shapes and indentions with a CNC router, and applying a .5-inch acrylic media in red. The letters’ top layer was created from .1875-inch white Gatorplast direct-printed with a Vutek digital image to achieve a dimensional look.