3D Letters
Depth and presence for your shopfront or interior wall, made to your exact design in Ipswich.
Recent 3D Letters Work
Where built-up letters earn their keep
Built-up letters are the difference between a shopfront that reads as a business and one that reads as a unit with a name on it. Because each letter stands proud of the wall, it catches side light and throws a shadow, so the name is legible from an angle and from across the road — not only head-on.
They suit retail frontages, restaurant and salon exteriors, and reception walls where a flat printed panel would look like a poster. If your building is listed or sits in a conservation area, individually fixed letters are often the form a planning officer will accept when a full illuminated fascia will not.
Often paired with fascia signs and illuminated signs.
Materials, manufacture and fitting
Acrylic, foam and metal letters, face-lit, halo-lit or plain, cut on our own CNC machinery in Ipswich. Working the material ourselves is what lets us hold a tight radius on a curved letterform and keep the return depth consistent across a whole word.
Acrylic gives clean colour and takes illumination well. Foam is light, which matters on a frontage that cannot carry weight, and takes a painted or laminated face. Metal — brushed or polished stainless, or aluminium — is the choice where the finish itself is part of the brand.
Face-lit letters glow through the front. Halo-lit letters are opaque at the face and throw light back onto the wall, which reads as more restrained at night. Plain letters carry no electrics at all, which keeps the installation simpler and removes the need for a supply at the sign.
What to decide before you ask for a quote
Four things move the price and the look more than anything else. First, the height of the letters and the length of the word — a long name in small letters can read worse than a short one done large. Second, whether they are illuminated, and if so face-lit or halo-lit. Third, the material and finish. Fourth, what the letters are fixing into: brick, render, timber, cladding and glass all behave differently.
Bring us the artwork you already have, even if it is only a logo on a business card. We prepare a drawing for your approval before anything is cut, so what you sign off is what gets made.
Survey, making and installation
We measure on site rather than working from a photograph, because the wall decides what is possible — the fixing surface, the available height, and where a supply can reach if the letters are lit.
Manufacture happens in our own workshop in Ipswich, five minutes from the Waterfront. We install across Suffolk, East Anglia and London. Quotations are free.
Common questions
- Can you make 3D letters from my existing logo?
- Yes. Send whatever you have — vector artwork is ideal, but we regularly work from a logo on a card or a photograph of an old sign. We prepare a drawing for your approval before anything is cut.
- What is the difference between face-lit and halo-lit letters?
- Face-lit letters glow through the front face, so the letter itself is bright. Halo-lit letters keep an opaque face and throw light backwards onto the wall, leaving a glow around the letterform. Halo-lit tends to read as the more restrained of the two after dark.
- Do 3D letters need planning permission?
- It depends on the building, the size of the letters and whether they are illuminated. We can advise where consent is likely to be needed so you are not caught out after manufacture.
- Are metal letters worth it over acrylic?
- They are when the finish is doing the work — a brushed stainless letter reads as a different class of frontage. Acrylic is the better choice where colour matching matters or where the letters are illuminated through the face.
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Need a quote for 3d letters?
Free quotations: 01473 688111