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Media 1 creates some spicy signage for a Cuban-themed, Orlando restaurant.
Dale is president and co-partner at Media 1 Identity Solutions (Longwood, FL).
Cuba Libre opened its third location in Pointe Orlando, an inviting collection of outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment venues across the street from the Orange County (FL) Convention Center, the nation’s busiest such facility.
The restaurant transports its guests to the now-forbidden island through an environment reminiscent of pre-Castro Old Havana. Cuba Libre offers lively music and late-night, Latin-themed floorshows, as well as an extensive selection of Latin cocktails and tantalizing Cuban fare. With an open-air setting, vibrant colors, exotic foliage and servers dressed in guayabera uniforms, the two-story, 20,000-sq.-ft. venue exudes tropical ambiance.
Media 1 Vice President Rick Ream worked with Cuba Libre’s design-development firm, Crown Advisory Group. Because this Pointe Orlando location mimics the signage and environmental-graphics program at the other Cuba Libre locations in Philadelphia and Atlantic City (new locations are also slated for Washington D.C. and Dallas), the design process moved smoothly.
After the typical back-and-forth design decisionmaking with the client and Pointe Orlando management, Media 1 created full shop drawings and stamped engineering schematics and submitted them to the City of Orlando for permit approval.
As typically happens when awaiting landlord and permit approvals, the construction of the restaurant had progressed far by the time we began sign fabrication. Cuba Libre’s grand opening loomed only 10 days away, so Media 1 faced the challenge of constructing and installing this $20,000 sign in nine days! No other signmaker has ever been forced to work with such a quick turnaround time, right (ha ha)?
Building time
Given this tight time schedule, Media 1’s lead fabricator, Stephen Pass, assumed coordinating the sign’s fabrication. Working with our shop drawings, we developed full-size files in Corel Corp. CorelDraw! 10 and imported them to our 5 x 10-ft. MultiCam Inc. 3000 CNC router table. Using 0.125-in.-thick, 5052 aluminum, we built the approximately 6 x 15-ft., two-sided sign cabinet.
After the routing work, we moved the aluminum sheets over to the welding department. We cut the interior framework from 2-in.-thick aluminum angle and attached directly to the back sign panel with 3M Industrial Adhesives & Tapes Div. DP 810 epoxy and spot welds.
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