Trav-Ad Signs is grateful for the opportunity to work on this very important project for the City of Madison, Alabama, which allowed us to demonstrate the skills of many of our talented teams, including staff from our design, CAD, fabrication, painting, graphics and installation departments.

Under the guidance of Joel McWhorter, President & Creative Director for the McComm Group, and with the important support and cooperation from Ms. Mary Beth Broeren from the City of Madison, and Ms. Sandi and Ms. Charlene from Trav-Ad Signs, 30 different signs were designed, produced, and installed throughout the historical City of Madison over a 6-month period.

One major hurdle the team had to overcome was determining how to place some of the wayfinding signs in locations where, because of strategically placed utilities, we were not allowed to dig. Thanks to the cooperation from the City of Madison, alternative locations were approved.

The construction of the wayfinding signs required the use of heavy gauge sheets of aluminum to be routed to a unique shape, and then, in most cases, the welding together of two sides. Once this was completed the signs were readied for paint (special color), and the application of vinyl. The signs were then affixed to ornate poles that had decorative caps. Each sign took multiple hours to produce and install. 

We are so appreciative that professionals from the City of Madison, and the McComm Group, were willing to make multiple visits to the Trav-Ad Signs facility in Huntsville, Alabama to triple check colors, fonts, and sign configurations, ensuring everything was exactly as intended.

Because of the addition of these beautiful and functional new wayfinding signs throughout the historical downtown district, it is now so much easier for visitors and residents to quickly locate various points of interest the City of Madison knows they would like to explore.

NSH NEXTCO invited Trav-Ad Signs to design, produce, install, and maintain the majority of exterior signage at the new Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium, including:

• Channel signs on the raceway, with each channel letter formed by hand
• Push-through acrylic cabinets that had to be precisely cut on an overhead router
• Outdoor Signs and letters wired with LED's in place
• Multiple outdoor building sign locations that required vinyl signage applications to be applied during rainy season

Challenges were many, including a head-spinning turnaround time. The installation team also had to deal with height and location challenges for some of the exterior building signs; an abnormally long distance from power for some of the digital signs that required retro fitting; incorporating old fashioned ingenuity to work around the fact that no heavy equipment was allowed to enter the field during installation time; and the importance of a strict adherence to OSHA rules. With respect to the application of vinyl signs, the project occurred during the Huntsville, AL rainy season, so conditions were constantly changing, and applying vinyl, which is tricky even when the weather is perfect, is an altogether different task when wet, and dry, and wet, and dry, etc. Just about every night that the Trav-ad team was set-up to apply vinyl wall signs it would pour down rain, so swamp fans had to be used to keep the walls completely dry. Ken, the project manager, did a great job keeping all the moving parts together. Communication was the real key to success, as there was no time for errors, or for do-overs.

When it was all said and done, a significant amount of man, and woman, hours went into making sure the stadium would open on time. And every aspect of the Trav-Ad played a key role – design/graphics (who worked many late nights to ensure everything came together), fabrication, project management, and installation. The combination of experience, talent, hard work, sacrifice, and the rolling up of sleeves, by everyone, made it all happen. Sure it was challenging. And, in the end, it was also very, very rewarding, with the raucous sharing of many compliments, and many congratulations.