Signmaking and dimensional lettering
Sign making artwork built for CNC and laser fabrication, not for screen.
Shopfronts, wayfinding, dimensional letters and logo panels — drawn to real-world dimensions with mounting allowances and fabrication notes included.
Why sign artwork needs different drawing
A logo supplied by a brand agency is drawn to look right on a screen and a business card. It is rarely drawn to be cut from 12mm acrylic and hung on a wall. Strokes are too fine to survive as physical parts, counters inside letters have no way of staying attached, and nothing in the file says how any of it mounts.
Fabrication artwork answers those questions on the drawing: every part dimensioned at real size, stud positions and spacing marked, and material and thickness specified for each layer of the build.
Who commissions this
- Sign shops needing artwork prepared for the machine
- Businesses fitting out a shopfront or interior
- Brands converting a logo into dimensional letters
- Anyone needing wayfinding drawn as a consistent set
What you receive
- Layered fabrication artwork, one layer per material
- Real-world dimensions on every part
- Mounting method, stud positions and spacing
- Material and thickness recommendation per layer
- Letter spacing corrected for physical viewing distance
- Cut files in the formats your fabricator needs
Example work
Designs from the catalogue, built the same way.
How it runs
From brief to a file that cuts.
- 01
Site and brief
The space, the viewing distance, the mounting surface and the finished size. Photographs of the location help more than anything else.
- 02
Artwork
Logo and lettering redrawn at real dimensions, with strokes thickened where they would not survive as physical parts.
- 03
Fabrication detail
Layers split by material, mounting marked, and spacing set for how the sign will actually be read rather than how it looks on a monitor.
- 04
Delivery
Cut files plus a fabrication sheet your sign shop can build from without coming back with questions.
The practical detail
Specification
- Formats
- SVG, DXF, CDR, AI, EPS, PDF
- Materials
- Acrylic, PVC, aluminium composite, wood, MDF
- Covers
- Shopfronts, interiors, wayfinding, dimensional letters
- Turnaround
- Five to ten days depending on the set size
- Licence
- Commercial use included
Questions people ask first
Before you commission
- Do you fabricate and install the signs?
- No — I draw the artwork your fabricator builds from. That keeps you free to use whichever sign shop you prefer, and the drawing is prepared so they can quote from it directly.
- Can you work from a logo supplied as a PNG?
- Yes. It will be redrawn as clean vector geometry at real dimensions, which is necessary anyway — an image has no dimensions a machine can use.
- Do you specify how the sign mounts?
- Mounting method, stud positions and spacing are marked on the artwork, with material and thickness specified per layer. That is usually what a fabricator asks for first.
- Which materials can the sign artwork be prepared for?
- Acrylic, PVC, aluminium composite, wood and MDF. Each layer of the build is specified with its material and thickness, so the fabricator can quote and cut without guessing.
- How long does sign artwork take?
- Five to ten days, depending on the size of the set. A single logo panel is quicker than a full wayfinding family.
- Do you work with sign shops outside Canada?
- Yes. The artwork is delivered as files, so it works with any fabricator anywhere. I work from Toronto with clients worldwide.
Also available
CNC & 3D product design
Concept to toolpath-ready 3D models for CNC routing and engraving, with photoreal KeyShot renders you can put straight onto your own product listings.
Read more →Laser cut file design
You describe the product; I design a layered SVG and DXF file that assembles exactly as rendered — kerf-compensated for your material and test-cut on a real laser before it reaches you.
Read more →Commissions are open
Tell me what you want to make.
Send the material, the dimensions and the machine. You get a quote and a timeline within one business day.
Start a commission