Flat-cut and built-up letters and logos in acrylic, PVC and metal finishes, for reception walls, shopfronts and fascias. Cut and fabricated at our Ravenhall workshop, mounted straight by our own installers.
A 3D sign is lettering or a logo with physical depth — cut from solid sheet or fabricated as dimensional letters — mounted proud of the wall so it casts a shadow and reads as an object, not a print. It is the difference between a wall with a logo on it and a wall that belongs to the brand. Flat-cut suits most receptions and shopfronts; built-up delivers scale on fascias.
Made by Melbourne Trade Signs, a large-format print and signage company on Unit 6/43 Orbis Drive, Ravenhall VIC 3023, in Melbourne’s west. Made in-house and installed Australia-wide. Phone 0415 743 691.
Depth is doing real work in this product. A flat printed panel relies on colour contrast alone; a dimensional letter picks up light and shadow, so it stays legible and expensive-looking across a much wider range of lighting — which is why it is the default for office receptions and the better class of shopfront. It also photographs well, and in an era where your reception wall appears in every hiring post and client selfie, that is not a small thing.
We cut and fabricate 3D lettering at Ravenhall and install it with our own crews, template in hand, letters level, spacing as designed. If the plan may include lighting one day, say so at the start — a letter designed for illumination is an upgrade path, one designed without it is a rebuild. The lit versions live on our illuminated signs page.
Two constructions, a handful of materials, and most of the decision is where the sign lives and how big it has to read.
Letters and logos cut from solid acrylic sheet, 3 to 19 mm thick, in gloss colours, clear, frosted and mirror finishes with clean polished edges. The reception-wall standard, and the best value dimensional signage going.
Expanded PVC cut to shape — light, economical, and it takes paint well for exact brand colours. The budget-friendly pick for interior walls and sheltered positions where its lightness is an asset.
Fabricated three-dimensional letter shells with real depth, for building fascias and statement walls where flat-cut disappears. This is the construction that takes internal LEDs when a lit sign is the end goal.
Brushed, polished and anodised-style finishes for the letters that need to read as metal — professional suites, hospitality, premium retail — without the weight and cost of solid machined metal.
Dimensional lettering mounted to a printed, painted or timber-look panel, delivered as one finished assembly. The answer when the wall itself is the problem — glass, rough masonry, or a rental you cannot drill.
Flat-cut wordmark plus a built-up icon, acrylic on a printed backdrop, letters over a wall graphic. Most memorable receptions are a combination, and we will spec the mix to the budget.
The install is where dimensional jobs are won or lost. Letter spacing and baseline are set from a printed template, not by eye, and levels get checked before anything is committed. That is a large part of why we install what we make.
The single most-ordered dimensional job: the company logo behind the front desk. Flat-cut acrylic on studs covers most of them, with a printed or timber-look backing panel when the existing wall is not worth showing. If the fitout includes frosted glazing film and wall graphics, it is all one order and one install visit.
Unlit dimensional lettering on the fascia reads sharper than any printed panel, and under decent ambient light it holds its own at night for a fraction of the cost of an illuminated build. When the strip is dark after five, that is when the conversation moves to illuminated signs.
Bar backs, feature walls, menu headers and the Instagram wall. Mirror and coloured acrylics do a lot of work here, and mixed builds — dimensional logo over printed mural — give a fitout its centrepiece without joinery money.
Reception and fascia lettering templated per site and rolled out with the rest of the brand kit. One spec, every office matching — the same discipline as our national rollouts, applied to dimensional signage.
Fine detail is the one artwork constraint worth knowing about: very thin strokes and delicate serifs have a minimum practical size in cut materials. If your logo has hairline elements we will tell you the size it needs to be, or suggest the panel-mounted version that preserves it.
Flat-cut jobs move quickly — cutting is fast once artwork is approved. Built-up letters are fabricated by hand and take longer. Tell us the fitout or opening date and we will schedule production and install back from it.
Flat-cut letters are cut from a solid sheet — acrylic, PVC or composite — so their depth is the sheet thickness, typically 3 to 19 millimetres. Built-up letters are fabricated as three-dimensional shells with a face and returns, giving depths of 30 millimetres and more and the big, solid presence you see on building fascias.
Flat-cut costs less and suits most interior and shopfront jobs; built-up is the step up for scale, and it is what gets lit when illumination is added.
The everyday materials are acrylic — gloss colours, clear, frosted and mirror finishes — and expanded PVC, which is light, economical and takes paint well. Composites and metal-faced builds cover brushed and polished metallic looks.
The honest guidance: indoors almost anything works and the choice is aesthetic; outdoors the material and fixings need to handle sun and weather, which is part of what we spec when we quote.
Most commonly on concealed studs: pins fixed to the back of each letter, set into drilled holes using a positioning template, so the sign appears to float with no visible fixings.
Standoffs suit panel-mounted logos, and rails or a backing panel are used where the wall itself cannot be drilled cleanly — glazed walls, sheet cladding or rough masonry. Installation with a template is the difference between a crisp logo and a wonky one, which is why our own crews do it.
Sometimes, but say so up front if you think you will want it. A flat-cut acrylic letter cannot practically be lit after the fact — the lit version is a different fabrication.
A built-up letter can be designed with lighting in mind, so the LED stage becomes an upgrade rather than a rebuild. If night-time presence is on the roadmap, look at our illuminated signs and we will design for it from the start.
Yes, when the material and fixings are specified for it. Acrylic and properly finished builds handle Melbourne weather well; the failure points on cheap outdoor lettering are UV-faded faces and corroded or undersized fixings, not the letterform.
Painted PVC is best kept to sheltered or interior positions. Durability figures are typical, not guaranteed — orientation and sun exposure decide the pace.
Size, letter count, material and the wall it is going onto. A one-word logo in flat-cut acrylic on plasterboard is a modest job.
Price rises with fabricated depth, metallic finishes, complex artwork with fine detail that must be cut and handled without snapping, and walls that need rails or panels. Send the logo and a photo of the wall and we will quote the actual job within two business hours.
The lit version: lightboxes, face-lit and halo-lit lettering for shopfronts that need to work after dark.
See the detail →Laser cut acrylic panels, printed or reverse-printed, on standoffs — the flat cousin of dimensional lettering.
See the detail →The whole interior package: reception logo, frosting, wall graphics and room signs in one job.
See the detail →Browse the full list on our A–Z of everything we print, or see how this fits into signage in Melbourne.
Send the logo and a photo of the wall. We will proof it in place and price it inside two business hours.