LED lightboxes, face-lit and halo-lit lettering and under-awning signs. Designed, fabricated and installed by one team, so the sign that switches on looks like the drawing you approved.
An illuminated sign is signage with the light built in: an LED lightbox with a printed or acrylic face, or fabricated letters lit through the face or glowing from behind. It is the difference between a business that exists during trading hours and one the street knows about at 9pm — and modern LED systems run for years on cents a night.
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.
Illuminated work is fabrication, not printing. A lightbox is a cabinet: frame, LED modules, driver, and a face that spreads the light evenly instead of showing hot spots. Fabricated letters are built individually, wired, and mounted to the fascia. It is the most involved signage a shopfront buys, which is exactly why it pays to have the people who build it also measure the site and install it.
That is how we run these jobs: one team from the site measure through fabrication at Ravenhall to the night it first switches on. We also service and re-skin existing lightboxes — if your cabinet is sound, a new face and an LED upgrade costs a fraction of a new sign, and we will tell you honestly which situation you are in.
Most jobs land on one of five builds, and the right one depends on the building, the brand and how far away it needs to read.
A slim cabinet with even LED illumination behind a printed translucent face or pushed-through acrylic graphics. The workhorse of retail strips: bright, legible, and the face can be re-skinned when branding changes without touching the cabinet.
Individually built letters with translucent acrylic faces that glow. Maximum night-time legibility and the standard for retail fascias that need to be read from across a road or a car park.
Solid-faced letters that throw light backwards onto the wall, floating each letterform in a ring of glow. The premium, architectural look — offices, hospitality, foyers — and the usual answer where a heritage streetscape frowns on bright faces.
Double-sided lightboxes hung beneath the awning at ninety degrees to the shopfront, working the footpath rather than the road. Often the most cost-effective illuminated sign a strip-shop can buy, because pedestrians see it from a hundred metres in both directions.
Fabricated brand marks combining lit and unlit elements — a halo-lit logo beside face-lit lettering, or a lit icon on an unlit panel. Where a brand has a strong mark, this is what makes the building own it. The unlit versions live on our 3D signs page.
New printed faces for existing cabinets, and LED conversions for boxes still running fluorescent tubes. If the bones are good, this is the cheapest path to a sharp shopfront — and we will say so rather than quote you a new sign.
Distance is the discipline: work out where your customers actually see the sign from, and buy the build that reads from there. A beautifully lit sign nobody is positioned to see is money spent on the wrong wall.
Planning permits. Internal illumination is one of the things that most often triggers a permit requirement under Victoria’s Clause 52.05, even in commercial areas where an unlit sign of the same size would be fine. Zoning, overlays, size and brightness all play in, and heritage areas are stricter again. That is general information rather than advice for your site: confirm with your council early, because approval time — not fabrication — is usually what sets the timeline on illuminated jobs. There is more detail on our signage permits explainer.
Power. Illuminated signage is fixed electrical equipment, so the mains connection is carried out by a licensed electrician. The LEDs themselves run low-voltage from a driver; where a circuit already exists near the sign location the electrical scope is small. Tell us what power is available at the fascia when you enquire and we will plan around it — and put the sign on a timer or daylight sensor so it works nights, not noon.
A face-lit letter glows through a translucent acrylic face, so the letterform itself reads bright — the classic retail look that carries a long way at night. A halo-lit letter has a solid face and throws its light backwards onto the wall, so the letter appears to float in a ring of glow.
Halo looks premium and suits offices, hospitality and heritage streetscapes; face-lit wins for sheer distance visibility. There are hybrids that do both.
Often, yes. Under Victoria’s Clause 52.05, internally illuminated signage commonly triggers a permit requirement even in commercial areas where a non-illuminated business sign of the same size would not. The rules vary with the zoning, overlays and the sign’s size and brightness.
That is general information, not advice for your site — confirm with your council before committing, and we will flag the obvious permit questions when we quote.
LED modules used in signage are typically rated around 50,000 hours — well over a decade of normal trading-hours use — and they fail gradually by dimming rather than going out overnight.
The practical lifespan question is usually the power supply rather than the LEDs, and a failed driver is a straightforward swap. Signs are built so modules and drivers can be serviced without replacing the whole sign.
Usually, yes, and it is much cheaper than a new sign. If the box and its wiring are sound, we produce a new printed face or translucent film skin to your current branding and fit it to the existing cabinet. It is worth a photo and a measure before you assume the whole sign needs replacing.
If the cabinet is corroded or the lighting is tired fluorescent, we will tell you, and upgrading the internals to LED at the same time is common.
Illuminated signage is fixed electrical equipment, so the mains connection is done by a licensed electrician. Low-voltage LED systems run from a driver, and where a suitable circuit already exists at the sign location the electrical work is minor.
Flag the power situation early — the location of the nearest circuit affects both the install plan and the price.
Not any more. LED signage draws a fraction of what the old fluorescent and neon equivalents used, and a typical shopfront sign runs for cents per night.
Put it on a timer or daylight sensor so it works the hours that matter and sleeps through the ones that do not.
Built-up and flat-cut dimensional lettering without illumination — and the base most lit letters are built on.
See the detail →The whole shopfront treated as one job: fascia, windows, under-awning and the approvals that go with them.
See the detail →Laser cut acrylic panels and letters — the material behind most illuminated faces, in its unlit form.
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 a photo of the shopfront and the look you are after. We will come back with options and a price inside two business hours.