28 September 2008

Building School Pride

"When I look at this sign with its gilded letters and hand-sculpted shield, I feel a great sense of pride in our school.” - Paul Alliston, Principal, Inverell HS

Quality Education is something that happens inside your classrooms. But how will parents, prospective parents and the community know? Your school sign makes that first, all-important statement about who you are. Some schools are satisfied with a generic sign, but a growing number want to differentiate themselves. Getting a custom Danthonia sign can boost enrolment and strengthen your reputation: a marketing tool that will last for years.

What Do I Want for My School?

Dimensional Crests. In today’s fast paced society a strong logo or image can be recognised and understood more quickly and effectively than a string of text. We’ve revived the old art of hand-sculpting crests, shields and logos to help you better communicate the quality and values of your school.

Custom Designs. Rather than offering generic catalogue items, Danthonia creates individual designs that complement your school’s architecture and express something of your unique vision and heritage.

A Message of Excellence. Without using words, the authenticity of a handcrafted sign speaks well for the integrity of the school it is representing. The care that goes into such a sign reflects the caring attitude of your school.

Durable Materials. Cheaper signs will quickly fade, peel and look shabby. Danthonia uses only the highest quality paints and substrates chosen to withstand the Australian climate. Carved letters cannot peel off. Gilded elements will not fade in UV light. Dulux Weathershield paints have a 10-year guarantee against cracking and peeling.

Sign Systems. Many schools ask Danthonia to provide a full signage system including directional signs and building signs. This gives a unity of style to the signage throughout the campus. Danthonia sign systems can be designed and approved at the beginning of a project and then purchased in stages as budget allows.

What do I get?

We Realise that school principals and administrators are very busy. Danthonia will handle all the ‘work and worry’ aspects, providing you with an easy, successful project from concept to completion. If you need your sign erected over a break or standing in time for a grand opening – leave it to us. It will be there on time.

Free Consultation. We’ll discuss your school’s branding and marketing needs and come back with concrete signage suggestions.

The Design. Our award-winning design team will design a sign that will match and exceed your expectations. We offer up to seven revisions which we send back and forth via email until you are completely satisfied. Most revision requests will be emailed for your review within 2 or 3 days.

Prompt Fabrication. Your sign will be ready to ship three weeks from design approval.

Installation Support. For your convenience, ask Danthonia to manage installation. Otherwise we will provide a free kit, template, instructions and phone support.

“We are thrilled with our new sign. The standard of workmanship is outstanding and the complete presenta-tion far exceeds any of our expectations. The parents on the school council had it installed within a week of its arrival. Once they saw it they couldn’t wait to get it up, and the installation template and kit made it extremely easy. It’s the talk of the town and many residents of our small community are making a special drive-past just to see it. The pride in the school community is truly grow-ing every day. Thank you.” - Jay Milne, Principal, Jeparit Primary School

"Nuts & Bolts"

Message Boards. Danthonia provides custom locking magnetic message boards. The powder-coated metal board has a tough lockable perspex cover and includes a full set of ‘fridge magnet’ letters and numbers. The letters are easy to change as they have subtle guide lines rather than clumsy tracks and channels.

Monuments. If you want your entry sign on a monument, we’ll custom design and build that too. We clad a custom steel frame with specially-engineered dibond panels making Danthonia monuments incredibly tough and robust. Monuments are fabricated and assembled with all signage in place at our facility in Inverell and then shipped to your school in one piece via crane truck. We can usually deliver monuments within four weeks of design approval.

Why St. Andrew’s chose Danthonia

Tony Howley, Building & Projects Manager
St Andrew’s Anglican College7 November 2007

“St Andrew's Anglican College educates children from Prep to Year 12 and is nestled in the heart of Peregian Springs, an expanding community on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Our brief to Danthonia was to create an elegant entry statement to stand above an existing stonewall edifice to publicise school and community infor-mation without reducing the quality of the visual impact. They sent quality pdf images and samples from galleries of previous commissions to get us started. We supplied our school logo, fonts and colours, as well as measurements and photographs of the location. The design team commenced a steady supply of images, each one incorporating our latest revisions (and we used our full quota of re-submissions). Their turnaround time was impressive. We settled on the final design, negotiated the final price, and placed the order. Then the service went up another gear. The engineers produced a comprehensive installation guide and engineering certification. The production time was much quicker than the estimate and progress photographs were emailed. The sign was well packaged and delivered in perfect condition. We erected our sign with only a small crane on hire for 30 minutes (the footings had been previously installed). The effect was magnificent. The comments have all been positive and the effect we strived for has been achieved to our great satisfaction.”

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I go about getting a sign?

Contact us and tell us your ideas. These are some questions we’ll ask:

What are your goals?
What makes your school unique?
Do you have a website we could look at?
Where are you hoping to put the sign?
Do you have a photo of the site that you could email us?
How far back from the road will your sign be positioned?
How fast are cars driving past it?
Are there any fences, bushes or other obstacles that might obstruct the sign from view?
From how far away will the sign first be seen?
From how far away do you want it to be read?
What would you like on the sign: text, colours, motto, crest, shield, logo?
Do you want to include a changeable message board in the design?
Do you have any budget or size constraints you would like us to work to?

Please see How to Order for more information.

What do these signs cost?

Most schools go for something in the $4–8000 range. Price is based on size and size is determined during the design stage. If you prefer, you can give us a budget to work to. Following are some examples with ballpark prices and sizes. Hover over the images to see details.

* Prices exclude design fee, shipping, installation and GST. Ring your sales representative for a quote.

How long does it take?

Once we have your information, we try to get an initial design back in two working days. Once we have design approval, it usually takes three weeks to manufacture.

Contact us to get started.

For more information, take a look at our School Signs Brochure (PDF)