CrispBeacon · Storefront sign guide

Build the storefront sign your brand deserves.

Channel letters, cabinet signs, and carved HDU & Western Red Cedar — explained, then built.

CrispBeacon is two storefront sign systems in one place. BeaconLetters is for illuminated channel letters and cabinets — designed in-browser. BeaconCarved is for dimensional carved signs — started as a guided concept, not a canvas.

Start BeaconLetters → Start BeaconCarved Concept

Pick your path

Two storefront sign systems. Start the one your building needs.

Illuminated signage is designed in-browser; carved signage starts as a guided concept. Scroll down for the full rundown on every style and material.

FrontLit channel letter with a glowing translucent white face and painted aluminum return.

01 · BeaconLetters

Illuminated channel letters & cabinets

FrontLit, HaloLit, DualLit, and Trimless channel letters plus lit cabinet signs — designed in the browser with a live storefront preview. Type your name, pick a style, set the colors and size.

Start BeaconLetters → See the details
Finished Western Red Cedar hanging sign with sandblasted grain and carved lettering.

02 · BeaconCarved

Carved HDU & Western Red Cedar

Dimensional, hand-crafted signs — carved or sandblasted, painted and finished. Too custom for a canvas, so it starts with a short guided concept and a scaled proof in a few days.

Start a Concept → See the details

BeaconLetters

Illuminated storefront signage, built to fabricate the way you build it.

BeaconLetters is the channel-letter and cabinet-sign side of CrispBeacon. You type your business name, pick a letter style, choose face and return colors, set the size, and watch the storefront preview update as you go. When you’re finished, that exact specification comes into our shop as the fabrication ticket.

  • How the builder works. A live storefront preview shows your sign at scale on a building. Every change updates the preview, and the spec sheet behind it stays in sync.
  • What you can customize. Business text, font style, letter size, face color, return color and depth, lighting configuration, trim cap (where applicable), and raceway where it’s needed for mounting and wiring.
  • What happens after checkout. Our crew reviews the spec, returns a scaled proof, fabricates aluminum, acrylic, and stainless in-house where applicable, wires UL-listed LED modules and Class 2 power supplies, and installs.
  • Best use cases. Plaza tenants, shopping centers, restaurants, hospitality, professional offices, and any storefront that has to be readable from the parking lot at night.

Minimum letter height in the builder is 7″. Illumination is fixed-temperature white LED on every style — color-changing or RGB LEDs are not part of the online configuration. Day/night and dual-color face effects on FrontLit and DualLit use specialty translucent media, not colored LEDs.

01 · Channel Letters · Front-Lit

Front-Lit channel letters — the bright, everyday storefront read.

A translucent acrylic face glows from internal white LEDs inside a painted aluminum return. The most common, most economical illuminated letter — even, readable light from across the parking lot, day and night.

Front-Lit channel letter with a glowing translucent white face and painted aluminum return. Translucent face · LED-lit

Front-Lit Channel Letters

Translucent cast-acrylic face (Lexan polycarbonate above ~37″ tall) over a bent, sealed, trim-capped aluminum return. Pick face and return colors independently, add a raceway where the wall calls for it — the workhorse of plaza tenants, restaurants, and retail.

Face

Translucent, your color

Acrylic, 3M translucent vinyl, blockout, day/night, or printed face — face color picked separately from the return.

Build

Aluminum + trim cap

  • 3″ standard or 5″ deeper return
  • 3/4″ or 1″ color-matched trim cap
  • 7″ minimum letter height

02 · Channel Letters · Halo-Lit

Halo-Lit channel letters — the premium, architectural night read.

Reverse-lit welded stainless letters with a solid painted face and LEDs behind, throwing a soft halo onto the wall. Restrained and upscale — the choice when the building itself should do the work.

Halo-Lit channel letter with a solid painted stainless face throwing a soft white halo onto the wall behind it. Painted stainless · halo glow

Halo-Lit Channel Letters

Welded stainless steel, sanded and Pantone-matched, with the return painted to match the face automatically. Choose Reverse Lit (clear back) or Reverse Acrylic Lit (translucent back, softer halo). No trim cap on either — a clean, premium silhouette.

Face & return

Painted stainless, matched

Solid stainless face, Pantone-matched paint; the return matches the face automatically.

Build

Two halo paths

  • Reverse Lit or Reverse Acrylic Lit back
  • 2″ or 3″ return depth
  • 7″–~36″ letter height

03 · Channel Letters · Dual-Lit

Dual-Lit channel letters — front glow and halo in one letter.

A standard Front-Lit letter built with a clear back, so the same white LEDs light the translucent face and spill onto the wall behind. Bright by day, layered at night — an economical way to get a richer nighttime read.

Dual-Lit channel letter showing both a glowing translucent face and a soft halo cast behind it onto the wall. Front-lit + halo · clear back

Dual-Lit Channel Letters

Face, return, and trim cap are identical to Front-Lit; the single change is a clear Lexan back that lets the same internal white LEDs glow rearward. Same economical aluminum construction, with a built-in halo for hospitality and flagship storefronts.

Face

Same as Front-Lit

Translucent acrylic, vinyl, day/night, or printed face — face and return colors picked independently.

Build

Clear back, dual glow

  • Clear Lexan back built in by definition
  • 3″ or 5″ return, trim cap colors
  • 7″ minimum letter height

04 · Channel Letters · Trimless

Trimless channel letters — the cleanest, most premium face-lit read.

A face-lit letter with no plastic trim cap, built from welded stainless with a white acrylic face. The most architectural read on the market — favored by modern offices, boutique hospitality, and design-forward retail.

Trimless channel letter with a clean white acrylic face and no visible plastic trim cap. No trim cap · stainless

Trimless Channel Letters

Welded stainless construction with a fixed white acrylic / polycarbonate face and no visible retainer. Choose Inset Acrylic (face recessed in a stainless border) or Full Acrylic (no border) — a crisp white glow with nothing competing with the architecture.

Face

Fixed white, no trim

White acrylic / polycarbonate by design — a clean white face by day, an even white glow by night.

Build

Two trimless paths

  • Inset Acrylic or Full Acrylic face
  • Painted-stainless return & back
  • 7″–~36″ letter height

05 · Cabinet Signs

Lit cabinet signs — a full logo or message, the economical way.

An aluminum cabinet with an internally lit translucent acrylic face. The most cost-effective way to put a full logo, icon, or multi-line lockup above your storefront — bright, weather-tight, and readable from the road day and night.

Illuminated cabinet sign with a printed acrylic face and full-color logo above a storefront. Aluminum cabinet · lit face

Lit Cabinet Signs

A welded aluminum cabinet with an internal LED grid behind a translucent acrylic face — printed or vinyl-applied with your full logo, layout, and colors. The right call when a single lockup suits the storefront better than individual letters.

Face

Full logo or lockup

Printed or vinyl-applied translucent acrylic face — full color, multi-line, or icon-and-text.

Build

Sized to your wall

  • Cabinet size and proportions
  • Face, background & cabinet color
  • Flush-wall or raceway mount

BeaconCarved · A different path

Carved signs are too custom for a canvas. We start with a concept.

BeaconCarved is dimensional, hand-crafted storefront signage — HDU and Western Red Cedar, carved or sandblasted, painted and finished. Instead of a builder, you answer a short guided questionnaire and our crew designs the concept around your answers, returning a scaled proof and a fixed quote in a few business days.

  • HDU — stable engineered board that carves clean, holds crisp detail, and won’t warp or rot. Best for painted finishes and coastal climates.
  • Western Red Cedar — the traditional carved wood: visible grain, warm character, sandblasted for the classic old-school look.
  • Paint — Sherwin-Williams color-code matching is standard; One Shot lettering enamel is the premium upgrade. Base + one accent color included.
Start HDU Concept → Start Cedar Concept

How CrispBeacon works

Quote in days. Install in weeks. One crew end to end.

  1. 1

    Build or start a concept

    BeaconLetters: design in the builder. BeaconCarved: answer the concept questionnaire. Either way, your spec lands in our shop.

  2. 2

    Scaled proof

    Inside two business days you get a scaled mockup on a photo of your building, a fixed quote, and a clean line item for permit, fab, and install.

  3. 3

    Fabricate in-house

    Aluminum bent and welded in our shop. Acrylic routed. HDU and cedar shaped, sandblasted, primed, painted. No outsourced parts.

  4. 4

    Ship & install

    Lift truck, sealants, electrical hookup, final cleanup. One crew owns the project.

Start

Two ways into CrispBeacon. Pick the path that fits.

BeaconLetters

Build illuminated channel letters or a cabinet sign.

Type your business name, pick a letter style, set the colors and size, watch the storefront preview update.

Start BeaconLetters →

BeaconCarved

Start a carved HDU or Western Red Cedar concept.

Answer the guided concept questionnaire. We come back with a scaled proof and a fixed quote in a few days.

Start BeaconCarved Concept →

Not sure?

Talk to a sign expert.

If you’d rather walk through the options with our crew, send us photos of the building and a rough size — we’ll route you to the right system.

Get a custom quote