Overview
An uncovered entrance can feel very different from one season to the next. Winter snow, summer glare, and a flat sign that blends into the facade can all affect how the storefront reads from the street. Lower-grade awning materials may also fade, sag, corrode, or loosen sooner than commercial-grade components. We manufacture bespoke commercial awnings at Visibility Signs & Graphics, using UV-stable marine fabric, sharp graphics to print, welded aluminum frames, and then tie securely into your building. Our custom exterior commercial signs give your brand a strong, authoritative presence, while your awning signs extend your brand out over the sidewalk, and people do walk out there!
Commercial Awning Styles & Architectural Form Factors
The correct shape will be determined by your building and your street. If you're in a bustling patio strip restaurant, you're looking for something to add interest compared to a boutique in a charming old building, here's how we usually think it out.
Restaurant Awning Signs & Dining Patio Canopies
There are two functions that a good restaurant awning will serve. It informs visitors about the location of the door and provides shade and dry seating for the restaurant. Logos and lettering can be placed across the slope and the valance. One of the most common designs we are asked to create is restaurant awning signs and storefront awnings with a logo.
Retail Awning Signage & Boutique Storefront Canopies
There are all sorts of retail frontages, and awnings can follow them. The neat straight face lends itself to a traditional shed appearance. Sharp, sleekly designed wedge canopies are suitable for modern shopping corridors.
Illuminated Awning Signs & Commercial Canopy Signs
Lighting makes the difference for evening entertainment districts. Internally lit translucent vinyl awnings allow for a glow in the dark and are an effective beacon that doesn't turn off. Architectural aluminum box canopies work best with warm white LED soffit lights that hang down or old-fashioned gooseneck lights. Both methods will allow for commercially legible signs at night, without washing out your graphics.
Premium Substrates & Weatherproof Graphics
All awnings are not created equal. After a season or two in the Utah sun, the low-cost residential covers fade, sag, and crack. Commercial materials are selected for a different purpose.
Custom Fabric Awnings for Business (Marine-Grade Canvas)
Use solution-dyed acrylic fabrics like Sunbrella®, which have color infused throughout the fiber and not on the surface. That's why they don't collapse under the intense ultraviolet radiation that we experience at our latitude. The fabric is repellent to mildew, and the fabric is coated with fluorocarbon.
Storefront Canopy Graphics & Lettering Technology
An awning can look professional or like an afterthought depending on the graphics. Thermal film transfer (computer cut), direct silk-screen, and eradication lettering provide clean serif edges, multi-color logos, and address numbers that will not peel or crack. This method of storefront canopy graphics will maintain a crisp look throughout the life of the fabric.
For a full 360 view, place our double-sided commercial blade signs on both the front and back of your branded canopy, and your signage will be visible to pedestrians everywhere on the busy sidewalk.
Engineering for Utah Winters: Snow Load & Structural Facade Anchoring
An awning is something connected to your building, and in the case of Utah, it must stand the tests of the real weather. In fact, this is one aspect of the project we take the most seriously.
Snow-Load & Wind-Load Engineering: A weak frame can be brought down by heavy wet snow off the Wasatch. This feature is accomplished by the use of heavy-gauge tubular aluminum truss framing that will not sag or cause any metal fatigue under that amount of weight.
Structural Facade Anchoring: A good frame is only as strong as what it's holding up. We have heavy-duty through-bolting and engineered chemical anchors for brick masonry, concrete tilt-up, steel studs, or EIFS, and have tested the surface to be anchored on.
Municipal Right-of-Way Clearances: If the awning extends onto a public sidewalk, the city regulations apply. Typical minimum vertical clearance of 8 to 9 feet is required in the state of Utah, along with some limits on the extent to which a structure can project.
When space is an issue in your building envelope or if you're working with a historic review board, check out our custom storefront signs to find options for flush mounting.
Frequently Asked Questions About Commercial Business Awnings
What is the average lifespan of a commercial fabric awning in Utah?
A commercial welded aluminum frame will last for 20 years or more. Typically, the covers have a lifespan of about eight to 12 years when exposed to UV levels in Utah and are typically solution-dyed acrylic that needs recovery.
Can you recover or rebrand our existing awning frame?
Yes, as long as the frame is made of aluminum or steel and is structurally sound. It can be re-skinned using new Marine fabrics, updated tensioning hardware, and custom graphics, something we typically can do at a reduced cost to a brand-new structure.
Do commercial awnings require city sign and building permits?
They do. Attaching an awning to a walkway and to a facade of a city building adds weight and can project over walkways, so it is necessary to have a structural review from the city, wind and snow load calculations, and sign permits, depending on where the awning will be installed in Utah. We can do all of this for visibility signs and graphics.
What is the difference between an illuminated awning and a non-illuminated awning?
There are also non-illuminated awnings that are made of woven acrylic canvas, and lit from the outside using spotlights or goosenecks mounted on the wall. Translucent flexible vinyl stretched over the frame, illuminated awnings feature UL-approved LED tubes that illuminate the entire surface and your graphics from the inside at night.
Design Your Custom Commercial Awning
Local, handmade in Utah, awning construction delivers better curb appeal, a safe entryway, and a more robust street presence. It is easy to get there.
- Please provide storefront dimensions, pictures of the front of the store, and your brand art.
- We come to your site to do a structural evaluation and bring you back scale models of the structures to check out before we construct them.
- We provide engineering reviews, permits, frame welding, graphic application, and professional installation.
Give us a call at (801) 212-9987
Request a Commercial Awning Sign Quote ↗
We make and hang a wide variety of custom commercial awnings throughout the Wasatch Front business districts of Salt Lake City, Orem, Lehi, Provo, Draper, South Jordan, and Sandy.