“You’ll never get a second chance to make a great first impression.”
– Will Rogers

Making a great first impression on a prospective customer is extremely important for a shop owner. And that impression needs to convey a sense of trust, good quality of services and a fair deal on the same. The very first impression a customer makes of your shop, comes from glancing at your shop board. He drives up to your storefront and looks up to check if he has arrived at the correct place. This split second glance at your shop board is all you have, to attract him, entice him to walk in, make him feel that he is in good hands and finally, the sense of security helps to close the deal. All this and more can be achieved by choosing to install our backlit glow sign board on your shop front.

A good shop board should display the name of the shop, the company logo and tagline, product images, contact details and store timings. And it should be able to show all of this in an aesthetically pleasing manner. And a well designed, well fabricated LED flex board pulls this off effortlessly.

Please note: This page is about 2-dimensional flex printed backlit boards. If you are looking for a high end three dimensional LED flex board with acrylic letters and logos, please click here.

What Is a Flex Printed Backlit Board Made Of?

A LED flex board is also referred to as a GSB, short for Glow Sign Board. As the name suggests, this is a board that glows from within. It carries its own source of light. On the other hand, frontlit shop boards are simple prints stretched on a metal frame, where the sun or the ambient light lends visibility to the board. The primary components of a backlit glow sign board are listed below:

• Metal Frame / Box: The base structure of our shop board is made of a metal frame in the form of a box. This box is generally 6 – 8 inches deep. The width and the height of the frame are of course given to us by the customer.
  But by and large, most shop boards have a width of 8 to 10 feet and a height of 3 to 4 feet. We generally use 0.5 – 0.75 inch thick, metal pipes to fabricate the box.
• Tin Sheet / Patra: The above box is wrapped by a tin sheet or ‘patra’ on the back and the sides. Generally, tin sheets are available in a standard black or white color. Alternative choices to these colors can also be provided on demand.
• Tubelights as a Source of Light: Fluorescent tubes that act as the source of light for our GSB, are then fitted inside the box. At Orchid Digitals, we use electronic choke tubes of well known, branded companies only. This ensures a very evenly spread back glow. Moreover, electronic choke eliminates tube flicker commonly associated with the older tube types.
  We also offer LED tubes as an option to our clients. LEDs have a stronger glow and their power consumption is significantly lower than standard fluorescent tubes. LED glow sign boards are slightly more costlier than their regular tube counterparts.
• Brackets to Hold the Board in Place: The final component of the glow sign board are ‘L’ shaped brackets. Shop boards are fitted on the wall, above the shop. To hold the frame in place, we first hammer these brackets on the wall. The board is then rested on the ‘L’ angle.
• Printed Star Flex: The most visible part of our shop board is of course, the artwork displaced on the front face. The shop board design / artwork is printed on a specialised media known as Backlit Star Flex. This print has the following characteristics…
  • Flex is a printable roll of plastic with a cloth like weave on the back. The front surface is specially coated to receive inkjet inks. The denier or the weave on the back lends strength to the print. To know more about flex material, please click here.
  • The weave and printable top layer of backlit flex is translucent. It allows light to pass through. And when this happens, the print on top gets a very beautiful glow.
  • ‘Star’ is a premium brand of flex. Prints on Star flex have a very high resolution extremely vibrant colors.

Double Pass Printing – Boosting a Flex Backlit Board’s Life

Our high resolution backlit flex is tightly stretched on the metal box frame, very much like the skin on top of a drum. This gives a smooth, flat and finished look to the board.

We also print the job at double pass on our solvent inkjet machine. This means that we overprint the image twice. Remember how we used to overwrite the same letter during our cursive writing class back in school. Multi pass printing is something like that where we print the same image twice, one on top of the other.

Double pass prints have two advantages –

• With more inks deposited on the surface, our print will last that much longer in the sun and will not easily fade.
• With a very slight over-saturation of the colors, backlit prints get an added punch and look very vibrant when the lights are switched on at night. Else, there is a good chance that the prints become dull (pheeka) in the back glow.

Since we have a high resolution print, the board looks great during the day. And even at night, when the tube lights are switched on, our board looks absolutely stunning.

Who Needs a Backlit Shop Board?

A backlit glow sign board needs to be deployed when you have a shop that needs visibility in the evenings and at night. On a street lined with a number of stores, our beautifully glowing shop board will instantly stand out. Backlit shop boards are highly recommended for:

• Grocery shops
• Pharmacies
• Small clinics and dispensaries
• Restaurants and small eateries
• Stationery shops and bookstores
• Photocopying outlets
• Bakeries and cake shops
• Florists and gift shops
• Readymade garment shops
• Beauty salons and hairdressers, etc.

When is a Backlit Glow Sign Board Not Relevant For You?

When your operational hours are limited to the daytime

If you have a shop that operates only during the day, we would recommend that you don’t bother with the backlit boards. On account of the operational hours, you won’t typically require a board that needs to be lit in the evening and night hours to bring the customers in. Instead, opt for an entry level printed frontlit flex instead. When stretched on a flat metal frame this flex performs the function of a non lit shop board admirably.

When you need a more premium and non-lit solution

Depending on your organisation’s and brand’s positioning, you may require a more premium-looking shop board solution. In that case, you can check out our metallic letters and acrylic letter options.

Lollipop Glow Sign Boards – A Two-Sided Variant of the Single-Sided GSB.

A backlit glow sign board needs to be deployed when you have a shop that needs visibility in the evenings and at night. On a street lined with a number of stores, our beautifully glowing shop board will instantly stand out. Backlit shop boards are highly recommended for:

The Benefit of a Lollipop GSB

The benefits of a 2 sided board are –

• More Visibility: The content is visible to both the people going up the street as well as the traffic going down the same.
  Also, Lollipop boards increase the visibility of the shop from the street. This is especially helpful if the store is slightly recessed or set back from the same.
• New Placements Available: Two sided backlit boards can also be mounted on a pole a little distance in front of the shop. This box mounted on top of a pole is reminiscent of a lollipop. Hence the name ‘lollipop board.’

LED Acrylic ACP Boards

3D Laser cut acrylic boards are like glow sign shop boards on steroids. Unlike their 2D printed LED shop name board counterparts, these boards are three dimensional. They are made of exotic materials like acrylic, aluminium composite panels and LED modules. Acrylic glow sign boards are jaw-droppingly beautiful. So if you are looking for a more premium option for your store front, do check out this page on Acrylic LED ACP backlit shop boards.

How to Commission a LED Flex Board from Orchid Digitals?

A backlit board is not a product that we can hand over to our clients across the counter. This heavy metal structure needs to be first fabricated at our end. We then have to transport and install the same at your location. So if you need to commission a board for your store, do have a look at the procedure we follow.

1. Please share the site address with us. If possible also share a picture of the location where the shop board has to be installed.
2. Our fabrication team will then come over to your place to check the feasibility of the project.
   1. The fitters will check and share the exact measurements of the job.
   2. They will also check for any obstructions in installing the structure at your end. For example, if there are any protrusions from the building facade, this needs to be accounted for.
3. Finally, once we get the fitter’s site report, you need to share the artwork for the job.
4. Once we receive the artwork, it takes us 3 – 4 days to bring the finished job to your place.

How Much Does a Backlit Shop Board Cost?

We offer two variants of glow sign boards. In both the cases we have a high resolution flex stretched on a metal frame. What changes is the type of fluorescent tubes that we put inside. Given below are the costs of both options of backlit flex boards.

* Please Note:

• Above rates attract 18% GST.
• The price includes the cost of installation above your store, at a height of 8 – 10 feet from the ground. To access higher locations on the building, we need to deploy specialised equipment like height platforms, scaffolding and even cranes. The cost of the project in this case, will be more than the rates mentioned above.
• Rate quoted is per square foot. To arrive at the final figure, you need to arrive at the area of your shop board. For example, let us assume that you need a shop board of  size 3 feet height and 4 feet width. Further the board has to be fitted with electronic choke tubes.
  In this case the cost of the GSB works out to:

3 feet (height) X 4 feet (width) X ₹ 450 (rate)
= ₹ 5400.00 (+ 18% GST)

Shipping and Delivery

• Backlit shop boards can be delivered anywhere delivered in Pune city and its suburbs.
• Delivery charges are extra. Please let us know the address where the board has to be installed and we will get back to you with the same.

Question: Does this product get shipped out of Pune City?
Answer: No. We are sorry. It does not.

Here are a couple of reasons why –

1. Form Factor – Backlit glow sign boards are pretty large and bulky. We need to hire a tempo or small truck to deliver them.
2. Feasibility – Also, these boards are a pretty low cost product. So, shipping them over long distances means that our customers will end up paying more for the cost of delivery than the cost of the actual print.
   Therefore, if you are stationed out of Pune, it makes sense for you to source the print from your local printer. All you have to do is share / take a print of the above post, show your local printer the material specifications and commission a similar job from him.