• What are Shimmer Signs?
• How are they made?
• Photo Gallery
• Downloads & Contacts

• The Sitooterie
• Benson & Hedges
• Adidas Euro
• Sultan of Oman
• Coca Cola Malta
• Butterfly House
• Brewery in Holland

How are they made?

Designing the Signs

We have a special circular graph paper that you colour up with felt tip pens to create your design. This is also used as your template to position the discs in various colours to create the picture. Please call us sample sheets. We also have an electronic design sheet available in Macromedia Freehand 8 eps or Adobe Illustrator 8 eps for you to print out. For scale purposes, 32 discs equal one metre in length.

Just click the Download button on the contact details page to access the design templates or a PDF file of the brochure. Please note that you will need Acrobat Reader 3 or 4 to view the brochure. Please contact Adobe Systems at adobe.co.uk to download this software, which is free.

Assembling the Signs

To make the signs, first screw the black backing panels onto a suitable support, usually 9mm or 12mm plywood, using five 3.5mm x 12mm screws per panel for whole panels, one in each corner and one in the middle. We recommend that you use magnetic pozidrive bits in your screwdriver. The panels can also be acrylic-welded onto perspex. Please contact your perspex stockist for the adhesive.

We strongly suggest that the support is painted black as this focuses the viewer on the discs. You can use black foamex or acrylic but remember that either of these choices has a high thermal expansion rate and will require placing in a frame.

The discs are then clipped over the pin heads. If it is an area of plain colour, this will take about 20 - 30 minutes a square metre. Patterns and shapes will take longer to assemble.

The backing panels are 8 rows x 8 rows and hold a total of 64 discs. They are easy to cut into individual strips with a craft knife and each individual unit is pre-drilled for a fixing screw.

Aluminium pins are pre-moulded into the panels. The disc slips over the pin-head and clicks into place.

Carnaby Street temporary hoarding to cover building being renovated. Above is the main side composed of fret-cut lettering in black, on white painted panels.
Left is the Carnaby heart approx 10 feet square.

Close-up of disks being fitted to the back panels

Close-ups showing perspex lettering laid over background of Shimmer Disks.
The 'Simplefix' plus and socket system is used to fix the lettering.