Most people order a sign with no idea what happens after they hit send. It's a bit of a black box — you describe what you want, you wait, and a few weeks later a heavy parcel turns up.
So here's the whole thing, start to finish. Every custom steel sign we make goes through the same five steps, and knowing them makes it a lot easier to tell us what you actually want.
It starts with a rough idea, not a finished drawing
You don't need a design. Most people send us a few lines — the name of the place, whether they want an animal or scenery in it, and a photo of where it's going.
That photo matters more than people think. A sign heading onto a dark macrocarpa hedge needs a different build to one going on an open post by the road. Same wording, different sign.
From there we work out the size. A station entrance read from a moving ute wants 1800mm or bigger. A gate sign you walk up to reads fine at 1200mm or less.
Then we draw it and show you before anything is cut
We turn your idea into a mock-up and send it through. You see the actual layout — the lettering, the spacing, the animal or scene sitting where it'll sit.
This is the stage to change things. Move the stag, drop a word, make the name bigger. Nothing's been cut, so it costs nothing to fix.
We'll usually tidy a few things at this point too. Fine detail that looks great on a screen — thin antler tips, tiny letter centres — has to be strengthened so it cuts cleanly and doesn't snap. That's the bit that separates a design from a design that works in steel.
The cutting is the fast part
Once you're happy and it's paid, the design goes to the laser. Your custom steel sign is cut from solid Corten plate, not printed, not stuck on. The letters and the design are cut right through the steel.
The cutting itself takes minutes. It's everything around it — the queue, deburring the edges, drilling the mount holes, and adding a stainless backing if you've gone that way — that takes the time.
Then the weather does the rest. Corten leaves us raw or part-rusted and keeps changing for months. It won't arrive evenly rusted, and it isn't meant to.
Why it takes 15 to 20 working days
Because everything above is done for your sign, once. There's no shelf to pull it off.
Manufacture is usually around 15 to 20 working days from payment and final design approval. Bigger or more custom pieces we'll confirm once the design and materials are locked in. It's slower than a sticker. It's also still going to be there in twenty years.
What turns up
A finished sign with clean edges and holes already in it,
Bolts, posts and chain are on you — every gate and wall is different, and we'd rather you got hardware that suits your spot than a generic kit that doesn't.
Keen to see what yours would look like? Tell us the name, what you'd like in it, and send a photo of the spot — we'll put together a mock-up for you to look over →
