Low-Cost Illuminated Signage for Todays Responsible Citizen

Low-cost, illuminated signage for todays responsible citizen courtesy of the GRL and the Eyebeam OpenLab. This tutorial will explain the tools and processes we used to combine LED christmas lights, plexi-glass and rope to make our own low-power signage on the cheap.

Step 1 Peep the Vid

Check out our video how to for the Homeland Security Advisory Tower at 11 Spring.

Comments

[luifer78]

Hello if you want to see something amazing with a laser see my LASER GRAFFITI "HOW TO"

[ilpug]

Well, interesting materials... butt, I really like the overall idea! keep up the good work.

[signwriter]

Great article. Smart content and very useful information. L.E.D signs are very attractive but it asks some knowledge. Thank for sharing yours.

Here are some more information about L.E.D sigms and other types of illumnated signs.

http://www.bpconcepts.com.au/content_common/pg-illuminated-signs.seo

Cheers!

[markkeegan]

"mort pour rien" actually means "died for nothing"

[kirnex]

Doh--Cool James...is that what I think it is? And am I the only pervert that noticed that?

[Flyinseamnky]

noticed what?

[Flyinseamnky]

Oh on the materials picture? LOL I don't see that in the materials list. LOL

[kirnex]

What really worries me is that it looks like Herbert Hoover. WTF? He was a lot of things, but I don't really think of him as a Ladies' Man.

[cerene]

I noticed too :P

[kirnex]

I have to say....I've seen some, but I've never seen that one. Plus--honestly, I'm a little disturbed it's apparently kept with the cordless drill and the epoxy. Freaky.

I suppose the duct tape should bother me, too, but surprisingly, it doesn't.

[wenpherd]

your town has a lot of grafitti

[MisterHankie]

 If by "grafitti" you mean advertisements, then yes, NYC does have a lot.

[wenpherd]

Ahhh, i see.

[MisterHankie]

 by the way, that was a reference to the anti advertising video on the grl website

[guy90]

Awesome instructable! thank you for sharing this

[nachotronics]

the rat stencil was made by Banksy

[Kay-Oh]

Looks like an imposter to me. Are you certain?

[comp_geek93]

I'm sure

It's on his website...
http://www.banksy.co.uk/
You go to outdoors then scroll to the end and click next 5 times. He is last on the one after the fifth click.
:D

[NightmarE]

The rat saying "So little to say and so much time" is by Bansky i believe.

[Spartan Phalanx]

IN the video you can see that the rooms windows spell BLAH

[www.ledbillboards.co.uk]

It looks nice. In my country, people still do not know, how powerful and cost-effective it is.
I use the brightest LED to build my ledbillboards - please have a look at: http://www.ledbollboards.co.uk

[RedMeanie]

Awesome Idea.....And I can't believe anyone would complain about your project, it seems to me you are doing a Public Service by letting people know how much "DANGER" they are in.....:-)

[valessi]

where is that located? and what art show is this? If it caused cops to stake it out, it must have been pretty horrorshow.

[kentek]

Well, don't put them up in Boston Mass because they will call the bomb squad. :-)

[StiltGuyJoe]

HAHAHAHA, don't forget shutting down the highway, and the orange line, and traffic on the river.

[curlyfry562]

lol "throwies aren't Bombs"

[girrrrrrr2]

it wasnt a throwie... it was a mooninite made out of leds... and the largest part on it was the 4d battery holder covered in black duct tape... it is weird that no one over there has ever herd of a mooninite... and i dont get why they didnt look at and think what does this on of switch do... and the last thing i think is weird is that they didnt think that the duct tape fragments couldnt kill a dead person... lol... they arent the smartest over there...

[Rectifier]

I saw this and had to do it! So I did this for a sign on my kegerator - spelled out "COLD" in blue ice-crystal style xmas lights, through holes drilled in a chalkboard. Then wrote Beer on the chalkboard and the names of the beers on tap. Mine's not exactly social commentary, but I have to say, it looks EXTREMELY nifty, and is so cheap and easy. Everyone should make an LED sign!

[curiousity]

Nice touch with the blah blah blah windows. And nice job keeping them even and balanced, that's hard, but really adds a lot to the final statement. Keep it up.

[Antiundead]

Very good, i might give this a go in the future. Oh and by the way, the graffiti with the words "So little to say...and so much time" was done by the british artist Banksy.

[joejoerowley]

Hi This is possibly the coolest thing on Instructables. I love it because even I (13 years old ) can do it!! This is so cool. Thanks for the inspiration, JOe

[ewilhelm]

Acrylic is a bit brittle, which I'm sure you know. Delrin (acetal) is another laser-cutter-able choice, should you want to make larger panels. What's the back story on the police in the video?

[Q-Branch]

thanks for the Delrin tip. I'll try it out. Here's a link to Delrin at USPlastics Corp:

http://tinyurl.com/uhkwy

The police in the video are NYPDs finest. They were al over the street art event at 11 spring. Undercover units were parked outside the building for two weeks leading up to the show. In the video, the gallery had just closed for the last day but there was still a .2 mile line around the block and up the bowery to Houston street. I think they were freaked out that people might have a little mini riot so they sent in some cops to tell everyone that the show was over and they had to leave. Someon hit the cop car with an LED throwie, which you can see in the video if you keep your eyes peeled.

[bf5man]

Really impressive! Good work and nice intructable.

[cry_wolf]

Wow! That looks really nice and the lights are so vivid, even when there are strret lights on. Very impressive!

[mark101]

Looks good! Did you do this on your first try? I have always wanted to do this but worried about the proper spacing of the lights TO distance viewable ratio, yours looks perfect.the lights are spaced how far appart?