Starbucks menu boards with custom wood frames
The Hilton San Francisco in the Financial District was in need of some new menu boards for their cafe that serves Starbucks coffee. The menu boards that they had were getting old and beat up. The client also did not care for the exposed hardware of the old menu boards and wanted a cleaner look. The menu boards also need to be able to be taken down at night when the coffee shop turns into a wine bar.
The Hilton hired Martin Sign Company to replicate and improve their existing menu boards. The first thing we did was do a site survey and take accurate measurements and photos of the existing menus. MSC took notes on the kind of hardware that they had on site, but we listened to the client and took note what they didn’t like about the hardware. Then working with the Hilton Marketing Department we finalized the artwork that needed to be on the menu boards. MSC also found a frame company in San Francisco that was able to match the existing wood frames both in style and in color.
With the new custom wood frames built, we then created a substrate that is receptive to magnetic material. Typically this can be steel but we use very thin sheet of steel and mount it to a thicker piece of rigid material to keep the weight down. This laminated material then goes into the custom wood frames. The visual area in the frames are then filled up with a digital printed graphic that is magnetic material. What this allows the client to do is to replace the magnetic menu boards whenever needed by just ordering the magnetic material again at the correct size instead of buying expensive custom wood frames every time.
The final piece in the puzzle for these coffee menu boards was to find a hardware solution that the client would be happy with. We came with a cleat that could be mounted to the back of the frame at the top. This type of hardware is blind to the customer but easy for the cafe workers to take the frames down every evening when the cafe turns into a wine bar.
