Water Jet Terrazzo Logos

In today's post, we're going to talk about terrazzo logos and the different lettering options. Terrazzo is a great medium to work with anytime you have a logo where seal or even letters you want to incorporate into your flooring. In this post I want to explain the process that we go through when we're designing the logos. We will look at the different fabrication techniques, how we choose and select colors, the different lettering options, and ultimately the artwork that leads to the finished logo.

Some logos or designs are hand fabricated in the field. This works well when you have a little bit larger element and you're not mounting it to mesh. Our supplier TerrazzoTek offers interlocking plastic stencils, StencelTek, that are custom cut to allow precision transfer of custom designs to the substrate surface. This allows the installing contractor to have optimal control of hand bent terrazzo strip process while also speeding up the installation.

Here is a cool installation video featuring the StencelTek system:

Most intricate designs and logos will utilize a water jet cutting machine. If you are not familiar with this machine it uses advanced CAD technology combined with a high-pressure stream of water mixed with an abrasive. It'll cut just about anything and it's very accurate, much more than a human would be.

FrameTek

Precision-cut frames that are adhered to the terrazzo substrate as a single unit. The Water Jet Cutting machine will cut the elements out from a sheet of aluminum, zinc, brass or even plastic. And then those are mounted to a mesh grid. Once that's on-site the installer just pours the terrazzo mix in the framed components. The terrazzo is allowed to cure, then is ground and polished to finish. So you'll notice that there is a divider strip that separates every component of color here. Some clients are fine with this fabrication process, others may not be, so the other alternative.

PrecastTek

The alternative is what we call the water jet cut precast terrazzo logos or PrecastTek. Now here, instead of starting out with a sheet of metal like we previously discussed, the manufacturer casts a sheet of precast terrazzo. Then we cut the components from this sheet of precast terrazzo. These components are safely packaged and shipped to the jobsite. All the pieces are laid out according to the design, however, one color is left out.

In this case, it's the dark green color. Once the logo is assembled on site the installing contractor will pour the final color. As this cures it locks the logo together and then it can be ground and polished. The advantage of this fabrication technique is it provides color to color transitions instead of having a divider strip in between. You can expect a little premium with this, about twenty-five percent more, because there is additional labor involved in precasting the sheets.

Some logos may require a combination of both fabrication methods. We can help you through that process to get the most precise logo.

Color is always very important to clients when they're doing logos. They want to be accurate. Here we can use any paint color or we can also match Pantone colors. So get those from your client and then we can match those. Note paint colors have more accurate matches than Pantone colors.

Once we select the logo colors we will build an aggregate mix. With logos we like to use clear glass. The reason being, it honors the color it's surrounded in and gives us the most precise color. We don't like to use marble chips and logos because they have dust can shift the color. For example, if you have a dark color dust and you put it in a light, color is going to shift it.

As we move towards the end of the process. We need to know some additional information. We will need you to provide a decent image of the logo. Provide the overall size. If there is a metal frame, what type of material is being specified? We can help walk you through that. Then ultimately, this will develop the artwork that we're using to create the logo. We will provide the art work for you to sign off on prior to fabricating the logo.

Hopefully this gives you a pretty good overview creating these terrazzo logos. We are here to help. So please feel free to e-mail me or call me anytime.