In recent years, many incredible innovations have reshaped the sign industry, but some of these changes have produced new challenges that need to be addressed. Lighting, in particular, is among the key areas where technological developments have caused their own difficulties.
近年来，在技术方面不断的惊人创新使标识行业生机勃勃，但变化的同时也带来了新的挑战等待我们去解决。特别是照明技术的快速发展也为它们自身带来了多重的困难。
Lighting is the foundation of the modern sign industry. When the first major trade organization, the National Electric Sign Association (NESA), was established in 1944, it was built around a relatively small group of lighting suppliers that kept tight control over manufacturing standards.
照明是现代标识行业的基础。当第一个重要的贸易组织——国家电子标识协会（NESA）于1944年成立时，照明供应商的数量还比较少，并且这些供应商严格控制制造标准，很好管控。
Over time, as NESA expanded in scope and became the International Sign Association (ISA), there was a concurrent expansion in signmaking materials and technologies, which made it more difficult to maintain consistency. The replacement of neon lighting with LEDs posed the greatest challenge of all.
随着时间的推移，NESA逐渐扩大并成为国际标识协会（ISA），同时标识制作材料和技术的快速发展，使得行业标准保持一致性变得更加困难。如何用LED取代霓虹灯照明是当时所有人面临的巨大挑战。
Freedom of choice, but not quality
选择的多样化带来质量的下降
With today’s availability of hundreds of different lighting products have come constant complaints from the signmaking community about inconsistency in terms of standards of quality. Bill Kovacevic, for instance, has witnessed a degradation of quality from up close over his 50 years working as a sign designer and consultant.
随着如今数百种不同照明产品的供应，标识制作界不断出现抱怨质量标准不一致的声音。例如，比尔·科瓦切维奇（Bill Kovacevic）作为一名标识设计师和顾问，50年间，他亲眼见证了标识照明质量的下降。
“I started as a designer during a golden age of signs, in 1964,” says Kovacevic, currently a consultant for Pattison Sign Group in Dorval, Que. “Designers had to know every technological aspect of a sign, including then-new developments in thermoplastics. The branding firms I worked with in those days, like Lippincott and Margulies on the General Motors (GM) sign program and Gottschalk and Ash (G+A) for the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC’s) illuminated logos, understood how every sign went together and followed standards that were tight and consistent.”
比尔目前是多瓦尔 Pattison Sign集团的顾问，他说：“1964年是标识行业发展的黄金时期，我在那时就开始担任设计师。设计师必须了解标识技术的每个方面，包括热塑性塑料的新发展。当时与我合作过的品牌公司，如与通用汽车公司（GM）签约的 Lippincott and Margulies设计公司以及为加拿大皇家银行（RBC）设计照明标识的Gottschalk and Ash（G+A）设计公司，他们对于标识组合都有一个明确的了解，并且严格遵循着一致的行业标准。”
Today, he suggests, the optimal use of advanced LEDs with new materials like direct-to-print acrylic is not widely understood by designers. With this lack of knowledge, specifications have become looser, leading to many lower-quality signs.
他表示，如今设计师们并未完全理解如何在先进LED技术中优化利用直接印刷亚克力等新材料。由于知识的缺乏，标准就变得更加宽松，这就导致了低质量标识的出现。
The importance of consistency
行业标准一致的重要性
By contrast, standards are a strong force within the commercial architectural lighting industry. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) publishes standards for everything from colour temperature to light output to longevity for dozens of different applications. This allows a residential customer to buy consistent landscaping lights at Home Depot and, at the same time, a laboratory technician to specify the perfect lighting for testing chemicals.
相比之下，标准规范可以为商业建筑照明行业提供强大的约束力。北美照明工程学会（IES）在色温、光输出、光源寿命等方面发布了统一的标准，能够适用于许多不同的应用。这将使人们可以从家得宝购买到标准一致的景观灯，同时实验室的技术人员也有了关于测试化学品的完美照明标准。
Unfortunately, such standards do not exist to the same degree in the sign industry.
不巧的是，这些标准的统一在标识行业中很难实现。
“The lack of clear standards has created a situation where signmakers have a difficult time specifying lighting without extensive prototyping,” says Fritz Meyne, Jr., vice-president (VP) of sales for the Bitro Group, which supplies LED modules for channel letters, sign cabinets and lightboxes.
Bitro集团的销售副总裁Fritz Meyne说：“缺乏明确的行业标准很容易造成以下情况的发生，即标识制造商很难在没有普遍原型设计的情况下对照明有一个统一的认识。”Bitro集团是一家为发光字和灯箱提供LED模组的公司。
This scenario poses tough challenges for both sign fabrication shops and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
这种情况对标识制造商店和原始设备制造商（OEM）都提出了严峻挑战。
“Without industry-wide standards, high-level lighting manufacturers have a hard time justifying investments in further research and development (R&D), which could yield greater longevity and more consistent output,” says Meyne.
Meyne说：“如果没有行业标准，高级照明制造商很难证明进一步研究和开发（R＆D）的投资是否是合理的，但进一步的研究和开发很可能使照明光源产生更长的寿命和更稳定的产出。”
So far, most of the heavy R&D spending has been applied to specific projects, like major brand rollouts, where the importance of lighting consistency is crucial across hundreds of signs.
到目前为止，大部分重型研发支出已应用到具体项目，如主要的品牌推广，其中照明一致性的重要性在数百个标识标准中至关重要。
Lighting and materials
照明和材料
Another big change in terms of lighting innovations has been the advent of true colour specificity.
照明创新方面的另一个重大变化是全彩光源的出现。
Until recently, matching colours in sign illumination was very difficult. Neon was available in a specific and well-understood range of hues. And when LEDs came along, they were available only in a very narrow colour band.
直到最近，标识照明中的颜色匹配过程依旧非常困难。霓虹灯具有特定且易于掌握的色域范围，而LED刚出现的时候，其色域选择范围非常小。
That remained the case for years, but has recently changed dramatically with the development of programmable LEDs, different ranges of warm and cool light and colour-screened LEDs. There has also been a major expansion in the range of colour films and acrylics.
这种情况多年来一直如此，但最近随着可编程LED光源的发展，LED光源的暖光、冷光范围和颜色选择都发生了巨大的变化。不仅如此，彩色薄膜和亚克力材料的颜色选择范围也得到了极大的扩展。
Yet, this availability of complementary materials has posed its own problems, even while providing extensive opportunities.
然而，这种互补材料的可用性也带来了自身的问题。
“Many sign fabricators like to keep their shops efficient by sourcing and storing only a narrow range of LED products, with similar colour temperatures,” explains Kevin Rourke, specification sales representative for Davis Marketing Associates (DMA), which consults on sign projects, and a member of the Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF’s) program committee, which recommends directions for educational opportunities, conferences and events. “These products do not always produce the correct colour match for a given project, however, even with a matching film or digitally printed acrylic sheet.”
Davis Marketing Associates（DMA）的销售代表Kevin Rourke解释说：“许多标识制造商通常通过采购和存储色温相近的LED系列产品来保持他们的店铺销售力，这些产品并不总能为给定的项目进行正确的颜色匹配，即使是与成套的薄膜或数字印刷亚克力板材相匹配。”DMA公司专注于标识项目投资，并且是标识研究基金（SRF）计划委员会的成员，该委员会负责教育行业、会议和活动方面的标识项目。
Rourke sees a need for greater education from major manufacturers about how lighting and materials work together, particularly as many large-format print service providers (PSPs) are now producing graphics for illuminated signs.
Rourke认为，标识行业的主要制造商需要了解更多关于照明和材料如何协同工作的知识，因为现在有许多宽幅打印服务供应商（PSP）已经开始生产用于照明标识的图形材料。
“Illuminated full-colour graphics are everywhere, from automated teller machines (ATMs) to retail store walls,” he says, “but at the same time, it has become much more difficult to understand how illuminated colour works, because the number of applications has grown. The best thing a sign shop can do is implement procedures for rapid testing of different lighting systems and materials, which can be continuously updated with guidance from manufacturers.”
他说：“从自动取款机到零售店墙壁，到处都是照明的全彩图形产品。但与此同时，由于应用数量的剧增，了解全彩照明光源的工作方式变得更加困难。标识商店目前可以做得最好的事情就是尽早实施测试不同照明系统和材料的程序，而这些程序可以在制造商的指导下不断更新。”
Reason for optimism
保持乐观
Some of these experts’ views may sound pessimistic, but there is also a silver lining, since the merging of technologies is changing the nature of how sign companies develop expertise.
有些专家的观点也许听起来很悲观，但并不是说希望全无，随着技术的融合标识公司也在不断地对专业知识进行跟进和学习。
To make their products more immediately practical to these companies, LED manufacturers have gotten into several ‘side businesses,’ such as creating custom fixtures and providing consulting services. At the same time, some shops have benefited from established standards by specializing in both architectural and sign illumination.
为了使他们的产品能够更好地服务于这些公司，LED制造商已经开始开发“副业”，例如制作定制设备和提供咨询服务。与此同时，一些商店受益于既定的标准，专门从事建筑和标识照明行业。
These trends may result in a ‘break’ from the traditional sign industry as people know it. Through the integration of architecture, digital printing, exhibitry and signmaking, industry standards and best practices are more likely to be shared across these fields, which will certainly bring significant progress.
这些趋势的发展都将导致传统标识行业的重大突破。通过建筑、数字印刷、展览和标识制作的整合，行业标准和最优范例都将在这些领域共享，这必将带来标识行业的重大进展。
|
