The Birmingham branch won this prestigious accolade for their work with Grand Central Shopping Centre, formerly named The Palisades Shopping Centre. The mall, situated above Grand Central Train Station has undergone a complete facelift and the newly improved precinct is now known as Grand Central Birmingham. The redevelopment will enhance Birmingham's retail landscape bringing a mix of unrivalled premium fashion and quality high street brands to the heart of the city as well as boasting the largest John Lewis outside of London. Working with the external framework contractors Simco and Network Rail, Signs Express (Birmingham South West) were commissioned to provide the impressive high profile exterior signage. The project included three gigantic roof mounted LED illuminated signs spelling 'GRAND CENTRAL'. Such impressive landmark signs are placed on three separate elevations, north, east and west to look out over the city's landscape for years to come. Competing against Birmingham SW for the title of Best Exterior Project were Signs Express (Aylesbury) and Signs Express (Leeds). The Aylesbury branch won a place on the finalist podium for their work with Swedish industrial company, Atlas Copco. The signage that they produced for the global company's Europe HQ, was of a phenomenal size at 6m tall and the top section 2.5m wide. The scale of this project called for substantial footings of 1m x 1m x 1.6m in dimension. Signs Express (Leeds) also undertook a mammoth project for Telecoms company, AQL, who required a large sign mounted at height on a transmitter mast. This was a very technical build because the team at Leeds had to ensure that the letters would be strong enough to withstand the wind at high altitude and the letters also had to be thicker at the top than the bottom so that their faces didn't look towards the sky, but instead sat vertical despite the mast being angled backwards. The sign is also illuminated using colour changing LED flood lights. This allows AQL customers to text a colour to a telephone number and the mast will instantly change colour. Overall, Signs Express (Birmingham) took away the trophy in recognition of the scale of project management that needed to be accomplished with numerous supply partners and other companies working on the project. Joe Smith, owner of Signs Express (Birmingham) stated 'we love getting our teeth stuck into large, complicated or unique projects like these, the end result always makes the challenge worthwhile. My team are excellent sign makers, designers and installers, so I am very lucky to work alongside them.' Signs Express provides a wide range of signs and graphics to businesses and projects both large and small across the UK and Ireland. With over 25 years' experience in the market, Signs Express has the skills and experience to make any bespoke sign and any signage project a success. Contact your local centre today to find out how they can help you to boost your brand and revamp your advertising today: 0845 5040 501