Foam sweet foam

Economical foam signage and decor makes a good impression on shoppers.

"Paper or plastic?" It's not just a question asked at the front end. It's also pondered by store planners considering which material to use for interior store signage. But over the past few years, durable, economical foam is often proving to be a smart alternative to wood, plastic and paper stock that aims to hang around for a while.

Today, Gatorfoam and its cheaper but similar cousin, budget foam, can be flawlessly fabricated into virtually any conceivable form as a ceiling-hung or wall-mounted eye-catcher, and at a considerable discount compared with wood, plastic or metal signage and decor.

Its advantages are plentiful: It's lightweight, allowing it to be handled, shipped and installed at lower costs (foam can be hung or mounted by one person instead of two or three, as is the case with heavier materials like wood); custom colors and images (including blown-up four-color photos) can easily be laminated, silk-screened or painted onto its surface; and it allows for greater creative flexibility and artistic expression (2-D and 3-D dimensionality, cutouts, sculpted shapes, etc.). With the right handiwork and applied materials, it can also perfectly mimic more expensive wood and metal decor pieces. Painted Gatorfoam can cost roughly $11.50 for a piece 10" high and about 1" thick; budget foam can cost about $3 less, though prices can vary widely.

"There used to be a bad rap on foam in the past that it was a very cheap and porous material that crumbles and falls apart after a few years," says Bruce Dych, president of Design Fabrications, Inc., a Troy, Michigan-based designer and manufacturer of store interior decor. "But today we use a higher-density foam with smooth surfaces and edges. These substrates have come a long way from the old days. Now, from a few feet away, you can't tell if it's foam or a more costly product."

Martin Cross, program development manager at Brantford, Ontario-based Storeimage Programs, Inc., a manufacturer of signage and fixtures for chains like A&P and Shaw's Supermarkets, says foam lends a "higher-end, upscale look to the store. You can decorate your departments for a distinguished effect by adding some dimensionality to the lettering and graphics on their signs that is much more expensive to do with wood and plastic."

CATCHING ON TO FOAM

Because they serve as the perfect base for digital photos and other graphics, more stores are opting for foam, according to Kelly Wasson, display consultant at AdMart, an interior signage manufacturer in Danville, Ky. "A picture is worth a thousand words," Wasson says. "And foam, which ranges from 3/4-inch to 3 inches thick, offers more thickness and weight than card stock."

Dych says he notices plenty of foam being used for informational and institutional type signage (such as aisle markers) in supermarkets. "But we're also using more dimensionally sculpted foam decor and larger-than-life 3-D pieces, especially along the perimeters of produce, dairy and meat departments," he adds. "You see things like hanging fruit and vegetable objects sculpted out of big balls of foam, and more boutiqueing in the aisles, such as foam shaped like building blocks with raised letters spelling out 'baby care' in the baby aisle. Or a huge two-dimensional submarine sandwich shaped from foam that's raised above the deli."

One of Cross's favorites is a departmental sign used at an A&P store that features routed arches made from three different foam materials that are painted and layered onto the sign atop a printed image of the word "dairy," resulting in a sharp, neon-looking effect that instantly attracts the eye.

Another crowd-pleaser is a foam sign hung near the Eight O'Clock Coffee display that sports a high-tech brass polished logo with die-cut foam letters spelling out the coffee brand name. The result is an impressive embossed appearance (see "A most unusual setting," May, page 30).

Another recent trend Dych identifies is the use of local or historic subject matter in graphics or photos that are scanned in, tinged with sepia tones for an antique-looking effect and laminated onto a ceiling-hung or wall-hung sign--for example, a collage of different national flags laminated onto a foam sign hung in the ethnic foods aisle, or the enlarged black-and-white photo of the first Dominick's mom-and-pop grocery store that greets shoppers at some of the chain's supermarkets.

"In upscale stores, we've actually sculpted fabricated contoured foam strips painted with a speckled stone finish that were used as crown molding,"

Dych says. "When it's 14 feet up in the air, you can't tell that it's not wood. And the cost savings are about 40 percent."

Wasson adds that, in addition to wood, metal can be closely mimicked: AdMart uses metal laminates and special gold, silver, and copper paints in both polished (for a highly reflective surface) and brushed (for a less shiny surface) finishes. Looking for a painted stucco look? Use a stipple finish. Formica laminates are another option that can add a wealth of textures and colors to foam signage and decor, especially wall patterns.

Dych says he's even printed ceramic tile designs, applied them to Gatorfoam and hung them on a supermarket wall. "You absolutely can't tell that it's not ceramic," he says.

King Design International, Inc., Eugene, Ore., created huge faux brownstone walls hand-carved from foam throughout several Gelson's supermarkets in the Los Angeles area. Each 8-foot-tall modular designed wall, featuring 18- by 30-inch beveled-edge bricks (with every fourth brick carrying a hand-chiseled departmental graphic, such as fruits and veggies in produce), was capped off with a foam cornice contrasted against a chocolate-brown-painted ceiling. "Real brick walls throughout the store would have cost five times as much," says King design director Christopher Studach.

Foam must be handled and installed properly, however. Though composed of cells that are tightly compressed, foam can dent under pressure, so one must take care not to knock it with ladders or broom handles. Wasson recommends using a full-service signage and decor installation company to do the entire job, from fabrication to hanging.

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