Plumb Signs designed, fabricated, and installed a four-sign exterior brand-identity program for Metropolitan Market at 5010 Point Fosdick Dr in Gig Harbor — the Seattle-based premium grocer’s store on the west side of the Tacoma Narrows. The program covers the building exterior end-to-end: a reverse-channel halo-lit metropolitanmarket wordmark on the storefront wall, a round illuminated cabinet logo wall-mounted alongside it, and a pair of double-faced push-through monuments at the parking-lot approach.
The headline interior pieces of the program — the 2′-6″ tall halo-lit dimensional letters and the 5′-6″ diameter aluminum round-cabinet logo with white acrylic faces — are the brand identity from the street. The letters are stood 1½″ off the exterior wall so the white-LED back-illumination throws a clean halo against the building cladding at night without any visible light source on the face of the letter. The round cabinet logo carries the registered mark with even-lit translucent faces. Both assemblies are UL-listed and built on Class 2 low-voltage white-LED systems.
The two parking-lot monuments are a different construction problem. They’re 10′ long by 5′ tall double-faced aluminum cabinets, 12″ deep, with their primary sign bodies skinned in Ipe — a dense Brazilian hardwood that grocery and architectural design teams reach for when the storefront wants the warmth of timber paired with the durability of a marine-grade hardwood. Routed-out copy on the inner sign face is backed with white acrylic and white LEDs for night legibility, framed by a 1″ aluminum reveal, and set above a 10′-long finished concrete base. The whole assembly was fabricated in our Tacoma shop and trucked twelve miles west across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to Point Fosdick Drive for set.
Project Snapshot
Metropolitan Market
(Met Markets Inc., Seattle)
5010 Point Fosdick Dr
Gig Harbor, WA 98335
2021
Four-sign exterior brand-identity package — building wordmark, round cabinet logo, and a pair of double-faced parking-lot monuments
Reverse-channel halo-lit dimensional letters · Round illuminated aluminum cabinet logo · Double-faced Ipe-wood-skinned push-through monuments
Retail & Grocery Signage · Premium Grocery Storefront
Design coordination · Shop drawings & CAD · Structural & electrical engineering · Aluminum fabrication & welding · Ipe-wood skin selection, fit, and finishing · LED engineering & illumination · Automotive-grade finish · Concrete base coordination · Permitting & code compliance · Installation & electrical hookup
Four Views · One Storefront Program
The Metropolitan Market Gig Harbor program reads as one connected brand presence — from the halo-lit wall identity to the Ipe-wood-skinned parking-lot monuments. Each piece was drafted, fabricated, finished, and installed by the same team in our Tacoma shop. Tap any view to enlarge.
The Ipe-Wood Monument Pair
Two 10′ × 5′ × 12″ double-faced aluminum cabinets, primary sign body skinned in Ipe hardwood, set above a 1′-5″ × 10′ finished concrete base. Inside that envelope sits a 9′ × 4′-6″ × 16″ aluminum sign body with routed-out logo and copy, backed with white acrylic and back-illuminated by white LEDs — framed by a 1″ aluminum reveal so the wood reads first and the brand reads second.
Ipe is the right material for a Pacific Northwest premium grocery storefront because it does both jobs: it carries the warmth and craft signal a brand like Metropolitan Market wants at the curb, and it stands up to wet PNW winters without the maintenance burden of a softwood. The cabinets are UL-listed, fed from a Class 2 driver bay with rear service access, and engineered so a future LED-module or driver swap never requires pulling the wood skin.
- · Double-faced 5′ × 10′ cabinet
- · Ipe-wood primary skin
- · Routed push-through copy
- · White acrylic backing
- · 1″ aluminum reveal
- · Finished concrete base
- · Class 2 white-LED system
- · UL-listed assembly
Fabrication & Sign Family
Four coordinated sign types — built to a single brand and visual standard so the storefront reads as one operation from the parking-lot approach to the front door.
Halo-Lit metropolitanmarket Letters
One set of 2′-6″ tall × 4″ deep reverse-channel dimensional letters spelling metropolitanmarket, white-LED back-illuminated and spaced 1½″ off the exterior wall for clean halo throw.
Round Illuminated Cabinet Logo
A 5′-6″ diameter × 4″ deep aluminum sign body housing a 5′-1″ diameter aluminum channel logo with retainer and white acrylic faces, white-LED illuminated. Wall-mounted on the building exterior.
Ipe-Wood-Skinned D/F Monuments
A matched pair of 5′ × 10′ × 12″ double-faced aluminum cabinets, skinned with Ipe hardwood, framing a 4′-6″ × 9′ × 16″ aluminum sign body with routed copy, white acrylic backing, and white LEDs.
Finished Concrete Bases & Reveal
Each monument sits above a 1′-5″ × 10′ finished concrete base, with a 1″ aluminum reveal between the cabinet body and the inner sign face so the Ipe skin and the routed copy each read as a separate layer.
Every illuminated assembly is UL-listed, built on a Class 2 low-voltage white-LED platform, and finished for the wet PNW operating environment. Each cabinet is engineered for rear service access so future LED-module or driver swaps happen without pulling the sign face.
Install day — halo-lit letters going up on the 1½″ stand-off, electrical bay behind the wall.
Design & Engineering
Before anything was cut, our design team produced a full fabrication and engineering set: every letterform dimensioned against the building cladding, the round cabinet logo sized so the registered mark reads at the parking-lot approach, the Ipe-wood monument bodies detailed down to the 1″ aluminum reveal, and every LED layout balanced for even illumination across the face.
- · Full fabrication drawings for letters, cabinet, and monument bodies
- · Electrical & structural schematics for the LED bays
- · Stand-off geometry tuned to the building cladding
- · Concrete-base coordination for the monument pair
- · City of Gig Harbor sign-permit submittal
A single CAD set carried the program through fabrication, permitting, and install — same drawings, same dimensions, same hardware schedule, start to finish.
Why This Approach Works for a Premium Grocery Storefront
A premium grocer like Metropolitan Market is selling a different promise than a national chain — curated, craft, locally-attuned. The signage has to deliver that promise at first glance, from the parking-lot approach and again at the front door. That means three reads at three distances: the parking-lot monument as the brand handshake at the curb, the round cabinet logo as the registered mark on the building, and the halo-lit wordmark as the daily-use building identifier. All three pieces have to share the same brand and the same construction standard so the storefront doesn’t look like three vendors had three different ideas.
Reverse-channel halo-lit letters work hard for that read because they hold a clean dimensional silhouette in daylight and turn into a soft, low-glare halo at night without a visible light source — the right brand-tone for an upscale grocer. Pairing halo-lit letters with an Ipe-wood-skinned push-through monument is a recognizably architectural choice; the wood reads as a material decision, not a sign-shop default, and the routed copy gives the brand its night-time legibility without forcing a fully face-lit cabinet. The result is a storefront that reads correctly at the curb, at the parking lot, and at the door.
Retail & Storefront Signage in Gig Harbor & the West Sound
Plumb Signs is based in Tacoma — twelve miles east of Gig Harbor across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. We design, fabricate, and install commercial signage for grocery, retail, healthcare, finance, civic, and hospitality clients across Gig Harbor, Fox Island, Artondale, and the broader Gig Harbor and Pierce County market — from halo-lit storefront identities to multi-site brand rollouts.
The whole Metropolitan Market Gig Harbor program — drawings, fabrication, permits, finishes, and install — was produced under one roof at 909 S 28th St in Tacoma and trucked west across the Narrows for set. One team, one chain of custody, one point of accountability if a service call ever needs to happen.
Frequently Asked Questions
What signage did Plumb Signs build for Metropolitan Market in Gig Harbor?
What is a reverse-channel halo-lit letter?
What is push-through copy on a monument sign?
Why use Ipe wood on a monument sign body?
Does Plumb Signs handle City of Gig Harbor sign permitting?
Are the Metropolitan Market Gig Harbor signs UL-listed?
Does Plumb Signs work with other grocery and specialty-retail clients in Western Washington?
Where is Plumb Signs based and where else do you install?
Planning a Retail or Grocery Storefront Program?
From halo-lit storefront letters to round cabinet logos to Ipe-wood-skinned push-through monuments, Plumb Signs designs, fabricates, and installs exterior brand-identity programs for premium retail and grocery storefronts — delivered under one roof from our Tacoma shop.
