Lifestyle: Food & Drink – Signage company puts its stamp on Penny Blacks

A BIRMINGHAM design company has helped to give one of the city’s bars a new look by putting its name in lights.

HNS Signs was commissioned to work on the refurbishment of popular Mailbox venue, Penny Blacks.

The venue, one of Birmingham’s busiest waterfront bars took advantage of The Mailbox’s redevelopment and called in interior design company Newman Gauge to work alongside HNS Signs to spruce up its look.

The bar’s new interior features hand-painted ‘distressed’ wall art on doors and walls and a 14-ft neon sign with 240 LED light bulbs.

Nicola Roberts, general manager at Penny Blacks Wine & Ale House, said: “We love our current waterfront positioning and with all the exciting redevelopments taking place at The Mailbox we thought it would be a good time to refresh our own venue.

“We love the new look and the neon and LED lighting piece is a real work of art.  It was a joy to see come together and is certainly a talking point – who else has their name in 240 lights in The Mailbox?”

Michelle Henry, managing director at HNS Signs added: “The Penny Blacks project is probably the most exciting signwriting job we’ve ever had. It’s very rare to get such a challenging and complex project using all of our signwriting skills from hand painted wall art to window vinyls and the fabrication of a 14’ folded aluminium composite panel which had to support both LED bulbs and neon.

“The project was a real team effort with both our senior, skilled and extremely experienced signwriters on site and our latest recruits who are learning the trade through apprenticeship schemes.  I’m extremely proud of the end result and I think a lot of people are probably pleasantly surprised a signage company can deliver such a project – as we do more than just directional signs.”

The bar now features a number of different zones including party booths, lounge area and cocktail bar.

It has also opted to increase its range of drinks and expand its food offering.
The refurbishment will help the venue stand out in what is becoming an increasingly crowded marketplace.

New venues have recently opened up in the adjoining Cube and when the facelift at the Mailbox is complete then footfall to the Waterfront is likely to increase significantly.