Ranching in Colorado means extremes. Specifically, the weather is a constant consideration in all aspects: livestock, buildings, property maintenance, and even signs. Castle Peak Ranch, located in Colorado’s North Park region, has not just one, but SIX affiliated ranches to manage and maintain. Accordingly, the owners wanted new entrance signs that displayed a consistent identity throughout, featuring their new logo. Additionally, the signs had to be highly durable and sturdy. Castle Peak’s owners also liked the idea of using oversized logs in some fashion for all six entrances. Most importantly, the new entrance signs had to withstand North Park’s variable weather conditions, as mentioned.

The materials and design process

As noted, durability is an important consideration for ranch signs. So, the first material we thought of using for the signs’ identity graphics was water-jet cut steel. Fortunately, the jet-cutting process is highly accurate, versatile and detail-focused. That is, it can reproduce extremely fine detail, including tiny lines and various shapes. For example, the Castle Peak Ranch layout, pictured above, features two western ranch scenes, both made of steel with water-jet cutouts. Additionally, the ranch’s new logo can be entirely reproduced using the water jet process.

Usually, we like to present our clients with at least three layout options. However, for Castle Peak Ranch, we provided four layouts that range from simple to more complex, and vary in theme and material usage, as shown, below:

Castle Peak log structure