3D Gold Plated Signage in Dubai: What the Gold Finish Actually Is
Gold signage covers three different things that look similar from across a lobby and behave completely differently over five years. 3D gold plated signage in Dubai is worth understanding before ordering, because the cheapest version and the most durable version are not the same product at all.
Letter height: Up to 30 cm · Location: Indoor · Installation: Supply and install
An estimator replies with a firm, VAT-inclusive price and a production date.From your file to the finished job.
Six steps happen between the brief and the finished job. Here they are, in the order they happen on our floor in Dubai South.
Titanium Coating Is the Durable One
A gold toned coating is applied to stainless steel in a vacuum chamber, bonding at the surface. It is extremely hard, it does not tarnish, and it is the finish used on most permanent gold signage in the region.
Real Plating Is Thin and Soft
Electroplated gold is genuine metal, applied in a layer measured in microns. It looks warmer than a coating and it wears at the edges and anywhere hands touch it, which on a door push or a reception sign happens quickly.
Painted and Foiled Versions Exist
Gold paint and gold leaf are both legitimate choices for interiors, and at a distance they read convincingly. Up close neither has the depth of a plated surface, and neither tolerates cleaning well.
The Base Metal Shows Through Eventually
Whatever the method, there is another metal underneath. Where the finish wears, that base appears. Choosing a base close in tone to the finish means the ageing is gradual instead of abrupt.
Shade Varies More Than People Expect
Gold finishes range from pale and brassy to deep and red. Two suppliers' gold will not match, so a sign added later to an existing scheme should be made by whoever made the original or sampled against it carefully.
Sampled Before Committing
We make a sample piece in the proposed finish and look at it in the actual space, because gold shifts noticeably under warm and cool lighting.
We would rather set the expectation now. No gold finish is maintenance free in a public building. Fingerprints, cleaning products and sunlight all act on it, and a gold sign in a busy entrance needs the right cleaning routine or it will look tired long before it has worn.
Related: stainless steel signage, metal letters, and metal name plates.
What you get.
- Letter height
- Up to 30 cm · 30–60 cm · 60–100 cm · Over 1 m
- Location
- Indoor · Outdoor
- Installation
- Supply and install · Supply only
- Turnaround
- Typically 7–14 working days after artwork approval
- Proof
- A digital proof before anything prints
- Delivery
- All seven emirates, or collect from Dubai South
What every order includes
- A free prepress check on your file
- A digital proof before anything prints
- One VAT-inclusive quote with a production date
- Delivery to all seven emirates, or collection from Dubai South
Setting up your file.
- 01Send the logo as a vectorLetters and shapes are cut from your outlines, so we need AI, EPS, SVG or PDF, not a screenshot or a JPEG.
- 02Measure the real spaceWidth, height and a straight-on photo of the wall or fascia. The tape measure often disagrees with the drawing.
- 03Send names as textFor plates and directories, send names and titles in a document, so nothing is retyped from an image.
- 04Tell us about power and the wallFor lit signs, where the nearest power point is. For every sign, what the wall is made of.
Quick answers.
Titanium coating on stainless, comfortably.
Only if sampled against the original.
Yes, with a coated stainless base.