Patients and visitors at Sacred Heart Medical Centers planned new Childrens Hospital will look to animal-themed signs to guide them through the facility after it opens.


The signage in the new facility will include fish that will swim around room numbers and birds that will fly above building directories, giving a relaxed, whimsical feel to the new space.


While the walls on which those signs will hang are being erected, the signs are being made down the hill at an East Sprague shop operated by L&L Architectural Sign Inc., a 17-year-old company that specializes in making high-end commercial signs.


Most sign companies make their products out of plastic or plywood, but L&L also uses such materials as foam, glass, ceramics, tile, brick, and a variety of metals, says David Tanner, who owns L&L with business partner Michael Warpenburg. Its signs range in size from interior pieces barely bigger than a business card to a 20-foot-by-20 map and directory of the Spokane Business & Industrial Park that stands near the entrance to the big Spokane Valley complex.


Such variety in work is typically for L&L, says Tanner, adding, Theres not a normal product for us.


In addition to the hospitals animal signs, L&Ls shop recently was filled with a collection of large metal signs etched with inspirational quotations. Theyll eventually be strung together to create a waterfall effect in a new Wenatchee-area junior high school.


In one corner of the sign-making shop stood a large table sign for the Eagle Ridge subdivision that includes a detailed, miniature model of the South Spokane development. L&L is adding onto to the model so it reflects the neighborhoods recent growth.


Interior signs account for a larger amount of L&Ls businessboth in terms of dollar volume and the number of signs it makesthan its exterior signs, Tanner says. About 90 percent of L&Ls work is for customers in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The rest is for projects in Seattle and Portland, he says.


In upcoming months, much of L&Ls work will involve making interior signage for medical facilities here, mostly for the big $130 million expansion and remodeling project at Sacred Heart.


L&L is making 1,000 signs for the hospitals planned new Womens Center and 300 signs for its Childrens Hospital.


In the sign world, thats a big job, Tanner says.


L&L also has begun researching a project that involves updating and replacing all of the signage in the Heart Institute building, located just north of Sacred Heart. Meantime, the company is doing consulting work for new signage in the expanded Valley Hospital & Medical Center.


Tanner declines to disclose contract amounts for those jobs or L&Ls annual revenues, but says the company has grown largely through increased business from established customers.


There are a lot of companies in the Spokane area that have an ongoing need for signs, Tanner says.


L&L made signs for Coldwater Creek Inc.s corporate headquarters in Sandpoint in the early 1990s. When the big mail-order retailer began opening retail outlets a few years ago, L&L made exterior and interior signage for those retail outletsa contract that grew to include dozens of stores in 27 states.


Other repeat customers include the Spokane-area medical centers and several medical and dental clinics, as well as a number of the Inland Northwests universities and colleges and various developers.


Tanner says the most significant portion of the companys business has been the result of its relationships with architectural and design firms. Architects typically come to L&L with creative sign designsthe waterfall of quotes is one of themand ask the company to fabricate them.


Oftentimes, he says, the most creative projects are generated by architectural firms.


Those projects have doubled as client generators for L&L, Tanner says. Through architects, L&L introduces its work to first-time customers, and in some cases, those customers have contacted L&L directly when theyve needed additional signage.


Ron Tan, president of Tan Moore Architects PC, of Spokane, says signs must be designed to blend well with a buildings design, both inside and out.


You cant just hang up a sign and say, Thatll work, he says.


Tan was one of L&Ls first customers and continues to use the company for projects. He says the breadth of the materials L&L works with is an asset for architects.


Also, Tan says, They arent afraid to tackle any project and always come through very professionally and artistically.


Tan, a member of AIA Spokane, nominated L&L for the organizations Master Craftsmanship Award last year, and the sign company received the award late in 2002.


Three people work at L&L. In addition to the two co-owners, Jim Tanner, Davids brother, works there as an associate. David Tanner says the company isnt likely to add employees.


Signage, as we perform it, I dont know how youd train for it, he says.


Tanner started L&L in 1985, after leaving a job in office-furniture sales.


He knew a lot of architects and designers through his furniture sales job and called on many of them to drum up business at L&L.


Warpenburg, who worked in the office-furniture industry with Tanner for several years, bought a stake in L&L in 1990.


In the beginning, L&L specialized in making exterior signs from a hard foam substance that was used to make the lettering on Coldwater Creeks exterior signs.


Few companies in the Spokane area were using the foam to make signs and characters for signs, and L&Ls use of the material soon proved to be popular, Tanner says.


The foam is durable, but its less expensive than other materials and lighter, which makes it easier to hang. Also, when using foam, you can dimensionalize the hell out of it, to create a variety of effects, Tanner says.


In L&Ls first eight years, it made more than 100,000 foam signage letters.


It quickly began branching out into making signs using other materials, and the list of new ideas continues to grow.


For example, the company has made a couple of 500-pound granite golfballs that would come with an oversized golf tee. Tanner says the company is pitching the golfballs, in which a companys name could be etched, as exterior signage for golf courses.