Interwoven — Mirror NYC
Eighteen custom woven metal wall signs fabricated for Mirror NYC’s Interwoven brand identity rollout — a literal take on the name, built from aluminum rod and sheet and finished in Pantone 186 C red.
New York, NY · Custom Woven Metal Wall Signs · 32″ × 16″ × 1.75″ · 18 Units Across 3 Production Batches
The Project
Mirror NYC is a strategic visual communications studio in Midtown Manhattan that handles brand strategy, design, and production across print, digital, packaging, and physical environments. When they took on the Interwoven brand identity rollout, they needed a physical signage element that would make the brand name literal — an actual woven pattern, built from metal, installed at scale.
They designed a 32-inch wide, 16-inch tall wall piece where aluminum rods and flat aluminum strips are interleaved to create a true over-under basket weave. The white “Interwoven” wordmark floats on top of the woven field in Galaxie Copernicus Bold, finished in matte white acrylic. The entire weave is powder-coated in Pantone 186 C — a specific, saturated red that Mirror NYC specified as the brand color.
Mirror NYC brought ShieldCo in as the fabrication partner. They owned the design and the brand strategy. We owned the metal.
The Challenge
Three things made this project harder than it looked.
1. You can’t actually weave rigid metal.
The design called for aluminum rods running vertically and flat aluminum strips running horizontally, interleaved in a real over-under pattern. The problem: aluminum rod and aluminum sheet are both rigid. You can’t thread one through the other the way you would with fabric or wicker. Creating the illusion of a true weave meant fabricating each row independently, bending the strips into precise alternating curves, and assembling the piece so the over-under pattern read as continuous and natural from every viewing angle.
2. Eighteen signs had to be identical.
This wasn’t a one-off art piece. Mirror NYC needed eighteen of these signs, all identical, for a multi-location brand rollout. Every weave had to line up the same way. Every rod had to sit at the same depth. Every letter had to land in the same position. At this scale, even small inconsistencies become obvious when the signs are seen side by side.
3. Tight, staged delivery.
Mirror NYC’s rollout schedule required delivery in three staged batches of six signs each: the first batch in four weeks, then six more two weeks after that, then the final six two weeks after that. Eight weeks from kickoff to the last crate hitting the truck — with zero room to redo a batch if the first one came out wrong.
The Process
Design Translation
Mirror NYC delivered a detailed CAD package with the 3D render, front and side elevations, and edge detail. Our first job was to translate that into something buildable. The side profile called for a 1.75-inch depth with rods passing in front of and behind a mid-plane of flat strips. We broke the piece down row by row and figured out the bend sequence and assembly order that would let us fabricate each sign consistently without trial and error on every unit.
Fabrication
All eighteen signs were fabricated from 1/2-inch aluminum stock — sourced in matched batches so there’d be no variation in material thickness across the run. The vertical rods were cut to length, deburred, and staged. The horizontal strips were cut from sheet and bent to match the over-under profile in a jig we built specifically for this project. Building the jig cost us the first few days, but it paid for itself ten times over by the time we got to batch two — every subsequent sign was set up and assembled in a fraction of the time of the first one.
Once the aluminum rods and strips were assembled into the woven field, the entire piece went into our in-house powder coating booth. We matched Pantone 186 C on an aluminum test coupon first, got Mirror NYC’s sign-off on the real finish (not just a swatch), and then shot every sign with the same powder coat in the same booth in the same conditions. That’s how you get eighteen signs that actually look the same.
The “Interwoven” wordmark in Galaxie Copernicus Bold was cut separately from white matte acrylic, then mounted to the front of each woven field with hidden hardware. We picked acrylic over painted metal for the letters because it holds its white cleanly over time and gives the logo a slight visual lift off the red weave behind it.
Staged Delivery
Batch one — six signs — shipped on week four. Batch two shipped on week six. Batch three shipped on week eight. Every batch was packed, crated, and freighted to Mirror NYC’s facility in Midtown Manhattan. The staged schedule let Mirror NYC begin their installation program without waiting for the full eighteen-unit run to complete.
The Result
Eighteen custom woven metal wall signs, delivered in three staged batches over eight weeks, all finished to the same Pantone 186 C red with the same white acrylic lettering. Mirror NYC got a fabrication partner who could turn a CAD package into reality at scale without drifting from the design intent — and without missing a single batch deadline.
For ShieldCo, projects like this are where our in-house laser cutting, powder coating, and assembly capabilities pay off. We didn’t have to coordinate across three different shops to fabricate, finish, and assemble the Interwoven signs — it all happened under one roof in Frederick, Maryland, which is how we held the deadline.
Project Specs
- Client: Mirror NYC — strategic visual communications studio, New York, NY
- End Brand: Interwoven brand identity rollout
- Quantity: 18 custom wall signs
- Dimensions: 32″ wide × 16″ tall × 1.75″ deep
- Materials: 1/2″ aluminum rod and sheet; matte white acrylic letters
- Finish: Powder coating, Pantone 186 C red
- Typography: Galaxie Copernicus Bold
- Timeline: 8 weeks, 3 staged delivery batches of 6 signs each
- ShieldCo scope: Full fabrication, powder coat, assembly, crating, freight to NYC
Have a Project Like This?
If you’re a design studio, brand agency, or architect with a fabrication challenge that needs to be built right the first time — and the next seventeen times — we’d love to talk. ShieldCo specializes in collaborating with creative teams who own the design and need a partner who can execute at scale without drifting from intent. Our shop in Frederick, Maryland handles design translation, fabrication, powder coating, assembly, and delivery in-house, which is how we hold deadlines when other shops can’t.
Send us your CAD package or sketch and we’ll come back with an honest timeline and quote.