Helvetica font with medium-sized lettering in proportion with the size and elevation of the building is the current building signage standard for Fresno State. This summer, the engineering building will break away from the norm and create its own signage that will be different from every other building on campus.

This is the first time a building will have a different signage from all the other buildings on campus.

Dana Zupanovich Lucka, director of development for the Lyles College of Engineering said, “The sign is in conjunction with the naming of the college in honor of his family and companies for their gift of $10,000,000 to the College of Engineering. The name change was approved by the CSU Chancellors office.â€Â

Not only is the building getting a new sign but the name of the building changed. Over time, the amount will become $20,000,000 total for the College of Engineering.

Mohamad Elnatour, electrical engineering major said, “I didn’t know about the sign but I think it’s good to have a sign that’s only related to engineering.â€Â

A team of about four men from Taylor Teter Partnership are working on the new sign for the building and the men are, Shaunt Yemenjian, designer; Paul Halajian, designer; Doug Mayer, structural engineer and Santiago Rendon, electrical engineer. They have all come up with sketches, ideas and developed concepts. They are in the process of doing the drawings to give to the contractor.

All the designs were done for free for Fresno State and only recently the school sent a contract.

“This all started as an exercise of the building and it wasn’t looking what we wanted it to look like and it wasn’t something that announces the new image of the building well enough. We wanted something a little more interesting. This is a new College of Engineering,â€Â Shaunt Yemenjian said.

Their objective is to create something that resembles engineering.

“A cantilever is used to take a large object and project it horizontally. You see the exposed parts of the exposed structure. The base of the sign at the top the steel is protruding from the top of it. You begin to see how the sign comes together,â€Â Yemenjian said.

Yemenjian gave an analogy of the sign saying a piece of paper that only has a one piece of straw in it wouldn̢۪t make sense. It can̢۪t stand without the two straws standing it up.

“The campus planning board liked the idea because of the concrete raw materials. The structure of a building isn’t dressed up. If it’s a column, it’s a column, as opposed to looking like a column. No superficial materials. Everything that’s a part of the sign is a part of the sign,â€Â Yemenjian said.

The sign isn̢۪t meant to look flashy, but is still meant to stand out.

“We want to memorialize the contribution from Lyles, but not build a new building,â€Â Yemenjian said. The sign is hopefully going to be done by the end of the summer and the engineering building will have a new character.

“We thought let’s do something that integrates with the sign itself. The College of Engineering is about conveying engineering and body and mathematically solving problems. We want the sign to be a problem that is solved while looking at it,â€Â Yemejian said.