Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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DISPLAll MEANS
This invention is concerned with display means/
especially but not exclusively ~or use in or by retail
outlets, as for example in shop windows and the like.
~emporary window signs, such as those which are to
be seen whenever a retail stora is advertising a short~
term promotion, such as the holding of a sale or is
carrying out a particular sales promotion, are to be
found throughout the world. Such signs are used for very
many other purposes, but are predominantly used on the
internal surface of a glass door or window, although they
may be used on products themselves within a retail
outlet.
There are a number of different ways of displaying
messages on a window, namely a first in which individual
characters are formed from a single piece o~ material,
either formed as a cut-out character shape or painted
onto a transparent blank which adheres electrostatically
` to the window, a second in which complete words or
slogans are similarly formed on a single piece of
material, a third in which adhesion of the characters or
words is by use of adhesive-coated characters and
materials, and a fourth in which characters are actually
painted onto such a surface.
Each of the above types of display sign has
drawbacks. In the first and second types recited above,
there is the problem that, when not in use, the
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characters, words or slogans must be stored and o~ten
deteriorate or become damayed as a result. Furthermore,
they only have limited application, depending upon the
number of characters stored; for example, the letter o~
the word 'SALE' may be in a different font, case and/or
size from other characters and so be unsuitable for use
therewith. There is also the additional problem of
alignment of the characters of a word when they are
mounted on a large surface such as a shop window.
~0 If adhesion of characters, word(s) or a slogan is by
use of an adhesive material, then there is the problem of
cleaning the window after removal o-E the characters.
This is also a problem wlth the fourth approach to
display signs in that paint has to be removed from the
window.
With the advent of self-adhesive peelable materials,
there is the opportunity to provide an alternative
solution to the provision of window ~isplays which is
more flexible and economical and easier to use than
hitherto.
The present invention seeks to provide an
alternative means of providing a display essenti~lly of
alphanumeric characters but not necessarily exclusively
thereof, in which not only can the characters be readily
created by the user with a uniqueness of style, but
wherein the essential elements can be used and re-used
and stored easily and can be arranged uniformly prior to
use as a window sign so as to provide a neat,
professional presentation.
Accordingly, the present invention provides re-
usable display means for creating alphanumeric characters
and displays thereof for mounting on flat display
surfaces, the display means comprising a plurality of
like elements, each formed from planar display material
and having the general shape of an elongate rectan~le
having chamfered, tapered or rounded end portions whereby
adjacent elements can be located in juxtaposed
relationship to form alphanumeric characters as
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aforesaid, each element ha~ing a coating or being formed
of or includiny a material whereby it will adhere to a
display surface and can be readily removed therefrom by
peeling or lifting therefrom.
In display means as set forth in the last preceding
paragraph, multiples of said elements may be integrally
formed in end-to-end relationship to provide unitary
strips of said elements. Such an arrangement assists the
creation of characters such as those having a elongate
vertical element as do the letters B, D, E, F, H, I, K to
N, P, R, T and U. It has been found that strips which
are equivalent to two, three or four elements are most
useful in this respect.
In display means as set forth in the last preceding
paragraph, it is preferred that the chamfered or tapered
end portions of each element are each formed at
substantially the same angle oE and within the ranye of
from substantially ~0 degrees to substantially 45
degrees, as this provides considerable flexibility in
forming and designing alphanumeric characters, as will be
explained hereinafter, to provide a unique character set.
Whilst 45 degrees is perceived as an optimum angle,
particularly for non-italicised characters, it will be
appreciated that for some character sets, different
angles may be more appropriate.
Alternatively to the shape of the end portions
specified in either one of the last two immediately
preceding paragraphs, the end portions of each element
; may be curved to semi-circular or elliptical form and the
elongate edges of the generally rectangular shape of the
element may be shallowly curved. In yet another
` alternative form, each element is trapezium-shaped with
each base angle of the trapezium also within the
aforementioned range.
The elements themselves can be formed from any
flexible or semi-rigid material, preferably a plastics
material, made from or coated with or including a
material which will allow the element to be mounted
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removably on a display surface. Such materials include
film-form plastics materials which adhere
electrostatically to surfaces such as of glass, wood and
metal, and materials which are formed from releasably
self-adhesive compositions or are coated, on at least the
surface which is to be applied to the mounting surface on
which a display is to be formed, with such compositions.
For magnetic surfaces, the material of the elements and
strips may comprise magnetic materials or may be coated
at least on one surface with a magnetic coating.
The present invention i-urther provides a former for
use with display means according to the invention for
producing alphanumeric characters, the former comprising
one or more templates each having an aperture therein
which corresponds in outline to the ou~line of one or
more of the characters to be formed.
The present invention also provides a display ki.t
comprising display means according to the invention and
means for assisting correct layout and positioning of
each element to form the characters prior to mounting or
positioning on a display surface, the latter means
comprising a support sheet having indicated thereon a
plurality of markings which correspond to the positions
to be adopted by individual elements in ~he formation o~
each alphanumeric character, in juxtaposition to adjacent
charac~ers, the support sheet having a support surface
onto which the elements can be placed and from which they
can be transferred to a display surface.
The present invention also provides a method of
forming a display of one or more alphanumeric chaxacters
from display means according to the invention, the method
comprising the steps of selecting a plurality of elements
of the display means, assembling the elements in a
preformed template having the external shape required of
the or each alphanumeric character and positioning the or
each alphanumeric character so formed on a display
surface or on a surface from which the or each
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alphanumeric character can be transferred to the display
surface.
The invention will now be hereinafter described with
reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate
5by way of example several forms of element according to
the present invention.
In the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1 is a plan view of a first element according
to the present invention;
10Figure 2 is a plan view of a second element
according to the present invention;
Figure 3 is a plan view of a third element according
to the present invention;
Figure 4 is a plan view of elements of the type
15shown in Figure 1 assembled to illustrate the formation
of the letters `B', `C', `D', `E', `H', `J', `K', `O',
`P', `S', `T', `U' and the numerals `1' to `9';
Figure 5 is a plan view of elements of the type
shown in Figure 3 assembled to illustrate the formation
20of the letters `A', `B', `C',`D', `E',`K' and `S' and the
numerals `1' to `3';
Figure 6 is a plan view illustrating a number of
examples of the formation of the character 'A' using
elements such as are shown in Figure 3;
25Figure 7 is a plan view, showing in enlarged form
the character 'B' seen in Figure 4;
Figure 8 is a plan view of two strips of two and
three integrally-formed elements respectively o~ the type
shown in Figure 1 and which can be used in making
~0alphanumeric characters in accordance with the invention;
and
Figures 9A and 9B are plan views of two templates
according to the invention, selected to .illustrate by way
of example the manner of creation of alphanumeric
35characters according to the invention using those
templates.-
Referring firstly to Figure 1, the element according
to the invention which is shown therein comprises a piece
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lo of flexible plastics material having a length-to-width
ratio of approximately two to one. The element is
rectanyular and has chamfered corners 12 with the length
of each chamfered edge 14 being substantially equal to
the length of the remaining central end edge 16 of the
piece lo.
The element is mount,ed on a piece of backing
material *rom which it can be peeled when required and
onto which it can be replaced after use.
In Figure 2 there is illustrated a second embodiment
20 which has thë same length-to-width proportions as
that shown in Figure 1 but which has semi-circular end
portions as shown.
In the third embodiment, shown in Figure 3, the
element 30 is substantially trapezoidal in shape with the
longer side 32 being about twice the length of the
shorter parallel side 3~ and the width of the element
being about half the length of the shorter parallel side.
This formation provides tapered edges which are at about
45 degrees to the parallel sides of the element.
As shown in Figure 4, elements as illustrated in
Figure 1 can be assembled in side-by-side relationships
to form alphanumeric characters in a number of different
ways. Considexing firstly the characters 'T', 'H' and
'E' it can be seen that each horizontal segment of the
characters is joined to the others by placing the
segments in butting relationship end on to the vertical
segments whereas in other characters, for example in 'U',
'C' AND 'K' the characters are formed by butting the end
edge of some segments with the chamfered edge of othPrs.
Finally, as can be seen in the characters 'J', 'P' and
'S' and in the numerals '2','3','5/,'6','8' and '9', the
segments can be butted together at their chamfered edges
alone.
The flexibility of the system which the present
invention provides is such that the characters can be
formed in a numbsr of different ways without detracting
from the proportions of the characters. If for example,
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a display were to be created from simple rectangular
elements then it i5 quickly established that cerkain
characters have disproportionate gaps or overlaps in
their structure as compared to the size of the character
itself while in some instances it is not possible to
create characters which are not con~usingly similar to
others; this can be readily appreciated from comparison
of the twc characters 'D' and 'O', for example.
Turning now to ~igure 5~ there are illuskrated
further letters of a different style formed from elements
such as are shown in Figure 3. A further comparison of
character variation is shown in Figure 6. The elements
shown in these Figures can, ZIS with those shown in Figure
4, be assembled without disproportionate siziny of any of
the characters due to the shaping of the end portions of
the elements. The effect of this can be most clearly
demonstrated with reference to the characters 'K and 'S'
where other than chamfered end portions would provide
characters which were either too broad or too tall.
In Figure 6, there is shGwn a number of examples of
formation of the character 'A' to demonstrate the
aforementioned flexibility of the use of the elements in
constructing alphanumeric characters.
The elements are readily formable from sheet-form
plastics material mounted on a backing material from
which the elements are readily peelable.
In constructing characters, a former may be provided
which illustrates a complete alphanumeric character set,
including possible variants of some characters, printed
thereon. The former also includes alignment marks which
provide guidance to a user for positioning a backing
sheet of transparent plastics material thereon onto which
the elements of each character can be placed as the
backing sheet is positioned manually on the former to
present each next character space over the character
representation in order to overlay the elements on the
appropriate segments of the representation. For this
purpose the backing sheet is provided as an elongate
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strip which is long enough to form a word or slogan
thereon.
With the characters formed on the backing sheet, the
entire sheet can then be presented to the surface onto
which the characters are to be transferred, and the
backing sheet peeled away. When subsequently it is
desired to remove the characters from the window, they
can be simply peeled away by hand.
Referring now to Figure 8, there are shown therein
two examples of strips of elements according to the
present invention. These two strips are each Pormed as
a single piece so that the strip has the shape of the two
or three elements joined end-to-end. ~y usiny strips of
integrally joined elements, the process of creating and
forming characters is made much easier.
In constructing characters, a series of templates
may be used a~ an alternative to the process described in
the last preceding paragraph but one. The series of
templates provides all of the outline shapes for all the
twenty-six alphabetic characters and for the numbers from
'0 'to `9'. Two such templates are illustrated by way of
example in ~igures 9A and 9B. The template ~5 shown in
Figure 9A is suitable for forming the letters A, C, E, F,
H, I, L, N, 0, Q, T and U and khe numbers 3 and 8, while
the template 42 shown in Figure 9B is suitable for
forming the letters B and P and the numbers 4, 6 and 9.
Wherever a diagonal is present in a character, as in the
letter N, the diagonal element is inserted by hand.
It will also be appreciated that, for those cases in
which it is desired to place the characters onto a front
display surface, a former can be provided on which the
character representations are formed in mirror image.
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