Carrabelle Saga: Part 3, Get Hooked

 I was delighted to hear from Carrabelle's Beautification Committee about their interest in a proposed Entry-way sign. I had always wanted to create one of these signs. In my view it would be a very prestigious project, designing a sign that would play such a pivotal role in defining the first impression of a town for visitors. I was grateful to even be considered for this project.
 The committee was interested in a sandblasted sign similar to one they had seen in another coastal town. When I asked about their targeted budget I knew that we could step it up another notch or two and go further with dimension.

  I was given only two directives at the beginning of the design process. It should reflect a fishing town and have a roped border.
We did several conceptual roughs one which featured the Crooked River Light, another with a local shrimping boat, The Miss Carrabelle and a final design with a fishing lure behind the lettering. The committee suggested going with a plain fish hook instead. That was a good decision. A tagline was added, "Get Hooked"

After my proposal was considered the committee asked a strange question. What would my price be if they purchased two more at the same time? I had never made a single entry-way sign. Now I was faced with the very real prospect of three at once!

I have done some really creative things with high density celled urethane or HDU. Yet I knew so much more was possible with this amazing product. It can be sandblasted, hand-carved or machined. With an ample budget we could do some interesting things, but the fact that there would be three meant that some mass production methods should be considered. For the carved rope borders and planking some automated routing or CNC routing was called for. Aaron Taylor a 3D sign specialist in Pensacola, Fl was instrumental to me for this phase of the project. Enabling me to focus in on the design and specialty finishing effects.

Texture:

Even though the layout was simple it would not be plain. I would rely upon texture and color to enhance the whole.
 The plank shapes started out flat. I wished to carve incised grain into them. So I created a tool which could do many at a time. The graining had to be done in a reasonable amount of time and still be very organic in appearance.


This was my solution

A dry-wall mudding blade with holes drilled along the end. The holes were dented along the trailing side of the holes. In theory when dragged backwards across the HDU the dents should act similar to a cheese grater. As you can see it worked perfectly.

The hook was cut out of HDU and then rounded by hand with a rasp. Again texture was to be featured I wanted an extremely smooth hook to play off of the coarse wood grain of the planks.

Painting Technique:

 The planks would have a weathered appearance, achieved by coating the planks with a suitable blue. Then tinting the same blue paint a bit lighter and rolling it on selected areas with a rubber brayer that is used for print-making. The firmness of the roller would allow me to only apply this lighter tint on the surface not into the darker incised grains. This tinting and rolling was repeated three times.

Applying the Mica:

The smooth brilliant hook was achieved by sanding and multiple layers of sprayed on high build primer. The finish coat would not be mere metallic paint. They would be coated with mica powder.

 This was a technique that I had heard about from others. It is actually a type of gilding. A yellow tinted coating of slow drying varnish (called size) is applied to the hook. When the size tacks up some, ground mica is dusted on to the surface with a soft makeup brush. Mica is a mineral, these sparkly powders are the metallic flecks in many paints. This technique proved very effective. It is a little less brilliant than actual gold leaf but more so than gold paint.

The Fishing Line Dingbats:

Within some layouts there are blank areas or negative space. These are important. They allow the eye to fix upon the dominant message of a sign. This does not mean that they have to remain entirely empty. Often a designer will make them more interesting by adding subtle items of interest that should enhance but never compete with the message. These decorative devices are referred to as dingbats by old school sign-folk.

Here I have carved a trough for the nylon rope to be embedded into. The lengths were carefully measured and fitted in them. After protecting the planking and hook with painters tape the thin rope was coated with fiberglass resin and tacked into place before priming and painting. The final coating on my dingbats were a very shear iridescent blue. I wanted the line to shimmer as some mono-filament fishing lines do. As you can see the loops fill up the negative spaces and direct your eye completely through the message but not away from it.

A fourth sign was also ordered about one year later that would replace the sign in the town itself. It would be a bit more formal yet follow the same styling. 

To be Continued...