When Your Ship Comes In

Offer a design haven and see who docks

A couple of years ago we were asked to design some displays for trade-shows and conferences for  Florida Ports Council

At just over 7 feet tall this design was digitally printed on banner material

and divided vertically into 3 sections. The sections were loaded into mechanized retractable floor units and positioned side by side for a portable display.

It featured 10 of the seaports in the State of Florida. 

Getting Them Ship Shape

This spring I was again contacted by Jennifer Krell Davis, Vice President of Public Affairs for Florida Ports Council.  FPC had also gone about a Re-branding complete with a clean new logo. She directed the logo design that was produced by Taproot Creative.

I was eager to give FPC an upgrade to the previous sign which we would be replacing. My sign design featured a sandblasted high density urethane foam panel with router cut letters and graphics. The new logo was very crisp and as much as I wished to go very rustic/nautical, I knew that a little of that treatment would go a long way.

Above Jennifer Krell Davis is pictured along with

 Florida Ports Council's C.E.O. and President Doug Wheeler

This One They Got Right: Agency Re-brand

 One month before the roll-out of the Workforce Florida name change and re-branding, I received an invitation to bid on the signage for our Big Bend area. It would have included at least four locations and several varieties of large outdoor displays. It was one of those times that I had to be brutally honest with myself about my limitations, being a small shop focused on quality. I simply would have to pass on the opportunity due to the scope and time constraints. Fortunately, we serve in our State's capital. This means that I was not totally out of this loop. Weeks after turning down the big bend area I heard from the state office about replacing their HQ sign.  

Working on this project was a great experience on several levels. First: Violet Williams the person who contacted us was very discerning and was looking for more than the typical plotter-cut, government-get-by sign.  Secondly: As a matter of fact the new logo was excellent. It was created by Ideas Studio.
They successfully balanced the governmental look with vibrant colors that visually say Florida. Thirdly: Williams said at our first meeting, that she had spent the morning familiarizing herself with our work, on both our website and this blog that you are now visiting! 
I took this as a high compliment and truly wished to present a design worthy of her expectations and the excellent branding of Ideas Studios. It was time.

Color & Dimension

These tools can take a very simple sign layout to the

next level. As for the hues, We took the Pantone colors

the designers had chosen and selected their closest

equivalents in Sherwin Williams Resilience paint line.

I say closest because the PMS colors are for printers

inks which are translucent. light passes through these

inks and is reflected back to our eyes, allowing an 

amazing array of colors to register. Paints however

are opaque allowing us to cover a substrate solidly

without streaks and brush strokes. The physical

difference between these two mediums can sometimes

be a great matching challenge. 

 Pantone Matching System's color swatches and my paint matches.

 Incorporating dimensional graphic components on

to a sign is a great interest booster. These applied

spacial planes draw us in. We are captivated by

physical objects in our environment more so than one

dimensional color changes on a flat surface.

The former is something that we perceive as "real".

1/2 inch, thick Azek (PVC sheeting) after it had been router-cut using

the Carvewright followed by several coats of Resilience.

Getting some face-time, Sign-face time.

A video was released about the Re-brand's roll-out. In it you shall see the new logo being unveiled at public events across the entire State of Florida. Footage of sign replacement is included. I am delighted to share that a close-up pan of our sign at the HQ is the first one featured. Watch video:  Brand launch

The best sign of success...

Is the call back, sometimes it occurs quickly. Career Source Florida's Staff called us back requesting an interior wall treatment for their lobby area in less than a week. 

The interior sign was the exact size of the exterior sign.

Although it does not feature dimensional graphics, placing them on a "floating"

clear acrylic panel does create natural drop shades, pulling our attention in.

As a note of interest, the graphics are plotter-cut, vinyl film which was painted with the same satin finished colors used on the exterior sign. 

Youthful Sign-Maker with the World by the Tail

Creating a Sand-blasted Redwood Sign: A Step by Step

I was thrilled to come across some old photos of one of my very first "blasted" signs. The photos were of poor quality, for this I ask for your forbearance. I am sure that these images are in fact my very first step by step. I suspect them to be from the spring of 1985 or '86.  My clue is that we both are wearing wedding bands in them. As for the layout, I'll just say we have come a long way towards a higher ideal. When we start out we simply do not know the things that we do not know. If we did....we may have never began.

 These were taken before computer aided design was available to the common sign-maker. Computers in sign shops? Such notions were still considered science fiction.

Designs were drawn by hand for client approval.

This was before the internet was common to businesses. These sketches were delivered back to the client for approval or not. Then the process might start all over again with a newly revised hand drawn sketch with a second trip across town, no such thing as e-mail. It was the "Dark Ages" only we didn't know it.

Clear-heart redwood planks were run through a jointer to true up edges before using the drill press. A two part resinol glue was mixed and spread on the edges,

in holes and on wooden dowels.

Here my youthful bride is setting bar clamps across the planks insuring

there would be no gaps between them. Do I have it made or what?

Excess glue is removed from panel with a coarse belt sander.

A rubbery stencil is affixed to the panel and the design is hand-cut

and removed in preparation for the blast.

The exposed wood is blasted away while the areas protected from the blast remain intact.