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.

St. George Plantation: Less is more

Mr. Billboard, you've been downsized

We were recently included in the entry redesign at St. George Plantation. It includes a new fence with massive pedestals and landscaping. The redesign also featured a new scaled down dimensional sign. We had provided the original entry sign at least a decade back.

The replacement is placed much closer to the actual entrance than the original and simply did not require it's massive size.

 As a matter of interest the original St. Geo. Plantation sign remains the largest sign (20 ft x 5.5 ft) built in my career, It was one of the largest sandblasted signs in North Florida and designed by Cade and Associates Advertising.

The home-owner's design committee sought an elegant look. A clean, non-rustic design approach was the direction we followed. In this layout I relied upon clean lines, subtle manipulation of contrast and generous negative space to direct the viewers eye to the graphic center.  Font selection was also in the forefront of my mind while designing.  Chuck Davis, founder of letterheadfonts.com created LHF Stanford Script. 

Some procedures:

There are many ways to build a sign. Selecting the right tools is very important. On this project I successfully straddled the fence dividing traditional carving and modern computerized routing.

The basic, 1/2 inch thick HDU elements were first cut out on a small computerized

machine called The CarveWright.

The top edges of the script lettering were removed with carving tools.

Here I was clearing away the corners created by the router's bit.

The chiseling was followed with sandpaper bonded to 

a tongue depressor.  As you can see the upper characters have a smooth rounded face.

After the characters were primed and painted polyurethane construction adhesive was spread on the backs. The lettering and osprey graphic were affixed

a top their embossed counterparts on the 2 inch thick sandblasted panel shown below.

Slight texturing and levels of dimension can add variety within a design.

This variation within a layout holds our attention and gives the positive impression that a lot more is going on even though the composition is quite simple.

The back of the sign would be in view. The pressure treated 4x4 posts

were wrapped with white .04 gauge sheet aluminum.

P/T while durable in the elements does tend to crack and warp eventually.

This aluminum treatment is a eye pleasing solution for exposed structural framing.

A Southern Compass Finds True North

Some clients just "Get it"

Lanny Lewis and his partners at Southern Compass Outfitters saw an opportunity at the revamped Miracle Plaza on the outskirts of Tallahassee's Midtown area. With only some of the retail spaces actually completed this open air shopping center is already gaining major attention. In todays retail market a brick and mortar presence simply is not enough. Sophisticated consumers are looking for a complete shopping experience as they venture out. Lewis's corporate background in marketing and branding came into play as he planned a focal point for the new store.

 Lewis and company went so far as to meet me at a lumber supplier in order to select the actual boards which would be fashioned into the finished piece.

They drool for old school

At SCO they were looking for a sign to be stationed upon a masonary wall, thickly mortared using reclaimed brick. It turned out awesome. The focal point sign simply had to be painted in order to have authenticity, under the drop down lighting. A computerized, cookie-cutter approach was not going to get it here. Here is a brief look at my process.

After the panel's boards were assembled. I brushed on 5-6 very thin washes of acrylic paint building up to some what opacity towards the graphic center where the logo would be.

With Photoshop's insertion of sophisticated effects in modern day graphics at the mere click of a mouse (Such as elements within a layout that fade to nothingness). The traditional sign-painter must plan and skillfully manipulate his quiver of techniques to achieve them in reality/paint.  These fades are strategically placed to enhance the legibility of content by not allowing two elements to conflict.

Please visit Southern Compass Outfitters, They are excited to be here with their unique lines. Clothing brands for both life-style and the outdoors.

A Veterans Haven at TCC

Going beyond the ordinary

A close up view of LIBERTY: UNFINISHED GRACE

A piece painted for an Independence Day event several years ago. Incorporated into a wall treatment.

  When Bill Hunter of Tallahassee Community College called us out to discuss creating a simple timeline of  U.S. military history in the college's new Veterans Center, neither of us had a clear idea of where the project would ultimately lead. I had worked with Bill Hunter, David Wildes, Ann Robeck and others in Facilities and Construction for nearly a decade. Up until this undertaking the sign projects on campus were of a straight forward nature.  I was very pleased that TCC's administrative team allowed me to give so much artistic input, not only on the timeline but other decorative treatments within the center.

The Veterans Center will be a place where TCC's student veterans can relax, study, be acknowledged and advised about their benefits that they have earned for their service.

TCC's Fallen are also remembered.

Faculty and staff are recognized.

A close-up of the timeline and its placement in the entryway below.

I wish to acknowledge Steve Owens along with Administration at TCC: President, Jim Murdaugh, Vice President, Teresa Smith and Vice President, Sally Search for their leadership in turning this dream of TCC's student veterans into a reality.

Westminster Oaks: A Labor of Love, Part II

Getting in a slow hurry

  As I continue to relate my Health Center sign experience it would be wise to interject a few pertinent facts to avoid giving you to a false impression. When you see photos compiled into a short piece as in this blog, it is easy to assume that all of this work came about at once or within a very short period of time. The truth is this project came to fruition over a period of several years. First the sketches were created and estimates given. Some of these hand drawn roughs even saw publication within the pages of SignCraft Magazine before Westminster Oaks' Shannon Sauls and I actually moved forward with the production of the cafe signs themselves.



A snippit of a page from an article I wrote about quick-sketches featuring the roughs.

 Those pieces for Canopy Oaks and Garden View came first (shown in part I) and were made in secession with several months in between. She was very gracious to give me the breathing room that required to pull these off.  I was experimenting with several techniques that were new to me,  Sauls demonstrated an unusual level of confidence in us. I assured her that her patience would be rewarded by something special.

Cafe of the Friends (According to an internet French to English translation site)

 Cafe Des Amis's sign was for the last of the eateries. The client had shown me a painting of a french, side- walk cafe and requested that the direction of Amis's design be based upon that object of art. I took the dark blues and brick reds and incorporated them into my design. Over the top very opulent decor was envisioned. What follows is a peek into how we pulled off this piece.

 

The main feature of this piece was to be the decorative frame. This runs against my nature as sign-painter making any part of a sign more interesting than it's message. The frame was not off the shelf it was a custom design start to finish. A machine carved piece of 1/2" sheet PVC. Then finished with a specialty paint which has a high content of metal ground into it. While the paint is still wet a acidic wash it sprayed on to it creating an actual patina. 

Creating production files for the CarveWright machine can be simple or as complicated as the designer wishes to go. Above: a hand drawn half face was rendered then scanned. The scan was imported into Adobe Illustrator document. This scanned drawing would serve as a guide that vectored lines would be painstakingly placed over. Once the half face was completed the lines would be duplicated and mirrored for the other half (no sense in re-inventing the wheel on a symmetrical design). The vectored shapes were assigned gray scaled fills with special attention places upon gradients.

The CarveWright Designer Program has the unique ability to take a gray scaled image and assign different carving depths to the graduations. For the finished file the deeper cuts were the darkest grays, the lighter shades remain closet to the highest plane of the PVC. Shown below: The file used and a photo of the carved components after they were removed from the machine.

For the love of the brush

We finally leave the high tech portion and return to my realm.

The type face that was selected was Atkinson's French Condensed. Type face may be actually misleading because it was a sign-painters alphabet not necessarily used in this form for the printing press.

This Alphabet was pulled from Frank H. Atkinson's master work, "Atkinson" Signpainting Up To Now. Originally published in 1909. It has remained a wealth of information and an inspiration for more than a century. It is a window into sign-painting's past. Much has been lost, forgotten and shamefully abandoned merely for the sake of speed.

A close-up of the painted portion of Amis' panel shows a crackle effect. This antique texture was developed by a personal friend of mine, Mark Fair of Montgomery, Al.

Mark was the first president of Creative SignMakers of America. His work has been featured in trade magazines and major motion pictures. The link below will take you to an article featuring his crackle technique which appeared in Signs Of The Times.

www.signweb.com/content/fabricating-antique-style-signage

Creating the cafe and bistro signs for Westminster was a terrific experience. It allowed me to move further towards an understanding of dimensional sign-work.  Including: layering, carving, sculpting and some specialty painting effects. I do hope that the little extras are brightening the days of the Health Center's residents which was everyone's intent.  

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