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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Uncommon Courtesy, Retro Design & Free Markets

Chef Rebecca Kelly at left

The first time I met Rebecca Kelly was at a local coffee and bagel place near my home. It had not been open too long when I decided to stop in one morning. I was greeted warmly by a courteous, eager young lady. I ordered a large "regular" coffee. Then I asked for some honey they apparently kept it behind the counter. Now on a blog like this I usually bore you with the details of a particular sign technique or color scheme not how I take my morning coffee.  I know you really would not find it important. Which this brings me to my point. The next day when I stopped in, I was hoping to be served by the same warm person. Can you imagine how blown away I was when she said, "Good morning Mr. Sauls." She was already pouring a large regular and handed me the honey. I do not recall introducing myself the previous morning. I can only assume that she had noticed my Sauls Signs embroidered logo on the shirt I frequently wear. I knew from the get-go that Rebecca would always make good. Over time we would develop a friendly give and take and it was not long before her greeting shifted to, "How's my favorite graphic-artist?"

I was shocked and disappointed one morning to learn that Rebecca had moved to another location and then was gone altogether.

A New Venture

Several months had passed and I received a phone call. Before I could finish my obligatory Sauls Signs may I help you, I heard "How's my Favorite Graphic-artist!" Rebecca was launching Street Chefs and needed graphics for Stella, her new, old food service truck. Which we were happy to provide. Although at that point I thought the whole food-truck thing to be sort of silly, my gut told me if anyone can make it go here in Tallahassee it would be her. 

It was not long after that that I began seeing Stella parked at different locations around town and even parked on ML King Boulevard, in front of my shop each Wednesday at the newly re-developed Doug Burnette Park (part of the City of Tallahassee's Gaines Street revitalization). It was there that she told me of the Food Truck Association, of which she was president.

 Rebecca later told me of her cooperative work with the City of Tallahassee to bring a Food Truck Court to Tallahassee's downtown and G.St. area. It was to "Occupy" the empty city property where the former Johns Building had sat.

Chef Kelly once again called upon us to create a sign, this time I would be designing for the City of Tallahassee's approval as well.

Street Chefs Video Clip can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0PguxnUZak&feature=player_embedded

Smooth Sailing

 Any designer can tell you that designing for folks unknown, through a third party can be a prickly task.

So I listened closely to Rebecca's wishes and designed something colorful and with some bounce to it.

 I was delighted by the respect that the city's people showed to the integrity of my design. All of their input was reasonable. Typically this is where layouts can really get off coarse. 

Here is the hand painted sign on my bench at the shop.

I felt that the retro look I sought for could best be achieved by choosing type that had a hand drawn flair. The script was designed by my friend Charles Borges de Oliveira, of California. Charles had been a sign painter before moving exclusively into typeface design. The man understands the brush and his scripts are always something special.

 

My Daughter Marianne, Helped me with the install.

Now I shall ruminate

I was glad to see Mark Beaudoin at the soft opening of the Food Truck Court. Mr. Beaudoin is with the City's Real Estate Division. It had been years since I had seen him. We were both impressed by the turn out at todays pre-opener. State workers were lining up to be served by the 4-5 food service trucks and it is my understanding that very little advertising had been done. It was exciting to be there installing the sign as the soft opening was actually taking place. As a fiscal conservative I am delighted to see this project here. It will bring in revenues to the city on a property that is off on the tax roles, provides a lucrative spot for the Food Truck Entrepreneurs, gives me a better variety of lunch choices and get folks down to the Gaines St.

 I own a small business in the All Saints Neighborhood, just off Gaines St. A Sauls has operated a business at that location since the 1920s. It is my understanding that at one time this runned down industrial like area had been a fine part of town. I see this FTC as a ingenious move that can only be helpful in moving things along towards a happy place. And all without muddying up my free-market sensibilities. On a selfish note it was great to get some business from the city and see progress after enduring the G. St. Construction. I am glad to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Now next time you see Beaudoin tell him to try one of the sliders from Street Chefs or a buffalo chicken taco from Taco Gringos. This should give him another reason to smile.

Cape St. George Lighthouse Progression, Part III: Let Your Light Shine Before Men

Machines, Men & Muscle: It's not all paint chips and crayons. 

When you have been a sign-maker for a short time you'll realize that it is like wrestling

an octopus.

This craft demands that you know a little about many other crafts and trades. The variety of overlapping skills that are required to do this creatively means networking and relying upon the expertise of others.

  Allen Boatright of Boatright Timber Service milled the old growth cypress posts for the project. Allen is a family friend. When asked if he had anything (cypress) he could cut 14 foot posts from,
he mentioned a couple of logs in the timber-yard that had been drying for two years. When I arrived he had already milled the CSGL's posts and was milling some planks on the powerful band saw shown to the right. Boatright sits on the Board of Directors of The Florida Forestry Association, has served as National Chairman and is Chairman of Florida's "Log A Load For Kids" charity.

  

For at least 25 years I have been able to count on David Watson and his staff

at Iron Images, Inc.

Watson has the down to earth quality of taking my ideas

and doing what it takes to make them happen, properly.

The powder-coated, welded framing is secured to the custom milled posts, before they are set in the ground.

 A Surprise for the Folks at CSGL: 

 

The restored Light is from circa 1852. I wanted to include just one more special touch. So I deviated slightly from my originally submitted design by carving "1852" into the post ornamentation. Sixteen of these 1/2 inch disks were fashioned on the CarveWright machine. 

The MDO sign panels are "sandwiched" between the layering of the carved and blasted HDU head-piece. It was coated with two applications of fiber glass resin, and finished with 100% acrylic paints.

Terry Kemp, Secretary of The St. George Lighthouse Association and Pandora Schlitt a  CSGL supporter,

were present for the long awaited installation of the

Park's newest addition. 

A special thank you to Jim & Terry Kemp, George Floyd of the Apalachicola Maritime Museum and The Franklin County Tourist Developement Council.The Cape St. George Light sign will easily be one of the most memorable

projects of my career. St. George Island has changed dramatically since my childhood visits. Any trip to the island remains special. Please visit the CSGL Park and climb the Light's spiraled staircase. See for yourself why Franklin County can be so proud of what these folks have accomplished.

Cape St. George Light Progression: Part II, Spacial Embellishments

Adding Dimension

 In the first part of the progression I shared some of the painting techniques utilized on the CSGL project. Here we continue as I reveal some steps we used to create graphics with sandblasting.

Paper patterns are cut out by hand and panel shapes are drawn around the patterns to be cut out with a sabre saw. Multiple layers of the logo components will be stacked together until  a sturdy depth is achieved.

 

Next a rubbery adhesive stencil is rolled out and affixed to the panels. The graphics/letters are drawn on to the stencil. Here we wish the letters to be recessed, so our letters are cut away and peeled off. The raw green areas are left exposed and when blasted, material will be removed by the abrasive sand. Below are the raw elements of the Visitors Center/Maritime Museum art.

Little Touches add a Lot:

 

The loosely assembled head piece shot at an angle allows us to see both the layering of the HDU pieces as well as the pleasing chisel-carved tapering on the banner's layers. Rather than simple stacked planes, Which were my original plan.

More Soon to Come

Cape St. George Light Park Progression: Part1, Design and painted portions

The Light and The Glory

In the fall of 2012, I was contacted by Terry Kemp the secretary of St. George Light Association.

They were interested in updating the current sign at the Cape St. George Light Park. This organization of volunteers are largely responsible for St. George Island's pride and centerpiece, the newly restored 1852 era lighthouse. I jumped at the chance to see the site and was thrilled to be invited down. Mr. and Mrs. Kemp gave me the tour and after climbing to the top of the spiraled staircase my legs were so wobbly that I was not sure if I would be able to do a quick sketch which is my custom. On the way down the steps they nonchalantly mentioned how thick the brick walls were and that they were the original bricks painstakingly cleaned of mortar by volunteers. 

Photos from

 http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=592

 and  www.stgeorgelight.org

For a century and a half Hurricanes and lesser winds had hammered

The Cape's Light. To the left you see her leaning in photo taken after 1995.

Bold action was taken to correct the 7 degree tilt. A campaign called Save The Light, By the Apalachicola Times and St. George Light Society helped raise money and trued the familiar landmark reinforcing her concrete base. They believed that that their efforts had saved her. But the churning gulf is never still. On October 15 of 2005. The beacon finally succumbed to the inevitable. 

On December 1, 2008,

 The restored Cape St. George Light was opened to visitors at her new location. It is rightfully a source of pride and a must see for anyone visiting Franklin County Fl.

My rough sketch done on location with Jim & Terry Kemp on my first visit to the CSGL

and my finished design which was accepted by St. George Lighthouse Association, Apalachicola Maritime Museum and Franklin County Tourist Development Council.

 The new sign will serve two purposes: identifying the Park which include the Light itself, it's Museum & Gift Shop as well as the island's Visitor Center and be a photographic backdrop for visitors. The sign will largely be hand-painted with some decorative, dimensional pieces. I will be going to great lengths to add some dimensional effects even to the flat painted areas.

Hard Edged

The panels are 3/4 inch thick medium density over-laid plywood or MDO. MDO has always been an exceptional product used in the sign industry. Because of the extreme coastal environment we took special care to prepare the panels with great attention paid to the edges.

Above are the Four 36x96 inch panels. The edges have been sanded and all holidays filled. Face edges are slightly rounded over to better accept two applications of protective marine grade epoxy. All before priming and finish coatings were applied.

Some Tricks I've Taught My Paint to do...

On some portions of the project I chose to utilize paint masks, The County's tourism logo features

a loose script with a gradient. The top of the the "Franklin" script is dark and gently lightens to a subtle aqua tone. This is achieved by laying on 3 colors and blending them together with a small paint brush. By relying on the mask to actually form the graphic itself I could concentrate on getting the blend to emulate the beautiful hues of the coastal shore.

 Sign Panel on the shop bench

In this close-up of a few letters I have demonstrated a faux 3D effect.

How to paint a flat letter with an indicated beveled edge. A source of light is chosen. 4 tints of gold are mixed, 1 being the lightest, and 4 being the darkest. The light source is from the top and the left. So the gold color #1 is on that side of the letter. Gold color #4 is bottom and slightly to the right. #2 and 3 make up the far left and right respectively. You'll notice that by adding some smaller gold breaks/daubs into the adjacent color at the curves a gentle illusion of blending takes place.  A darker shade of the background paint was mixed and a drop shadow was painted to the lower right of CSGL to further replicate a third dimension on the "flat" painted portion. 

Work is in Progress More Soon to come...

Animal Medical Clinic:Logotype & Sign "Re-face"

Dr. Tim's Dilemma

 Tim Mountain, DVM of Tallahassee's own Animal Medical Clinic
was faced with a problem that many long-time small business face.
His faithful old sign had indeed served him well but it was time for change. The redwood faces had been puttied and re-painted at least one too many times. Something had to give. This is where we came in.

The Sign post while not exactly true were sturdy as ever and structurally sound. By only re-facing the sign we were able to keep the structure of the sign and save some expense.

 

A NEW FACE

 When a sign-maker is allowed to design a logo it is a special day. I relish every opportunity. Often graphic designers are so caught up in producing art for print that they rarely consider the unique demands for effective sign layout. Dr. Mountain would have a design with full rights that will work for signs, print and web. When Dr. Mountain asked if I had any ideas my response was, I am silly with them.

 What I am about to share with you is a glimps of my creative process. In the following conceptuals or thumbnails you can see how one idea frequently spins another one off. It is one of the most delightful yet frustrating parts of my work. Knowing when to turn it off is difficult, there is always that urge to do just one more.

From the very beginning I felt that a whimsical, nearly child-like approach should be taken because many feel as though their pets are their children. It is not the pups nor Dr. Tim  alone that I ultimately wished to please. I wanted to touch an emotional chord with the pet owner who needed help.

 As these concepts were presented to Dr. Tim, he kept pulling me back towards a more professional look. A simple line drawing of a dog and cat would be the foundation of the new brand. I employed only curved lines to give the drawn characters a soft appeal and utilized a type-face designed by the late Mike Stevens. It is a workhorse of a font, legible enough for body text yet with enough flair, making it perfect for display as well. These two design ploys added that touch of whimsy, and the clean layout retained the dignity that Dr. Tim's AMC has earned. 

                                                              

At last a winner is SNIFFED OUT

Going Dimensional

 At the close of last year we purchased a new piece of machinery which would allow me to

do some dimensional letters and graphics in-house. All of the elements of Dr. Tim's AMC sign were cut on the CarveWright machine from 1/2 inch thick PVC. While it is no heavy duty CNC router, it proved perfect for this application. To see the CarveWright in action watch their TV spot.

Below are some shots of the project's 
components while in production along with the finished piece.