The Sign Invitational, which is happening soon, is a ‘contest’ of sorts, although the contestants are actually really good friends. Each year, Jim Dawson and I invite signmakers and other creatives from around the world to design and build a dimensional sign with a specific theme and bring it to the International Sign Expo to be held in Orlando, Florida, on April 8-10. The twenty-thousand attendees who pass by the booth will have the opportunity to admire them and vote for their favourite. The reason for the ‘contest’ is for the entrants to create a showpiece for their studios and, in the process, hopefully inspire others to do this kind of over-the-top dimensional work. Being at the show is also a chance to hang out with some of the most creative people on the planet, which is always a whole lot of fun. We anticipate that about fifteen signmakers will answer our challenge this year, which should make for an amazing display.

As one of the organizers, I volunteered to create the awards this year for the entries voted number one, two and three. With my current passion being the creation of limited edition laser prints, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to get in a little more practice with this extremely limited edition of only three pieces. Jason Nale ( http://originaledesigns.co ) did the logo design for the completion a few years ago, which I produced in my style as a line drawing. The toad was added to the top to tie in with this year’s theme. I’ll be adding a little colour and some 23K gold leaf bling - just for fun.