The primary purpose of the Sign Invitational is to encourage and inspire other sign makers to do more creative projects in their work. The small display signs they create for the contest will hang in their studios and hopefully sell creative projects in years to come. I know this to be true because we have about 135 such samples on the walls of our shop and studio, and it is the reason we sell much of our work. The Sign Invitational pieces on display attract a huge following at the show. Each time I hear someone wish they could sell work like this, I throw them a challenge to enter next year’s contest and, in the process, take a positive step towards their stated wish. It works!
This year’s show is still in progress, but we have begun planning for next year's event. The first step was for the creative group to pick a theme, which yesterday was decided to be ‘dinosaurs’. And being that this is a sign invitational, I had to throw down a gauntlet to my fellow competitors. I stayed up a teeny bit last night and worked up a quick sketch. Today, in a quiet moment, I went over to a printer with a booth on the EXPO floor, and they quickly printed me a t-shirt with my next year’s sign design featuring a T-rex playing an accordion. When I got back to the booth, no words needed to be spoken about next year’s challenge. The contest is on!
