Still more hardware for the display shelf.

The rewards and benefits from our SIGN CHALLENGE of last year continue to come in. The challenge I put to my friends and colleagues was to create one project for themselves. It would serve as both a training exercise to stretch our abilities and also serve as a portfolio piece that would prompt a customer to ask for more of the same.

I of course upped the ante to challenge myself. My own personal goal was to do one piece each month. I had no doubt the challenge would pay off handsomely but the results exceeded my optimistic expectations by a mile.

The signs I built for our studio of course increased my skills considerable, stretching my imagination in the process. They provided a whole new display for the studio and our trade show booth, bringing us a whole bunch of like work in the process. And they have garnered numerous National and International awards over the last year. These awards included a third place in the 2010 Commercial Building Signs category 2010 Sign Media Canada. 2010 Best in Show for the Sextant display piece - Sign Media Canada. We received a first place award for 2010 Stand Alone Sign - True North Sub Stop - Sign and Digital Graphics. And our True North Sub Shop was also honred with Best of Show in that same contest.

Today we received word of another series of honors. The Triangle Contracting Co sign garnered a First Place Award in the Stand Alone Sign Category. This sign has also brought us tens of thousands of dollars worth of business, with customers wanting a similar sign for their own business. It has proved to be well worth the effort of making it!

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Our MultiCam Western Canada project of last year also garnered another National award. It has again won the Sign System category. 

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Overall, it has been an amazing year, due in large part to answering my own challenge to others. I encourage all to give it their best effort and see how it works for you.

-grampa dan

The list is getting smaller.

The trip back home was long and exhausting, but after a somewhat leisurely day of getting organized again, it was time to get back into gear once more. In my absence the ladies had been busy in the shop, mostly working on the components for the Fox and Hounds Pub, but also putting a bit of time into other projects. One of these projects was the finishing touches on the back door sign for the Black Forest Restaurant. It turned out pretty snazzy, pretty much all done in EnRoute and formed on the MultiCam from 30 lb Precision Board.

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This finishes off the work on this project at last.

-grampa dan

Shifting gears again

Yesterday, with a little help from some volunteers we had the mural completed in less than an hour. I spent the rest of the day high in a lift helping some artist friends complete their projects.

finished mural.jpg

Today, bright and early I headed down the road to the Chicago airport, eager to get home a day early. Fortunately I snagged an evening flight, which will get me home 12 hours earlier than my original plans. That's fine with me!

Now my mind is racing ahead to what will need doing as I arrive home. I'll have a somewhat (relatively to my original plans) leisurely day tomorrow getting geared up to the projects at hand.

-grampa dan