Gold rush!

It's fun to come up with new logos and signs which are to be used on our projects.The ideas I come up with need to tell a story, stay in character and also inform our guests of the things that need saying. Today's task was to come up with a suitable logo for the gold panning attraction under consideration for the young kid's area in the park. The water tower (which I showed yesterday) will supply the water to the sluice box. The mine car will appear to be used to transport ore to the box. It will still have remnants of the red rock left in the dumped car. Down below the guests will have a chance to try their hand at the time honored tradition of gold panning. Only in this case little will be left to chance. Every guest will be guaranteed to find some color in their batch of gravel. The date in the old fashioned logo has significance of course. It's my client's birth year (minus 100 years).

The gold rush is on!

-grampa dan

Runaway mine car

The first day back at work after time away is always a day to catch up and re-focus on the tasks at hand. I spent the first part of the morning with the crew going over all they had done and laying out the next projects. Then it was back to the shop. After four days of being on the road I needed to get my hands dirty and work with some tools. I first scrounged the bone yard out back, gathering the pieces I needed. I had been given a bunch of old train car wheels and some formed channel iron a number of years ago and now I had the perfect use in mind. Then I fired up the cutoff saw, plasma cutter, grinders and welder and set to work. It was time to cut, shape and weld some steel. The task I chose to do today was to weld up the frame for the mine car. 

It's a fun little piece that will look pretty cool when it is combined with the water tower over top. Stay tuned to see it come together...

-grampa dan 

Meeting in the sky

One of the things I enjoy doing while on a plane is scribbling ideas in my sketchbook. With my client sitting next to me on the long flights to Florida and back it was like having a very long and productive meeting with no interruptions or distractions. As we discused so many ideas for the new park I would scribble in my book like mad, filling page after page with ideas. I enjoyed instant feedback as I drew with the ideas flowing between us. By the time we landed at our home airport today we had filled in the details in many areas of the park. The time we spent at the trade show was valuable without a doubt... but of equal value was the time we spent talking about the park and just having fun together building trust and friendship. The park will undoubtably be a more creative place because of the time we took for this trip.

Here's one of the scores of pages I filled in my sketch book.

I can hardly wait to begin building some of these cool ideas. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan