Building a unique trophy for a unique contest

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.

Preplanning

Each time we sit down to design a sign or feature, we also want to address some critical logistical questions. The design is of utmost importance, but we also need to know which materials, or combination of materials, we will use. That, along with how the sign or feature is to be mounted, in turn determines how we will design the internal structure and where the structural lift points will be located. The next question is how we will position the piece to work on it comfortably and efficiently. The final question is how we will secure and transport the often fragile pieces, for thousands of miles.

For the Downey’s signs, we built a custom steel pallet and welded on some steel brackets. The sign mounting plates will securely bolt to these welded plates. There is also an internal steel frame laminated inside the sign with two HSS steel tubes sticking out the back of each sign to keep the signs in place during construction, in transport and on the building in its final home. Even if a couple of tough fellows weighing in at 300 lbs each decided to do simultaneous chin-ups to impress their significant others, the sign should stay securely bolted to the heavy-duty 8” x 10” timber on which it is fastened. The final step in our design/fabrication is to locate pockets for the dolly wheels to slide into so we can easily roll it around our shop. These wheels drop off when we lift the frame onto the truck, so we can reuse them on the next project. A little planning goes a long way to make our projects go smoothly through the building process and safely to our customers.

Busy day!

Today was one of those days where I was busy all day, but at quitting time, it didn’t feel like much had been accomplished. With the crew working at the Hazelnut Inn, my job was to keep things moving in the shop. I returned emails, answered messages, made several important phone calls, designed two new projects, added the edge grain and texture to two signs, designed some cutting files, set up and ran the plasma cutter for six custom brackets, ground the cut pieces, ran to the hardware store for bolts, and welded up a custom pallet and finished welding four of the six brackets. Now that I think about all I managed to do, I understand why I am a bit tuckered. The good news is there is still plenty to do tomorrow. Stay tuned…