New Sign For The Studio

Okay, I'll admit that I'm the kind of person who can really overthink a simple thing. I've spent the last two years putting off making a sign for the studio because I wanted to do something so freakin' fantastic that people would slam on their brakes just to gape in awe. I figured the sign should incorporate the best of everything I do, steel, mosaic, copper, etc. It felt to me as though the sign, as my envoy to commercial success, should also be a masterwork. Yeah, well, whatever right? Better perhaps to just get something out there so people can find me.

A few weeks ago, I made a start at it. I cut an 8 foot fish out of plywood and clad it in aluminum and copper, thinking I would then hand cut some copper lettering to fit. Except, by the time the fish was done there really wasn't room for lettering. And although I was pretty sure that an 8 foot long trout would be hard to miss when driving by, it turns out that it is pretty invisible when people fly past at 60 mph. Now, if I'd made it two sided and installed it perpendicular to the road instead of parallel, I guess that would have helped make it visible, but it still wouldn't have made the letters fit.
If I've learned one thing through this entire process, it's this: Keep the name of your business SHORT. Next time I go through an identity design, I'm definitely aiming for one word.

So, here it is Memorial Day Weekend, the beginning of the tourist season and me without a sign… And I finally got annoyed enough with the situation to just throw something together. I mounted the rest of the aluminum I had onto a couple sheets of chipboard, bought some contact paper and projected the lettering on it, then I put the contact paper onto the aluminum, cut the background away and spraypainted the signs gloss black. Once dry, I pulled away the lettering and wound up with a pretty nice silver on black sign. In fact, it turned out really well… much more visible than I had expected. The aluminum letters really shine until it gets fully dark. At some point I guess I'll invest in a couple solar powered spotlights and then it'll be all set.

So, if you happen to be looking for the studio, or just tooling down Highway 66, drop by!

Here's a couple pics: