2008 International Sign Contest

FIRST PLACE

This double-faced pole sign harkens back to the Stone Age with segmented PVC stones and disjointed legs that ooze a primordial green growing through its cracks (okay, that’s just Voltarc’s veep green argon).

To create this older-than-old-school look, ARTfx splattered Akzo Nobel acrylic polyurethane on the stones at a low volume with high pressure with a spray gun. It then used Benjamin Moore latex to create arbitrary stains and sealed everything with Akzo Nobel’s lowgloss, acrylic polyurethane.

The lettering is push-through, 3⁄16-in., Cyro acrylic, routed with a Gerber router, with a graphic printed onto clear white vinyl that adhered to the white acrylic. The cabinet, lit by Voltarc HO fluorescent lamps, measures 3 x 8 ft. and stands 12 ft. high. It’s held together by 1 x 1-in. aluminum tubing with aluminum cabinet sheathing.

SECOND PLACE

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Signcraft of Naples was faced with restrictions when it created this enchanting sign for this Marco Island, FL restaurant. The island’s strict illumination code allows only the sign copy, and not the background, to be lit at night, and, even then, the sign’s light can only emit up to 10 candelas. However, these constraints led the shop to develop creative solutions.

Designed with SAi’s FlexiSign 7 software, the interior of the sign was sprayed with Lacryl silver-gray blockout paint after the copy had been masked off. It’s lit with five Sylvania Ultra-Bright fluorescent bulbs.

The client specifically requested about the wrought-iron style used by Dallas-based King Architectural Metals, while the support posts and the arches were created by a Neapolitan (FL) metalworker. All metal components were sprayed with verdigris bronze enamel paint.

THIRD PLACE

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This 15 x 18-ft. sign, designed for a multiple-tenant building, features Matthews metallic paint. The side pillars are welded, 4-in. steel tubes, the bases of which are wrapped with .063 aluminum. The single-faced oval cabinets atop the sign were routed with an ABC router, backed with white polycarbonate faces and lit with cold-white, HO fluorescent bulbs. The double-sided tenant cabinets, which also comprise white polycarbonate, are covered with laminated digital prints created on a Mimaki JV3-160SP printer.