2008 International Sign Contest

FIRST PLACE (TIE)

The iconic Route 66 brands the South Beloit, IL Beef-A-Roo location; the Rockford, IL-based, family-style restaurant distinguishes each chain with a theme. Muralist Mark Adamany painted the 5 x 40-ft. mural background on canvas and the “postcards” from various Route-66 stops on ¼-in.-thick Masonite hardboard, which he framed with painted, ¾-in.-thick, 3-in.-deep MDF, custom made and installed by Shawcraft Sign Co. (Machesney Park, IL). Adamany used PPG Industries’ (Pittsburgh) “Pitt Tech” DTM acrylics on Fredrix Yankee 122, medium-white cotton canvas rolls.

FIRST PLACE (TIE)

Steamboard ’Round the Bend, the late director John Ford’s personal favorite of his movies, featured a memorable steamboat race, but the winner ended up in shambles and didn’t jettison into space. Mark Adamany focused on riverboats’ major role in Dubuque, IA history. “The outer space element ties this mural in with all the other theaters I’ve painted for Star Cinemas. The common thread of all locations is a nighttime sky or outerspace.”

He completed this 20 x 30-ft. center section and 6 x 77-ft. lower section on location at the Dubuque theater complex. He used C2 flat, interior acrylic enamels to paint on Fredrix Yankee 122 cotton rolls, which were installed later by Sabo Painting and Decorating (Belvedere, IL) and Adamany, with clay-based wallpaper glue. Background elements were sprayed on with a Gracob 495 airless sprayer, then hand-detailed.

SECOND PLACE

Why bother with digital special effects when they can be painted? This splashy mural in a Johnson Creek, WI movie theater complex, features C2 flat, interior acrylic enamels and Muralo Deep Color Vogue flat acrylics painted on Fredrix Yankee 122 cotton rolls, in eight separate sections, which were tiled together. Sabo Painting and Decorating (Belvedere, IL) and Adamany later installed the 88-ft.-long mural, which was touched up on location. Although the original design had been accepted, Adamany tweaked it to accommodate a larger wall.

THIRD PLACE

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chemainus, BC’s mural program, Dan Sawatzky depicted key figures in the project’s inception and city history. Chemainus Mayor Graham Bruce and Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill VanderZalm are cutting a log, which represents the city’s logging/sawmilling history; when the mill closed, murals helped revitalize the city by attracting tourists. Karl Shuz, in the center, conceived and facilitated the project. Sawatzky, who was first invited to paint a mural in 1983, said he moved there six moths later and, over the next 18 years, designed 14 major buildings and projects, created more than 100 dimensional signs and painted five more murals. He handpainted this mural using Benjamin Moore acrylic paints and various-sized fitches. The plaque at the bottom of the mural was routed from Coastal Enterprises’ 30-lb. Precision Board HDU, using a MultiCam 3000 router and SAi’s EnRoute Pro software to create the file.

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