2024 Sign Contest Best of the Rest

SO CLOSE! THESE are the fourth-place finishers from our Sign Contest (see St, September 2024, page 24) who just missed being included, but they’re so good we didn’t want you to miss any of them.

Signage Spelunking

Category 1: Best Signshop-Designed and Fabricated Sign, Internally Illuminated
Cave paintings, sure. Cave neon, what? Last year, Ion Art (Austin, TX) was hired by the Seven Sisters Ranch (Boerne, TX) to create “a one-of-a-kind experience in an actual cave,” says Ion Art’s Shana Gardner. After considerable thought and planning, and using equipment from SDS Automation, Roland and MultiCam, Ion Art filled 1,500 sq. ft. of the 40-ft.-wide, 18-ft.-tall cave with a “hand-painted mural, along with high-end neon accents and borders, finished off with beautifully decorative metal and neon sculptures, providing a truly immersive and breathtaking experience,” Gardner says.

Eagle Has Landed

Category 2: Best Signshop-Designed and Fabricated Sign, NOT Internally Illuminated
The owners of the Paragon Casino Resort (Marksville, LA) wanted an eagle to be prominent in the sign for their entrance, so Gibko Signs (Bunkie, LA) subcontracted a 14-ft. sculpture, but the eagle’s head faced backwards like a parrot, says Gibko’s David Holsomback. He cut the head off, sculpted a new one out of foam, altered the legs and wings, then hand-carved more detail. The stump on which the eagle perches has an aluminum square-tube frame wrapped in aluminum hardware cloth, as well as large glued and wired flat sections of 3-in. styrofoam. The oval sign comprises routed aluminum with 1-in. push-through acrylic.

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Round the Mountain

Category 5: Best Signshop-or Outside-Designed, Shop-Fabricated Vehicle Wrap
Blue Mountain Brewery in nearby Afton, VA wanted Performance Signs (Ruckersville, VA) to make its delivery truck hard to miss, says Performance Sign’s Brianna Beere. The shop took the client’s design and refined it into a full, 360° image with the mountain graphics lining up as they wrap around all four sides of the box truck. Performance imaged 3M IJ180Cv3 print media using their HP L365 printer running on ONYX PosterShop v12, then applied 3M Scotchcal Luster Overlaminate 8519 by way of their AGL Encore laminator. They applied the graphic using GeekWrap squeegees and a scissor lift during the install.

Brightly ’Lumen-ated

Category 3: Best Outside-Designed, Signshop-Fabricated Sign, Internally Illuminated
For Lumen, a high-end apartment building in Columbus, OH, Studio Dzo (Austin, TX) developed an interior sign used first for the temporary leasing office while the building was being constructed, then for the permanent building. Custom 1.5-in.-deep retainerless channel letters fabricated by Resno (Hackensack, NJ) allow for a shallow but brilliantly bright primary sign accented by 3/16-in. aluminum flat bars of various lengths, says Studio Dzo’s Russell Toynes. “Overall, the primary brand sign in the lobby serves as a beacon for current and future residents and supports the high-touch experience,” he adds. “Clean, modern and timeless.”

At the Zoo

Category 4: Best Outside-Designed, Signshop-Fabricated Sign, NOT Internally Illuminated
Lake Gaston Sign & Graphic Co. (LGS&G; Henrico, NC) carried out a design by Robert G. Lyons & Associates (Schiller Park, IL) for the gift shop at the Oklahoma City Zoo: a cedar mural mountain range produced from various angled cedar blocks, according to LGS&G’s Marguerite Stowe. “Due to the large size, we cut and tiled the panels and numbered them,” she says. Each panel was pre-cut to size and the blocks were mounted to a stone facade, making it easy for the site contractors. The raised cutout sign foam letters were attached with wooden dowels. “Some of the blocks were painted in different colors and a paw print for effect,” Stowe adds.

PHOTO GALLERY (20 IMAGES)

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