505Design’s Kevin Kern Discusses Effective Designer/Fabricator Relationships

If you reviewed the Southern-sign gallery in the April issue, it’s no secret that I love Dixie. In my opinion, cuisine, architecture, sports and every other facet of the cultural tableau feels inspired. Naturally, the signs follow this trend. Charlotte provides a sterling example – its vibrant downtown, dynamic parks, North Davidson arts district, hip shops of Dilworth and other popular Queen City locales.
Charlotte-based 505Design has helped design several environmental-graphic programs that provide Charlotte’s personality. The firm devised the interpretive-sign program for Romare Bearden Park in the city’s Third Ward – the public space is the namesake of a famous Charlotte-born artist –
and an illuminated-pylon sign for Ballantyne Village that earned a second-place finish in the 2015 International Sign Contest’s Electric Freestanding Sign category.
Kevin Kern, the firm’s director of environmental-graphic design, earned an interior-architecture degree in 1992, and soon gravitated towards sign design. He said, “After working at a traditional, architectural firm for a year, I knew I wanted a different direction that focused on design details that incorporated my fine-art skills. Environmental-graphic design (EGD) was still a very under-the-radar discipline at that point. It wasn’t presented as a career option; you had to pursue it.”
He continued, “Years ago, EGD had to be sold to prospective clients, and they required education about what it was. Today, clients contact us in search of such programs for retail, office, civic or residential spaces. And, EGD increasingly intersects with architecture, landscape architecture and interior design. We’re not simply designing signs, we’re creating experiences.”
Overall, Kern said relationships with clients have changed primarily because they demand more concrete, sophisticated concepts, such as 3-D renderings and well-defined material call-outs. And, of course, interactive kiosks and dynamic-digital signage play an increasingly prominent role in many customers’ preferred sign portfolios.
505Design primarily executes its designs through Adobe Creative Suite and Trimble Navigation’s Sketch-Up software, the latter of which has become largely ubiquitous for developing 3-D templates.
For any project developed by an EGD firm/signshop tandem, collaboration is the hallmark of a successful relationship. Often, customers transmute projects from their original, “blue sky” design because of a limited budget or the availability of an initially specified material. And, a client’s demand for energy-efficient lighting, which usually translates into LEDs, often represents another mid-stream component change. Kern emphasized that co-ownership of a project is essential.
“The designer/fabricator relationship falters when communication is cut off,” he said. “On several occasions, we’ve had a fabricator assume full ownership of a project after they’ve been awarded a job’s fabrication. This means they’ve neglected to provide any notifications about changes in materials, scope, design, or any other facets, until the project is completed. This almost always yields unfavorable results. When both parties remain fully engaged from prototyping through production, both parties can solve problems and be prepared for the inevitable challenges every project has.”