Best Unique Signs of 2012

First Place
Fabricator
ARTfx
Bloomfield, CT
(860) 242-0031
www.artfxsigns.com

Designers
Peter Stockmal Design
New Haven, CT
(203) 710-6099
www.peterstockmal.com

Lawrin Rosen
ARTfx

Client
Rooftop 120

People might associate rooftop restaurants with Miami Beach or Southern California, but this Glastonbury, CT establishment gives New Englanders a chance to enjoy a meal with a view. The bottles, which were hot-wire-cut, are pushed through sheets of 0.125-in.-thick aluminum that were routed on a Gerber 600 CNC machine. The bottles were then glued with silicone to a white, polycarbonate backer. The shop’s neon department heated and reshaped the bottles where the stem protrudes. The “120” was fabricated from acrylic and mounted to a door, which required placing the transformer in an accordion-style sheath. “Rooftop” was fabricated with push-through acrylic. Voltarc Triphosphor T8 high-brightness, fluorescent tubes light the sign. The display was lifted by crane through a retractable glass roof and erected with a Genie lift.

Second Place
Fabricator
Modern Signs
Orange Beach, AL
(251) 948-8334
Rarmstrong@gulftel.com

Designers
Rick Armstrong
Nancy Gilliland
Modern Signs

Client
Hangout Music Festival

Started in 2010, the Hangout Music Festival lasts three days in May on the white, sandy beaches of Gulf Shores, AL; last year’s event attracted approximately 120,000 fans. To create a groovy vibe reminiscent of Woodstock, Hangout’s promoters hired Modern Signs to craft this 12 x 34-ft. sign for the festival’s main entrance. Armstrong and Gilliland designed it using CorelDRAW x5. The face was hot-wire-cut from 11-in.-thick EPS foam with a 1-in.-thick EPS laminate on the face. An internal, aluminum-angle frame supports the sign, and an aluminum-angle truss behind it ties into 2-in.-diameter, aluminum pipe and, with swivel clamps, mounts the sign to the arched entrance trusses. Modern Signs handpainted their creation with Sherwin-Williams exterior-latex paint and 1Shot lettering enamels.

Third Place
Fabricator
Eyecandy Signs
Halifax, NS, Canada
(902) 429-8281
www.eyecandysigns.ca

Designer
Maggie Haywood
Venus Envy

Client
Venus Envy

This confirms that sex sells. Eyecandy fabricated this “love rocket” (all due respect to the Starland Vocal Band) with handcarved Sign•Foam 15-lb. layers of HDU bonded with West System epoxy and painted with Matthews acrylic-polyurethane paint. They complemented the, ahem, erect missile with façade letters and window graphics decorated with simulated-glass cast vinyl.

Honorable Mention

Fabricator
Peninsula Signs
Sidney, BC, Canada
(250) 656-9626
www.peninsulasigns.ca

Designer
Ryan Grealy
Peninsula Sign

Client
Ooh La La Cupcakes