Blackout Signs Works its Mojo for Austin Comfort-Food Joint

There’s no avoiding it – they keep it weird in Austin. Having personally prowled 6th St. and South Congress Ave., the trendiest enclaves in an extremely progressive city, I can vouch that the sheer creativity unleashed in the signage in Texas’ capital city becomes an embarrassment of riches to a sign aficionado.
Some of it is quirky and kitschy; others are made as unabashed testaments to Texas ruggedness. This falls in the latter category. Blackout Signs and Metalworks (San Marcos, TX) built this double-sided pole sign for Proof & Cooper, a fried-chicken, whiskey and comfort-food joint that offers live music (I think even accounting firms and dentists’ offices in Austin provide live music) on Austin’s outskirts. According to Blackout proprietor Jay Gordon, the steel frame and 20-gauge steel faces were distressed with acidic chemicals, soda, beer salt and rattlesnake blood (don’t mess with Texas!). He hand-cut and sculpted the main face’s HDU letters, and dipped them in resin to create a porcelain look. Gordon and fabricator Jason Mathis hand-formed the deer’s head logo from sheetmetal, installed LED backlighting and stud-mounted the various pieces. They painted the signface by hand with 1Shot lettering enamel. Blackout animated the flag-mounted metal cans with West Coast Custom Designs’ custom-built controller, three-circuit animator, and painted the letters with 1Shot. Lockhart, TX’s Big Dog Neon fabricated the sign’s luminous tubing.