One would expect Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other executives that oversee the social-media megasite’s operations (projections indicate it will surpass 1 billion users this year) to embrace only cutting-edge technology for any environmental graphics on its Palo Alto, CA campus. However, they bucked that notion (stereotype?) by hiring New Bohemia Signs, a San Francisco-based shop that specializes in handpainted signage and window graphics, to provide lettering and illustrations for the 10-building campus’ (formerly home of Sun Microsystems) monument sign.
New Bohemia’s business manager, Scott Thiessen, said another shop fabricated the wayfinding and building signage, and assisted with the monument sign’s preparation by using a crane to life the sign and switch its direction, and then painted the background.
“A few years ago, they had us paint “Hack” on one of their buildings,” he said. “Some of their higher-ups liked our work, and we’re happy to earn their business again.”
Damon Styer, New Bohemia’s founder, and Aaron Cruse created the pounce holes in the pattern with the shop’s Graphtec FC8000-100 plotter, and then used pounce pads on location to pounce powder through the holes in the pattern to create the outline of the image. Then, they painted a supersized, spot-on rendition Facebook’s thumbs-up “Like” icon and address with 1Shot® lettering enamels, lettering quills and a small foam roller.