Practice the Art of Eye Appeal

Watercolor classes enrich the sign designs, and the soul, of David Hassan, owner of Hassan Sign Co. (Cohasset, MA). “Although it’s not always possible, I try to do the best I can on every project, and I don’t settle for what’s easy,” Hassan said.

Hassan says design critically impacts each sign. “The greatest carving job on a weak layout results in a second-rate job. A second-rate carving and paint job on a great design results in a sign that has great eye appeal,” he said.

To improve design skills, Hassan advises signmakers to study package design, sign-industry publications and such classics as Atkinson’s Art of Sign Painting, Henderson’s Sign Painter, Strong’s Book of Designs and Mike Stevens’ The Art of Eye Appeal.

Hassan specialized in handcarving when he opened his shop in 1971, but he bought a MultiCam Inc. (Dallas-Ft.Worth Airport, TX) router in 2002. The router allowed him to incorporate more “creative” elements, but it also multiplied his workload. His son, Joshua, now runs the router. “It would be tough to get the look I’m after using the router exclusively,” Hassan said.

Hassan’s work includes logo design, carved or painted commercial signs, painted business logos, residential quarter boards, truck lettering, banners, plaques and 3-D sculpted images. Initial designs are usually formulated in CADlink Technology Corp.’s (Ottawa, ON, Canada) SignLab7 software. For client presentations, he uses Adobe (San Jose, CA) Photoshop and Fireworks, and Corel Corp.’s (Ottawa, ON, Canada) CorelDraw. SA International’s (Philadelphia) EnRoute Pro 3D router software gives him creative leeway in 3-D work and pathing, and he’s looking forward to adding EnRoute’s upgrade that offers new modeling tools.

After each design and fabrication step, Hassan advises signmakers to critique their jobs: “We should always strive to do it better.”

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