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Florida signmakers chronicle creating sign from the ground up
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By Tom Bowers
Signature Signs (Safety Harbor, FL) was co-founded in 1975 by Mark Dinkel, who still serves as company president. Previously known as Creative Wood Graphics, Inc., the company has a long reputation for producing quality deep-blasted, routed and carved wood products, plus ceramic tile, marble and stone signs. The company name changed to Signature Signs in 1994, because we used less wood products. Before joining the company in 1989, I owned an advertising agency and I contracted with Creative for sign work.
Recently, the developers of Saddlebrook Village West, a local single-family residential community, asked us to create an entry monument sign. For this job's design and material choices, we worked with Clark Durfee, the structural contractor. We've worked with Clark on previous projects, and have had success.
Preparations
Immediately after a sale, we meet with affiliated contractors to coordinate any shared work. In this case, because the sign mounts onto a block wall, I met with the masonry contractor to discuss details. The wall has architectural foam coping, caps and finials; the mason also added stucco and cultured stone as finishing touches. The wall has architectural foam coping, caps and finials; the mason also added stucco and cultured stone as finishing touches.
To create the 9-ft. 6-in. x 3-ft. panels, I purchased a 10 x 4-ft. sheet of 1 1/2 in., 15-lb. |2334| Sign Foam™ high-density urethane (HDU). With the large size, I could avoid joining two smaller size pieces. Plan about twenty minutes per side for sanding, priming and finish-sanding the primer. Be sure to clean the surface thoroughly before applying the rubber maskant; I used a #111 rubber stencil. Sign Arts Products
In a fashion similar to preparing airbrush frisket, spray-glue the pattern paper and lay it aside to air-dry until tacky. Next, carefully place it over the maskant and from the center out squeegee in all directions. Use light strokes at first. Now, with a very sharp X-acto knife, hand-cut your pattern. Either sharpen or replace the blade often. (Use a cutting plotter equipped for cutting rubber maskant as an alternative.) Weed the sandblasted areas.
Our design calls for a 3/4-in. urethane leaf, cut and applied on the base panel. As with the base preparation, trace the design onto a rubber mask and cut the pattern. This ensures an accurate fit when you install the carved leaf onto the sandblasted panel.
Down in the pits
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