For years there has been a critical demand within the sign industry for a book on the structural engineering of signs. This comprehensive text more than meets that demand -- it exceeds it. Sign companies, ...
The Sign Depot recreates a Canadian icon for a Niagara Falls (ON) souvenir shop
By Steve Aust
Officers in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) enjoy being worldwide icons for their home country. The approximately 26,000 “Mountie” officers and support employees administer federal, provincial and local police duties throughout most of Canada. However, the image of the Mounties astride a horse and bedecked with a red serge and wide-brimmed Stetson resonates worldwide.
Souvenir City, a Niagara Falls, ON-based, 15,000-sq.-ft. superstore that hawks Canadian goods that vary from handblown-glass art to syrup, embraced the image of Canada’s gallant heroes when it hired Peter Moir, proprietor of The Sign Depot (Kitchener, ON, Canada), to devise its main entry-ID program. For authenticity, Moir researched books and websites; he said, “Before I did my research, I didn’t know all RCMP horses were black and came from a particular Canadian breed. I wanted to be accurate.”
The program comprises four, 93 x 108-in. sandblasted signs for each side of a pylon-mounted tower and a sculpture that depicts a Mountie on his trusted steed. Moir sandblasted the signs from Western red cedar using recycled glass and a 30-Hp air compressor at 90 psi, and laminated them together using West Systems epoxy. He decorated his handiwork with exterior-latex paint and Avery Graphics’ A7 cast vinyl.
To produce the intrepid Mountie, Moir sculpted fiberglass-coated EPS foam and dressed him in attire purchased from a costume shop. He weatherized the clothing by soaking it in resin and decorating it with latex paint and a UV clearcoat. He carved uniform details using HDU and Magic Sculpt epoxy. He subcontracted the horse’s fabrication to local sculptors, who cast concrete over an iron support structure.
Initially, the sculpture was installed at ground level but, after considerable positive feedback, the customer asked it be reinstalled at a more prominent spot. Moir engineered a support platform and arranged a crane to lift the sculpture to its current spot.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.