Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to announce a series of guest blogs written by Dan Sawatzky of Imagination Corporation, which will be posted on the Precision Board Blog each month. In this month’s entry, Dan Sawatzky tells us how he takes a page from Disney when it comes to visual branding. He uses 30lb Precision Board HDU to incorporate branding elements into his clients’ buildings in creative and surprising ways.
Branding is of critical importance to any company. There are plenty of ways to do it. We love to brand a building in effective ways which the owner may not even think of. We took our lesson from Disney, one of the very best companies in the world at creating visual branding. They incorporate a profile of Mickey’s head into many surprising places.
We are talking about incorporating various elements in the trim of a building. We have found that with some creative thinking, a branding element can be incorporated hundreds, or even thousands of times. It can be subtle or in the customer’s face depending on how it is done.
We did a MultiCam office some years ago and incorporated the letter ‘M’ more than 120 times through the trim. It was a subtle approach which worked well. The corner blocks for the MultiCam office were routed from 1” thick PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU. The wainscot panels were also routed from 30 lb Precision Board using Rapid Texture. We incorporated round letter panels to do the branding.
The next time we employed the technique was at the Fox and Hounds Pub. I designed a fox head which we routed into blocks of 30 lb Precision Board. These were used on every door and window in the building. It was an effective way to subtly reinforce the brand. The corner blocks for the Fox and Hounds incorporated a fox head profile. The backgrounds were wood grained using a woodgrain bitmap. Once painted, the Precision Board blocks looked just like the real wood they joined.
When it came time to build our own house we pulled out all the stops. We settled on a heart theme for the outside. Thousands of hearts were routed into the trim. More substantial hearts were routed into the corner and intersection blocks. Even the knees under the eaves got the treatment. Inside the house the theme was switched up to be butterflies, Janis’ favourite.
Janis wanted hearts on the trim of our house. We incorporated many thousands into the wide trim and elsewhere on the house.
Each piece of trim on the house was custom as each window and door was irregular in shape. I designed the windows in EnRoute and then used these same files as a base to design all of the window and trim components. Everything fit like a glove!
Each exterior door got the same treatment with 8” wide trim. I created more than 200 routing files and cut many times that number of pieces. Each featured hearts to continue the theme we had picked.
The structural posts holding up the porch roof were made from 6” x 6” steel. We welded a frame around these and then sculpted the woodgrain surface. We also incorporated a heart band around each post. These bands were made from 30 lb Precision Board.
We also fabricated and installed 39 knees for under the soffits. Each of these double sided elements also got the heart treatment.
The windows got the same treatment. Each window has a curved top which offered a special challenge.
The 8” x 8” corner blocks featured a bright pink heart for extra bling.
Inside the house we incorporated butterflies into the trim. They are a favourite of Janis.
The corner blocks also feature butterflies, of course.
When our daughter Becke moved a modular home onto our property we routed up some trim pieces for the corner blocks on the skirting around the home. Since Becke is into birding that theme was designed into the panels. It’s subtle but adds a whole lot of detail to the project. Once again the pieces were routed from 30 lb Precision Board.
Now, with every project we offer this service to our customers. With Precision Board this kind of detail is easy and quick to make. It is a great way to use up all of those scraps you’ve been collecting too! There is no end to the possible themes you could use for trim pieces.
Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a small family company that specializes in the design and creation of dimensional signs and environments. They tackle projects of any size from small signs to entire theme parks. Their work has garnered numerous national and international awards.
Dan Sawatzky is best described as a creative force and visual storyteller extraordinaire. His art career spans almost fifty years of magic. Dan’s passion is to design and create imaginative places that take people from the normal world to a setting of delight and wonder.
Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board HDU, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane sign material that is particularly effective for making professional-looking indoor and outdoor dimensional signs. It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack. You can request free samples, get a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.