Smooth-On and our amazing ISA show!

ISA 2018 was a really big deal for us. More than ever, our samples were featured in booths from Smooth-On, Multicam, Coastal Enterprises, and SAi EnRoute. We also presented in the EnRoute booth and showed some people how we do what we do. In all, we had 15 pieces on display at the show this year.

Our crowning piece on top of our Sign Invitational piece was our Gear sign that we produced for Smooth-On. It was one of 5 pieces displayed in their booth, but was easily the most eye catching. Smooth-On agreed to lets us have an awesome amount of creative control over all of the samples, so it made it a dream build for us. Judging from the crowds we saw in their booth, I would say it was an overwhelming success.

Products Used:

Smooth-On Freeform Scuplt Epoxy clay
Smooth-On Freeform Habitat Epoxy clay
Smooth-On Smooth Cast Onyx Casting Resin
Smooth-On Moldstar 15 Silicone Mold Rubber

Precision Board Plus 30lb HDU

Here are the pics!

Enjoy

-Jim

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.

Thats a wrap! The Sign Invitational 2018.

Back in 2015 when Dan and I sat on a grassy hill at the EnRoute summit in Denver Colorado, I would have never guessed our crazy ideas would turn into an amazingly fun event. The premise, Invite the best of the best in the sign industry and see who answers the call. The challenge, set some rules and see how creatively people can break them. That my friends is exactly what we have seen in the past 3 years. 24 amazing entries later, I would like to think we have done our little part in helping the visionaries in this business dream a million dreams. The best part is we are not done yet!!!

This year’s Sign Invitational may have been small in participants, but there was no lack of fan involvement or passion across the entries. Competing were Dan Sawatzky (Imagination Corporation), Gary Johnson (Great American Sign Co), Douglas Hancock (SignPro of North Florida) and myself, Jim Dawson (Synergy Sign & Graphics).

Everyone showed up with amazing creations that were true reflections of themselves as well as creative solutions to the guideline limitations.

In end, 567 fans had voted for their favorite and Dan Sawatzky took the crown home for the 2nd year in a row.

Next years contest is going to be extremely interesting. Stay tuned for some major announcements including 2 divisions and something that is surely to be a show stopper!!!

Check out the video here! The Sign Invitational 2018

Thanks again to our amazing sponsors.

Video Here

Multicam
Coastal Enterprises
Smooth-On
EnRoute Software

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.

A busy 2 weeks.

After collecting my award for Best Novelty Sign at the EnRoute summit and meeting some super amazing people, it was time to return home and get ready for our first Sign Alchemy class.

 People started arriving for the class on Wednesday night and we spent some time hanging out at the shop and preparing for the days to come.  Everyone arrived Thursday morning eager to get started learning how we do what we do. Doug Haffner and Myself ( Jim Dawson ) spent time lecturing, demonstrating, and helping our attendees learn as much as possible over the 3 day class time. Each evening, we took the class out to dinner and then came back to the shop for more 1 on 1 instruction and sharing. The funny thing about teaching is that typically the teacher will learn as much as the student by trying things different ways.

I think I can speak for everyone in saying that we all learned a lot and never strayed too far from the spirit of fun that makes us who we are.

Here are some highlights from the class.

30lb Coastal Enterprises Precision Board Plus name plaques were carved for all attendees to customize and learn on.

Smooth-On is our official supplier for Mold Rubbers, Casting Resins, and Epoxy Clay materials. Here you see a mold we made at the class using Smooth-On Platinum cure silicone.

 

We also provided everyone with some awesome sample boxes filled with Smooth-On products and Coastal Enterprises coatings and Precision Board Samples to take home and play with.

Carved concrete demo panel.

 

   

Everyone finished out the 3 day workshop with some amazing pieces to take home. We are already busy planning workshops for next year.

Drop us a line if you are interested in attending one or both of our 2018 workshops we are planning.

Special thanks to the following sponsors who made this year’s workshop and overwhelming success!

-Jim

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.

Rennovations part 2

Today I was able to slip in some programming for the entryway renovations. Here you see the beginnings of the badges that will adorn the centers of the overheads in the previous post. Enroute is an amazing tool for building 3D objects just like this. Typically we brainstorm and idea then make it happen. Today I am thankful for powerful tools and know how to use them…

Fan blades and gears…. These things are going to look amazing!!!!

Stay tuned as we start painting the beams and overhead elements along with install in the coming weeks.

-Jim

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.

Renovations Part 1.

A few months ago, I walked in the shop and stopped in the entryway. I looked around and thought, this is nice, but it’s not really Synergy. After some careful brainstorming, the hammers came out, the paint brushes began to fly, and the Multicam CNC Router began cutting parts. The first step was to texture all of the walls with Coastal Enterprises TSF 45 texture coating. We used 3 gallons putting a nice heavy texture on the walls. After that was dry, we turned our attention to the paint. The first of many coats is now applied and we’ll begin the glazing process soon.

The Multicam 3000 series router has been humming for a few months working on various parts for the entry way.

First we made up some amazing gear window sills, then some pretty cool shelves that will mount on the walls to showcase small portfolio pieces
.

Once those were complete, we turned our attention to the fabricated beams that will serve as the wow factor in the room. All in all, there will be 6 beams with pipes and overhead portions that you will walk under when entering our shop.

The beams have just been texture coated and will get their base coats of paint today. If you look closely at the rivet details on the beams, we made silicone molds of real steel hot rivets so we could cast lightweight copies. We minded over 960 rivets for this entry way!!! Thats some serious attention to detail.

Stay Tuned!

-Jim

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.