Sign Builder Illustrated wrote up a fantastic article about the 2017 Sign Invitational, including information on next year’s show.  The magazine spoke to the top three winners about how they came up with their designs and the methods and materials they used to achieve the finished product.

Dan Sawatzky from Imagination Corporation took first place with his entry “Magic Train”.  Here’s an excerpt of how he came up with the idea for his submission, based on his early work in the industry painting historical murals.

Many of these murals featured Sawatzky’s favorite subject—steam trains. “I thought it would be fun to have a sign painter painting a mural with the steam train busting through the billboard,” he says, noting that the sign painter featured in the bosun’s chair was inspired by a painting by one of his favorite artists, Norman Rockwell.

Frames were built from plasma-cut and welded steel. The train was routed out of thirty-pound Precision Board HDU (PBLT-30) using a MultiCam CNC. All the paints and glazes were hand-brushed acrylic.

Coastal Enterprises was proud to be one of the sponsors of the 2017 Sign Invitational, held in Las Vegas, Nevada during the ISA International Sign Expo in April.  This was the second year of the Invitational and the theme was “Magic”.

We encourage you to participate in next year’s event and show off your creativity and craftsmanship.  The 2018 Sign Invitational will be held in Orlando, Florida in March and the theme will be “Marvelous Machine”.  The primary mission of the event is to foster involvement and creativity in the sign industry, partially through these yearly competitions.  You can submit portfolio pieces here to be considered before invites are sent in August.  25 competitors will be selected to compete.

Check out the entire article on the  Sign Builder Illustrated website.