Blogs
Paint paint paint
The last few weeks have been largely all about paint as we near the end of the second phase of the Cultus Lake Adventure Park. For that project there were three main signs. I’ve posted the various phases of the project in the last weeks. Here’s a series of pictures showing the painting of these projects by our talented crew.
Sign Builder Illustrated June Cover – KDF’s – Callahan’s Build
Thank you Sign Builder Illustrated Magazine once again for putting KDF on the cover featuring the Callahan’s Project! What a fun project this was. Click below for the article.
Let the Wrapping Begin! KDF Custom Wrap Sign
The shop is all abuzz with the news! We’re very excited to announce we have completed the construction of our new wrap area! We’ve tripled our capacity and we’re ready to wrap! Of course now we need a sign for the 18′ walls and you know a small sign won’t do. So… we went with a 6′ x 7′ footprint. Nanette came up with a real nice design that we could work with to make a printable dimensional sign. Here is the original design Once Rad setup the file for production it was time to cut the foam. We started by cutting the elements of the sign out of simple white gator foam of varying thicknesses.
Skallywag promotional video
Our client in Trinidad asked us to do up a short video of the project to aid them in promoting it as it is built. Because many of the big pieces are already shipped we decided to focus on the wonderful characters that will populate Skallywag Bay.
Looking back ten years
I was looking through old posts on this blog and came across one I posted five years ago. It was reviewing my decision of five years before that about the jump to purchase a MultiCam CNC router and EnRoute software. It also meant learning to use new materials such as Precision Board.
Why 30 lb Precision Board?
The most often question I get asked is why we exclusively use 30 lb (or higher) density Precision Board High Density Urethane in our shop. The answer is simple. It makes sense. Our decision was based on real world experience. It’s all we keep in stock.
Drawing by hand
These days I know many designers go right to their computer to work on a design. I like to start in my sketchbook with a good old fashioned pen. Even simple signs are designed this way.
My design tools of choice
It is important that as we design we use tools that allow us to concentrate on the task rather than what we use. I don’t know much about computers nor do I wish to. I just want what I use to work without problems. My solution is to use an Apple computer (running with Parallels for EnRoute). I also grew up with a pencil in my hand.
Saving the best for last
The last sign for the Cultus Lake Adventure Park was designed and routed earlier this week. Similar to most of our signs it was routed in there layers to allow us to laminate a welded steel frame inside. Then it was time for a little hand sculpting fun. A 5/8″ steel rod was formed and glued up into the top of the sign and then we used Abracadabra Sculpting Epoxy to do the snake. To save some material I crunched up some heavy duty tin foil to bulk out the body