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.
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.
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.
A couple of years back, I attended my first EnRoute workshop in Denver Colorado. I had and amazing time with some old friends and made some new friends along the way. When EnRoute announced it was holding a competition leading up to the 2017 Summit in Salt Lake City, I climbed all over it. Up for grabs were cash prizes, advertising opportunities, and free trips to the summit. I’m happy to say that we placed 1st in the Novelty category with our gear set.
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
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.
I have a concept, I figured out my scale, now to start actually building… ugh… Where to begin? Jim and I sat down with my concept sketch and started figuring out materials we should use. This can somewhat be overwhelming, but we approached it by dividing the piece in half. We started with the base, The bottom pretty much needs to be the strongest and most durable
Phase One: Use all the math you learned in school, that you never thought you’d actually ever use. I have a concept! Now what do I do? Well… I guess I can put the engineering degree to use and start drawing my piece to scale. I started with the basic dimensions a 24in x 24in base, as stated in the contest rules with a total height of 72 inches. Easy enough, right
A few months ago the invites for The Sign Invitational went out, I thought nothing more about it really besides the theme and some ideas came in mind for the shops entry. As some of you may know, Jim and the shop helped organize a contest last year, where a bunch of sign makers challenged each other to create a dimensional display piece. Synergy pla ced 3rd and that was the first month I started at the shop and my first big project.