Building the Synergy Sign 2019 Sign Invitational Piece

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to host guest blogs written by some of the signage industry’s biggest movers and shakers, posted to the Precision Board Blog.  This guest blog is written by Jim Dawson with Synergy Sign & Graphics, based in Strasburg, Ohio.  Jim shows us how he fabricated their 2019 Sign Invitational entry from three densities of Precision Board polyurethane and steel as well as surface texturing using Smooth-On products and Coastal Enterprises’ own TSF-45.

sign invitational

In Jim Dawson’s own words…

In usual form, the 2019 version of The Sign Invitational snuck up on us this year. Sometimes I feel like I work better under pressure, and sometimes I just flat out procrastinate to a fault. That being said, I think I hammered out a pretty amazing piece considering the time constraints I imposed on myself.

This year’s Sign Invitational theme was time, so I chose to build a whimsical elven clock that ran on pure magic. Unfortunately, before the elves could finish, the trolls got involved and tainted the magic forcing the clock to run backwards therefor throwing the whole elven world into utter chaos. In an attempt to ward off any further threats from the trolls, the elves built a beautiful golden owl to perch on top of the clock tower. Everyone knows that trolls despise two things more than anything; gold and owls.

sign invitational

We started the build as a top down kind of build. Any good building has the top built first! That allows you to figure out how much foundation it will need. Start up high and work down to the ground with true elven magic. The owl was a true all-encompassing piece for us. We carved the front of the owl using our Multicam 3000 series router. It was carved from 3″ thick 18lb Precision Board from Coastal Enterprises. Carving 3″ foam is no joke, so we left the heavy lifting to our X-Edge Tools XCT518 ball end mill. Once the from was carved we build up the thickness with two additional 2″ layers and embedded a steel frame inside the owl. Feather work was all hand laid and sculpted by myself and my good friend David Brent.

Once the owl was complete, I turned my attention to the steel frame for the entire piece. This year we used the Multicam V series plasma to flat cut almost the entire frame. It made quick work of all the steel structure that was almost entirely covered up in the final piece.

After the steel was assembled I began to model all of the various panels that would clad the structure. EnRoute Pro was used to model and tool path the panels. We carved 8 panels in all with various Celtic weaves and knots along with a very rare elven wood grain pattern which was entrusted to us by the head elf himself. Once again, all of the magical panels were carved from Precision Board, but the 30lb variety for added durability.

The motorized gears on the sides of the clock were carved from Coastal Enterprises PBLT-60, which is about as dense as concrete. It was amazing to watch the abuse they took running 10 hours a day for 3 days. They still show no wear at all. It could be a little more of that elven magic as well, but I prefer to think they have engineered a superior product.

Once we arrived in Las Vegas, it was apparent that the elven magic we used on the clock had worked on the crowds. We enjoyed some of the largest crowds we have seen at the Sign Invitational thanks to a great move to the Signs Of The Times booth. After 3 days of voting, and over 1500 votes, my friend and mentor Dan Sawatzky narrowly edged me out in the large sign category. Mo Flint took the honors in the small category with his amazingly-detailed Time Pirates piece.

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We are already gearing up for next year. Give us a shout if you would like to compete!

Materials and Software:

Coastal Enterprises – PBLT 18, 30, and 60. TSF 45.

Smooth-On– Freeform Sculpt. Freeform Habitat. Smooth Cast 325.

SAi Enroute Pro 6.0, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Multicam 3000 Series Router

X-Edge Tools XCT518 Ball End Mill

sign invitational

We think that Jim Dawson and his team do some really excellent work. Synergy Sign & Graphics has a highly experienced staff whose backgrounds include graphic design, marketing, trade-show design, print media, branding, point of purchase design, fulfillment, and more. Check out their website or give them a call at (330) 878-7646 to see about your next project!

Coastal Enterprises offers free samples of Precision Board HDU.  Already have a project in mind for our material?  Request a quote and get started today.  Sign up for our monthly blog roundup so you don’t miss any of our informative blogs.  Have a special project fabricated with Precision Board HDU and want to know if it could be featured in a blog on our website?  Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or drop us an email with details.  We’d love to hear from you!

Dan Sawatzky Is Looking Ahead to Sign Invitational 2020!

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to host guest blogs written by some of the signage industry’s biggest movers and shakers, posted to the Precision Board Blog.  This guest blog is written by Dan Sawatzky with Imagination Corporation in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada.  This month, Dan wraps up his 2019 ISA Sign Invitational victory (making for a three-peat!).  Not one to rest on his laurels, Sawatzky has already designed his 2020 entry and routed the beginning pieces out of Precision Board HDU.  Lucky for us, he’s giving us a sneak peek!

sign invitational

In Dan Sawatzky’s own words…

I was delighted to hear my name announced as one of two winners in this year’s Sign Invitational. It was the third win in a row for me. I won in the large category but from what I hear only squeaked in ahead of Jim Dawson who also had an awesome piece.  Mo Flint won the smaller, table top category with a beautiful piece! The other competitors also had some wonderfully imaginative pieces. I hear everyone is already thinking about what they are going to do next year!

Next years competition is being changed up significantly. There will only be one category. All pieces will need to fit on a 2’ x 2’ table. The theme is ‘LESS IS MORE’ which can be interpreted in countless ways I’m sure. I take it to mean smaller in size but bigger in every other fashion. I’ll be pulling out the stops without a doubt.

sign invitational

Shortly after this years winners were announced there was a quiet time at the show. I whipped out my sketchbook and began scribbling down my ideas for next year. I flew home that night and while I was waiting at the airport for my plane I did a few more sketches to nail down the concept. A couple of day’s later I finished the concept art. I’ll be building two similar pieces for next year’s event. One will be my official entry for the Sign Invitational to be displayed in the Signs of the Times booth at the ISA show. The second similar piece will be displayed in Coastal Enterprises booth. They have promoted and supported this fun contest from the start!

Last week I started building the first of the routing files. I will be using a wide variety of weights of Precision Board HDU throughout my pieces (Ed note: higher densities of HDU are more dense and thus weigh more). My goal is to build the pieces as light as possible. This means using lower densities of the board where possible. But the reality is that the piece has to also survive shipping over 6000 miles return and all the bumps and drops that may happen in between. The folks who handle the freight at the show can be a little rough at times as well. So certain pieces of the fabrication will be made with higher densities of board to add strength to the sculpture.

The first components to be fabricated was the wheels and frame of the truck. To shorten the truck as much as possible and to add to the fun character of the piece the wheels are more of an oval shape than round. With the files finished it was time to actually begin work. I had a piece of 1/2” thick 40 lb (PBLT-40) Precision Board tucked away for just such a project. The wheels were routed in two halves which will be glued together back to back. The truck body will actually be physically supported by a hidden heavy duty steel rod that will go down into the base because even with 40 lb board I wasn’t confident the piece would survive the journey without the extra reinforcement. As the pieces came off the router I glued them together and am in the process of cleaning them off to ready them for paint.

There is still a very long way to go before it looks like much but I’ll be posting progress here from time to time.

If there are other sign professionals who want to get in on the fun of next year’s Sign Invitational competition drop me an email and I’ll send more info.

sign invitational

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 samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

Sign Invitational 2019 Update from Dan Sawatzky

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to host guest blogs written by some of the signage industry’s biggest movers and shakers, posted to the Precision Board Blog.  This guest blog is written by Dan Sawatzky with Imagination Corporation in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada.  This month, Dan gives us an update on his 2019 ISA Sign Invitational entries (made with a variety of materials, including PBLT-30) and some insight into his creative process, especially when it comes to the little details that pull the entire story into focus.

sign invitational

In Dan Sawatzky’s own words…

The fourth annual Sign Invitational at the International Sign Association EXPO is to be held on April 24-26 in Las Vegas. That means the pressure is on to finish up my pieces and I have no doubt the others in the competition are busy as well. I am doing two entries this year. Because I am twice defending champion I suspect everyone will be putting their best foot forward and I’ll be ready with my attempts in answer.

The contest is being hosted by Signs of the Times Magazine, booth number 2135 at the show. There will be four large entries on display and five small ones in the smaller table top/wall mount category.

My first piece is in the large category with the build envelope measuring 2’ x 2’ x 6’ tall. That leaves a lot of room for creativity and a ton of detail. Over the last year (since the last Sign Invitational) I have been putting in a few hours each week building the clockmaker’s factory. Although I had a fairly firm plan in mind when I started, I knew I would be adding a bunch of little things as I went, all in the service of telling the fun story. I finished the bulk of the sculpting some time ago and then began painting and glazing which brought the building to life. As I worked I would think up some little idea and then I would sculpt a little more, then go back to painting. That process is almost complete and I am very happy with the efforts so far. This piece has an incredible amount of detail packed into every square inch.

sign invitational

We love detail in our shop. And it is sometimes surprising how much the seemingly mundane items make the story believable. Our journey begins on the ground floor of the building. Beside the well worn front stone steps is a scooter, leaned up against a no parking sign. A somewhat beat up garbage can is tucked in the corner. A rusty down pipe drains the roof. Around back the delivery truck is parked against the wood decked loading bay. I still have to add a dolly load of boxes to that area. On the other side of the building is the ancient and well used steam boiler. We can almost feel the heat wave and hear the steam hiss from the rusty rivets. (A hidden miniature smoke machine will provide that effect when it is at the show.) Loose rocks and bricks litter the area and even more details are yet to be added. It is amazing just how much you can squeeze into a space two feet square.

The second, smaller category has a build envelope of 3’ x 3’ x ?.  The ‘official’ rules leave this dimension as a question mark and open to interpretation. On my piece it is 17” deep.  It can be either table or wall mounted. I am building an entry for that category as well although it will not be officially entered in the competition. Instead the time piece will be on display in the Coastal Enterprises booth (#860) as a way to help promote the competition at the show. Precision Board has been a proud and enthusiastic sponsor from the very first year.

This piece is well on the way to being finished. I routed the last component today using a small piece of PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU of course. This piece is called ‘Slowing down time’ and is the back side of a large steam driven clock. There is still some sculpting to complete for this piece and I will also be building a small table/stand for the display.

Both pieces have been a great deal of fun with no clients holding me back or trying to art direct my efforts. I am enjoying the leisurely process of both of these builds and this approach has allowed me to go completely wild in the process. I look forward to seeing all the other entries at the Sign Invitational and welcome everyone to come and cast a vote for their favourite.

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 samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

Dan Sawatzky’s Robot Table for Coastal Enterprises ISA Booth

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 at the end of each month.  In his debut entry, Dan tells us how he created a robot table out of PBLT-4 and PBLT-30 that will be part of the Coastal Enterprises booth at the ISA International Sign Expo Trade Show in March.

Space in a trade show booth is always in short supply and so I decided a small 24″ x 24″ table to display product samples would be just the ticket. Coastal Enterprises makes Precision Board, glues and primers which we use in our shop exclusively. I did up the concept, not worrying too much about details. We would work this out as we went along.

dan sawatzky

The project is made of three pieces…a base pedestal with Coastal Enterprises’ logo routed into each side, the strongman robot, and the tabletop. I designed the routing files in Enroute. The sides of the base had the Coastal enterprises logo routed into them. I’ll be hand texturing the faces and top and add the rivets using sculpting epoxy. For the feet of the robot I drew the vectors of the feet on top of the base top to get the scale right and to make sure it didn’t overlap our company ID.

dan sawatzky

The routed sides and top of the base were screwed to a plywood box which I had previously built. It was fastened to a 1/4″ steel plate which I cut on the MultiCam CNC plasma cutter.  The feet of the robot were done in two layers which stacked on top of each other to give me the 3″ depth I wanted. These were fastened to the base top. I then hand sculpted the detail over these forms using Sculpting Epoxy.

I’ve stated many times that we use 30 lb Precision Board exclusively in our shop. This is true when it pertains to CNC routing… but when we are hand sculpting high density urethane that will be coated with sculpting epoxy we sometimes use four-pound foam. It is so soft I can practically carve it with my hands which makes roughing out basic shapes a whole lot easier!

The rough armature for the robot body was a great place to use this less dense foam. It needed to be fit around the welded steel armature and then roughed into shape. I used three layers of 3″ four-pound foam. Since I was going to coat it in sculpting epoxy I wasn’t concerned with gaps or rough edges. I used PB Bond Fast Set which cures in only one hour. I glued it up before I went to lunch and when I returned I was able to remove the clamps and get busy sculpting over the new form.

I used crumpled tinfoil to fill the gaps and holes and then pressed on a layer of sculpting epoxy. Once this had set I did another layer that was detailed. In a few hours, I did the legs and the bulk of the front of the robot body. Rather than my usual rivets I opted to sculpt flat head screws for more of a retro feel.

As an extra little feature, I added a window hatch with some small details inside using short lengths of wire, a spare air pressure gauge and some bits of hose. The detail will be a reward for the few who take the time to look at the back of the robot table. I also added an on/off switch above it as well – just for fun.

dan sawatzky

The upper arms were routed from two pieces of 1″ thick 30 lb Precision Board with a slot cut into them to fit around the 1″ X 2” structural steel. I routed the table top in four pieces. The main part of the top was built as a lower and upper section. I routed a cross slot in the top to accept a welded 1″ X 1″ square tubing frame. I applied some PB Bond fast set glue to the two halves and then screwed them together. Two more pieces for the front and back of the table top were then fastened to the top. These two pieces had the words ‘Precision Board’ routed into them. I then sculpted a layer of sculpting epoxy over the arm pieces to add detail and add the fingers and thumb to each arm. The table top was textured on all sides with an air powered die grinder.

We decided to go with a colourful retro colour scheme with heavy patina and aging. This is a well-used robot that’s been around a long time. We started with a thick coat of Coastal Enterprises FSC88-WB primer. We purposely left plenty of random brush strokes in the heavy bodied primer to add more texture. This adds a lot of character and makes adding the glazes later a whole lot easier!

Then it was on to the base colours. We use 100% acrylic house paint for the most part. Things looked pretty garish at this point but we would fix that in a hurry. Once the base colours were on and dry we started in with the glazes which we custom mix using a 50/50 blend of clear base paint (without tint) and the colour of our choice. The glazes are brushed on and then judiciously wiped off with a terry towel rag, leaving it in the crevices and in the texture of the piece. Amazing effects can be done with this technique. The top was only glazed in the letters as we wanted the square shape to look similar in colour to raw Precision Board when we were done, but have the lettering jump out.

dan sawatzky

The end result of efforts was a funky little table which should draw plenty of interest at the International Sign Association EXPO in Orlando in March. If you are at the show drop by and take a look!

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.

You can get free samples of Precision Board HDU, request a quote, and sign up for the monthly Blog Roundup from Coastal Enterprises.

RELATED:

Signing Off (Dan Sawatzky’s Blog)

Why Dan Sawatzky Exclusively Uses PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU

Imagination Takes Flight: Our Interview With Dan Sawatzky

 

ISA Sign Expo 2016: Free Passes!

ISABanner

Visit Coastal Enterprises at Booth 272!

In just 5 short weeks, we will be shipping out to Orlando, Florida to host our booth at the ISA International Sign Expo 2016. This is one of the most prestigious gatherings of sign and graphics professionals in the world, and has been for nearly 70 years. The best part is, we are offering FREE PASSES to anyone who would like to attend! That’s right, free admission to one of the largest sign and display conventions in the world! Just click here, fill out your information, and receive your free pass. The expo will be held April 20-23, in the South Building of the Orange County Convention Center. Don’t forget to visit Coastal Enterprises at Booth 272, where you can see this incredible display piece from Dan Sawatzky, up close and in person.

display piece

In addition to the Coastal Enterprises booth, be sure to check out the 2016 Sign Invitational at Booth C16. Here, some of the most talented sign makers in the country will go head to head to find out which displays will reign supreme! Some of our favorite sign makers will be competing this year, like Imagination Corporation, Synergy Sign and Graphics, and Xpressive GraphiX. This is a can’t miss event, so be sure to stop by the Sign Invitational booth at the Expo.

For a behind-the-scenes look at how the masters make their pieces, don’t forget to check out MultiCam Inc. at Booth 525 and SA International Enroute at Booth 2527. The high quality CNC routers and mapping software made by these companies are indispensable for modern sign makers, who rely on high-tech tools to push their designs to the limit!

And just to reiterate…CLICK HERE FOR FREE PASSES!