Design

Best Commercial Freestanding Signs of 2015

House of Signs resumes its winners’ circle spot

Published

9 years ago

April 6, 2015

Steve Aust Signs of the Times April 2015 Issue

Commercial Freestanding Signs

First Place
Fabricator/Designer/Installer
House of Signs
Frisco, CO
(970) 668-5232
www.houseofsignsco.com

Client
Charles Harding

Trout Creek Ranch was recently added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and deserves first-rate signage that conveys its legacy to visitors. A team – Roger Cox, Bonnie Norling-Wakeman, Periandros Damoulis and Randy Ballheim – designed the entry sign using Gerber’s Omega 5.0, Adobe Illustrator and Vectric Aspire 3-D software. The fabricators – Cox, Ballheim, Damoulis, Steve Huyler, Mark Bocksch and Justin Koch – built the signface using Duna Corafoam® HDU distressed by hand, adorned with welded steel accents, and installed on heavy timber planks. Acrylic paints and metallic and glaze coatings create the rustic accents that Cox said “take you back 150 years.”

Second Place
Fabricator/Designer/Installers
Signworks Studios
Monroe, CT
(203) 268-3993
www.signworksstudios.com

Client
Finnegan’s Farm West

The client, an organic-farm operator, wanted to use wood from his property, so Signworks cut and milled trees to various widths to create a sign blank, and joined pieces with oak dowels, a drill and Tightbond 3 wood glue. The Boros family – Brett, Patti and Gary – designed the sign using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and Gerber Omega and Artpath software, and built the sign by cutting the shape with Makita power tools, sealing the edges with West Systems epoxy, and strapping the circumference with steel. They stud-mounted ¾-in.-thick, PVC letters to the sign, as well as a 1-in.-thick HDU banner with incise-carved lettering and a graphic depiction of the field. Then, they sculpted the vegetables onto the sign using a steel frame. The Boros trio decorated all elements with Benjamin Moore acrylic-latex paint and custom glazes – Abracadabra Magic Sculpt was used to build up the 3-D elements. They constructed the post by MIG-welding a steel structure with a Millermatic system, covering it with a pencil-rod framework, wiring on a diamond lathe and coating it with fiberglass-reinforced concrete.

Third Place
Fabricator/Installer/Designer
Synergy Sign & Graphics
Strasburg, OH
(330) 878-7646
www.synergysign.com

Client
Teal Insurance Agency

The agency’s owner, an avid duck hunter, wanted his passion conveyed on his sign. Instead of a garden-variety post, Synergy’s James Dawson suggested a tree complemented by a landscaping rock. Dawson and Bryan Gray constructed a square-steel-tube support structure, covered it with a
round steel rod and diamond lath, and created the tree-like texture with fiberglass-reinforced concrete. They fashioned the sign panel from Coastal Enterprises’ 30-lb. PrecisionBoard® HDU on a MultiCam CNC router, and fitted it with a steel frame. Then, Synergy painted the sign with 12 coats of bases and glazes, and ultimately protected its work with a matte-finish clearcoat.

HONORABLE MENTION
Fabricator
Palmer Signs
Roseville, CA
(916) 773-5815
www.palmersigns.com

Designers
Tony Palmer
Juice Lee

Client
Buccaneer Bay

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