Banners + Awnings

Best Murals/Exhibit Graphics/Banners of 2013

Three different solutions share common success

Published

11 years ago

March 26, 2013

Steve Aust Signs of the Times April 2013 Issue

First Place

Fabricators
Jay Allen
Joe Marshall
ShawCraft Sign Co.
Machesney Park, IL

www.shawcraft.com
Designer
Jay Allen
Client
Illinois Lincoln Hwy. Coalition

As representatives of the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition (ILHC) began preparations for the "Grandmother Road"’s (the Mother Road, Route 66, wasn’t opened until 1926) centennial celebration later this year, they wanted to pay homage to the numerous small towns that dotted the highway (and grew up alongside it) with a series of murals that recount each city’s landmarks and local color.
Bonnie Heimbach, an ILHC board member, approached Jay Allen, owner of ShawCraft Sign Co., to create a series of murals. When the project concludes in April, Allen and Marshall, a longtime ShawCraft employee, will have painted 35 murals. Bill Hueg, a Westminster, CO-based muralist, painted the pictorials for 14 of the murals.
The murals were applied to 3A Composites’ Dibond® composite-material panels (each panel comprises five, 4 x 10-ft. pieces), which Allen cut to shape on a Gerber Sabre 408 CNC router. After having created the pattern on MACtac MacMask paint mask with a Graphtec FC 4100-75 plotter, he applied the mask and painted the pictorials and text with artists’ oils, and TJ Ronan and aged 1Shot lettering enamels. To protect the murals for motorists’ enjoyment, he applied Marabu’s ClearShield single-part, catalyzed-acrylic clearcoat. Allen and Marshall secured the panels to support structures built in each community to Allen’s specifications.
“I learned a great deal from this project,” Allen said. “I learned how to paint pictorials, and I became a better designer. And, through my experiences with the project, I feel like a more enlightened man.”

Second Place

Fabricator
Dimensional Innovations
Overland Park, KS
(913) 744-2130
www.dimin.com

Designers
Populous
Kansas City
(816) 221-1500
www.populous.com

J.C. Hendricks
Rick Smith
Dimensional Innovations
Client
Kansas St. Univ. Athletic Dept.

Athletic-department officials at Kansas State Univ. are taking tremendous steps to make sure they keep pace with the University of Kansas Jayhawks, their fierce, in-state rival. The school’s new player-development center will help Wildcats coach Bruce Weber build a contender. The graphic package incorporates donor-recognition panels, signage and wayfinding that will undoubtedly help players develop a sense of pride in their program’s legacy. The system’s centerpiece entails a 23-ft.-long, LED-lit graphic wall, with four luminous trophy cases; a large-format, soffit graphic, and a halo-lit Wildcat logo forged from stainless steel. The graphic panels were built from welded aluminum with acrylic graphic panels. GE Lighting’s LED Tetra Mini Max 3200K warm-white modules illuminate the system; acrylic graphics were created with Chemcast clear acrylic, and digital graphics were output on a Roland VersaCamm VS-640 with 3M’s Controltac IJ180Cv3-10 air-release media.

As of March 6, the Wildcats were 25-5 and in second place in the Big 12. Coincidence? We think not.

Third Place

Fabricator
Ferrari Color
Salt Lake City
(801) 355-4124
www.ferraricolor.com
Designer
San Francisco 49ers in-house graphics team
Client
San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers have regained status as one of the NFL’s more formidable franchises, and the team hired Ferrari Color to create soft-sided graphics for its Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Using team-furnished graphics, Ferrari Color produced a combination of matte-finish, photographic prints, which it generated on a Durst Lambda photo printer and sized to fit within wall-mounted frames, and poplin fabric banners, which it decorated with a Mimaki JV5-320DS dye-sublimation printer.

“Using fabric to produce banners helped us create a more luxurious atmosphere, and the team was very pleased,” Ferrari Color’s Mikall Anderson said.

Honorable Mention

Fabricator
Acorn Sign Graphics
Richmond, VA
(804) 726-6999
www.acornsign.com
Designer
Virginia Commonwealth Univ./ KOPA Architects
Client
Virginia Commonwealth Univ.

click to Comment(Comment)

Introducing the Sign Industry Podcast

The Sign Industry Podcast is a platform for every sign person out there — from the old-timers who bent neon and hand-lettered boats to those venturing into new technologies — we want to get their stories out for everyone to hear. Come join us and listen to stories, learn tricks or techniques, and get insights of what’s to come. We are the world’s second oldest profession. The folks who started the world’s oldest profession needed a sign.