Best Unique Signs of 2014

FIRST PLACE

Fabricator
Sawatzky’s Imagination Corp.
Chilliwack, BC Canada
(604) 823-2216
www.imaginationcorporation.com

Designer
Dan Sawatzky

Client
Self

Sawatzky is revered as a teacher of 3-D-sign-fabrication techniques – and for his seemingly endless creativity. While teaching at a workshop in Indiana, and inspired by a piece built by fellow teacher Jamie Oxenham, he and Illinois signmaker Doug Haffner started a friendly competition, and soon the duo invited all interested parties to participate. They invited workshop students to build a freestanding, 3-D piece for a fictitious facility, The Institute for the Study of Mechanical Marine Life.

“The competition’s purpose was to get everyone to push their creative boundaries and create a showpiece for their shops,” Sawatzky said.

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And, as expected, he displayed a terrific example with this futuristic creation. After having created the file using EnRoute Pro 4 software, he crafted the sign’s form with 30-lb. PrecisionBoard HDU on his shop’s MultiCam 3000 CNC router before creating fine details with Abracadabra Sculpt’s two-part modeling epoxy. He handpainted the sign using Modern Masters reactive and metallic paints. Heico Lighting LEDs shed light on “Grandpa Dan”’s creation.

SECOND PLACE

Fabricators
Patti Skoglund
Superior Electrical Adv.
Long Beach, CA
(562) 495-3808
www.superiorsigns.com

Forms + Surfaces (stainless steel)
Carpinteria, CA
(800) 451-0410
www.forms-surfaces.com

Daktronics (message center)
Brookings, SD
(800) 325-8766
www.daktronics.com

Designers
Mike Miller
Superior Electrical Adv.

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Marcela Sardi
Sardi Design
Baltimore
(410) 522-2960
www.sardidesign.com

Dan Molseed
Daktronics

Client
Los Angeles World Airports

Airports have evolved far beyond utilitarian transportation hubs, and architectural and aesthetic statements are considered vital to impress visitors. This ambitious project for LAX’s Tom Bradley Intl. Terminal includes a Time Tower, Welcome Wall and Destination Board. The Tower, which stands 72 x 25 ft., intersects with four floors in the terminal’s central area. The upper two-thirds of the tower are wrapped with 6mm LED boards that provide ultra-HD views, while the lower third entails 10mm boards and accenting frosted glass, perforated base panels and stainless-steel accents, which provide what Superior describes as an elegant finish.

The 86 x 36-ft. Welcome Wall, a single-face message board, greets the terminal’s incoming passengers. The central, 6mm board is flanked by fluted glass and stainless steel. The Destination Board, which spans 86 x 14 ft., features a 10mm display surrounded by aluminum, and programmable LED sticks that convey the main screen’s graphics. The radius-built display features a 20º pitch
that allows travelers to read the board from 70 ft. below.

Third Place
Fabricator
Airpark Signs & Graphics
Tempe, AZ
(480) 966-6565
www.airparksigns.com

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Designers
Jamie Cordelier
Martha Dry
Kristina Ricci
The Walter Project
Black Rock City, NV
(775) 302-5448
www.walterthebus.org

Client
The Walter Project

Selling Price
$10,000

Described as “an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self-expression and self-reliance,” the Burning Man Festival takes place every August in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, and brings together an unabashedly unique assemblage of thousands of artists, musicians, technophiles and other free spirits. The Walter Project celebrates a 1963-vintage, military-rescue vehicle that’s been retrofitted into a supersized VW Beetle. The Kalliope design team wanted to celebrate Walter’s arrival with an over-the-top electric display.

Airpark fashioned the display from aluminum sheet with a Flow waterjet cutter, Miller Electric MIG welder and a circular saw. The display was secured to a rectangular-tube support structure, decorated with Matthews paint and illuminated with E12 15W incandescent bulbs.