Custom Craftsman, Integrated Signs Put Facility on Right Track

Editor’s Note: Rarely do we feature a collaboratively authored article in the Strictly column. However, this project featured International Sign Contest winners joining forces – Zank has won several awards in the Commercial Monument, Commercial Freestanding and Electric Monument categories, and Integrated Sign teamed with Lorenc+Yoo Design (Roswell, GA) to create the Firewheel Town Center signage, which won Best of Show in ST’s 2007 International Sign Contest – and we couldn’t resist. We hope you enjoy it.

Zank
The Track, a sprawling, family-recreation center in Pigeon Forge, TN, offers go-cart racing, miniature golf, bumper-car rides, video-game arcades and many other fun activities for kids of all ages. For the very adventurous, it also offers bungee jumping and skydiving.

Morris Gallagher, a designer of amusement facilities and themed attractions who’d done work for The Track, referred me to Pigeon Forge LP, its ownership group. It’s been very successful in building and developing attractions that are well received by the family-oriented tourists who visit Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and other, regional tourist destinations.

The client wanted a new main-ID sign on the property’s road frontage that would appeal to today’s tech-savvy families – and with a modest carbon footprint and energy consumption. Initially, they said they didn’t want an electronic message center (EMC). The previous sign, a V-shaped configuration, included an older EMC, fluorescent can lighting, and flexible-faces, but its very dated graphics needed an upgrade.

They weren’t convinced an EMC would add value to their sign package, but, in such a competitive environment, with many attractions vying for tourists’ attention, I thought customized messages would be essential to The Track’s branding. Finally, we agreed to make an EMC a central sign component.

As always, my design development began with thumbnail sketches. I use this time-honored technique to create proportional relationships and envision the design elements. The sign already had a sizeable support structure, so I incorporated it into the new sign’s composition while staying within the permitted 350 sq. ft. allowed for the property’s pole sign. My design concept included only LED illumination and heavy-gauge, aluminum construction. For the EMC, I specified a 100-sq.-ft., double-sided Watchfire XVS 16mm-pixel-pitch message center. The display provides very crisp resolution with a 144 x 216-pixel matrix, and only draws 42A at 120V. In fact, the entire sign runs on a mere 100A service.

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To create the original-art concept presentation for the customer, I used Adobe Photoshop and Gerber’s Omega™ software, and then developed a dimensional model with Autodesk 3DS Max. After we closed the sale and made final material and process decisions, John Whelchel, Integrated Signs’ CAD department director, remodeled the composition with Google’s SketchUp 3-D modeling software.

A project challenge entailed using the existing steel structure without it looking like a poor fit or an afterthought. To make the structural area more attractive, I featured Go-Cart, a cartoonish mascot who added visual pop and eliminated the column’s pencil-post appearance. To fabricate the mascot, we hired Art Attack, an Edmonton, AB, Canada-based company that produces custom elements for themed attractions. Art Attack, which has produced themed-environment signage and sculptures for 14 years, fabricated Go-Cart from EPS foam that’s cut both by hand and on a hot-wire machine, and sealed with a polyurea hardcoat that will protect it for years of use. We completed the Watchfire display hook-up, and installed the character at the base of the structure.

The projects allowed me to fulfill a goal – a major project with Albert Oberst and his team at Integrated Sign. He’s very technically savvy, produces signs with a quality-first mindset, and has an exemplary track record for sign programs that have been installed nationwide. I’m thankful to Oberst, Whelchel, Eva Hall (Oberst’s assistant) and Aaron Anderkin (Integrated’s VP of operations) for their teamwork and vision in executing this successful project.

Oberst
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Zank for many years, and we’ve worked together on various suc-
cessful projects. He presented the design schematics, and asked us to develop a fabrication program and select appropriate materials. He told us that “going green” was a key client priority, and noted that using LEDs as a lightsource was paramount.

To embellish the Watchfire EMC, our shop built 0.125-in.-thick, 15 x 12-ft., aluminum cabinetry. To build it to conform to the sign’s footprint, the production staff welded multiple radius corners and step raceways. To illuminate the radius points, we installed SloanLED’s LEDStripe rigid, large-profile, high-impact tubing. The sign’s upper section comprises a 0.125-in.-thick cabinet with face-lit channel letters covered with ¼-in.-thick acrylic and illuminated with SloanLED’s ChannelLED5, which is designed for such large applications.

Using Whelchel’s SketchUp renderings, we demonstrated to Zank the various ways we could execute his intent. After we transferred the files to AutoCAD®, we progressed to process details. Ultimately, we created the letters and face elements on our MultiCam 3000 CNC router, and built the aluminum components with our manual shearing and hand-brake equipment. All of the channel-letter copy was mounted second-surface with impact-modified acrylic mounted over the routed face and illuminated with white modules. The radius points and raceways were central to Zank’s vision for the design aesthetic; it’s certainly a pleasure to collaborate with a designer who has such deep knowledge of fabrication.

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Before we began production, we conducted a thorough survey of the site and developed the sign and cabinet dimensions. We then MIG-welded the parts together, and outsourced the final production of the mold to an acrylic manufacturer.

Around the signface’s perimeter, we installed 38, supersized acrylic globes – made from frosted, clear polymer – as running lights. Tony Ball of Torkworks, a Columbus, OH-based, lighting-sculpture fabricator, created the globes. We fabricated the bulbs’ filaments using 24V, SloanLED white-module fixtures. We wired the globes separately to a DMX computerized controller, which allows more than 150 unique flashing and chasing sequences. We pre-programmed the sequences, but they can be adjusted by The Track’s staff.

For us, the project’s most challenging aspect was molding the acrylic bulbs – the development phase of cutting down and assembling the pieces. It required hours for Whelchel and I to configure the parts and put them back together. We built their shape in AutoCAD, and then sliced them into sections so the files could be sent to our router. We then glued the parts together with Lord Adhesives epoxy, and sanded them by hand to smooth out rough spots. But, our creativity and years of experience have conditioned us to overcome almost any challenge.
 

Equipment and Materials
Adhesive: All-purpose epoxy, from Lord Corp. (Cary, NC), (877) 275-5673 or www.lord.com
Display: Watchfire XVS 16mm-pixel, 100-sq.-ft. electronic display, from Watchfire (Danville, IL), (800) 637-2645 or www.watchfiresigns.com
Equipment: MIG welder, manual shearing and braking equipment, available from metal-fabrication suppliers; DMX controller, available from lighting, special-effects and electronics suppliers
Lighting: ChanneLED 5 and LEDStripe LED modules, from SloanLED (Ventura, CA), (888) 747-4533 or www.sloanled.com; Acrylic globes, from Torkworks (Columbus, OH), (614) 492-1810 or www.torkworks.com 
Router: MultiCam 3000 CNC router, from MultiCam Inc. (Dallas), (972) 929-4070 or www.multicam.com
Sculpture: Coated-EPS cartoon sculpture, from Art Attack FX (Edmonton, AB, Canada), (780) 433-2589 or www.artattackfx.com
Software: 3DS Max and AutoCAD, from Autodesk (San Rafael, CA), (415) 507-5000 or www.autodesk.com; SketchUp 3-D software, available at www.sketchup.com; Photoshop®, available from Adobe (San Jose), www.adobe.com; Omega™ 5.0 sign-design software, from Gerber Scientific Products (Tolland, CT), (800) 222-7446 or www.gspinc.com  
 

More about Custom Craftsman Signs
Brother Zank began a career of custom-sign fabrication in 1977, and his work evolved through the industry’s challenges and lessons developed by practicing and supporting the fine art of handcrafting products of distinction. In 1989, he founded Custom Craftsman Signs with his wife, Vicki.

“My business is based on a belief that unique creativity and fine craftsmanship are, and always will be, in style,” he said.

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A love of nature drew Zank and Vicki to the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, where they’ve developed a rustic, mountain-craftsman design style, with a focus on monumental landmark signs and earthscapes that identify the entry features of many of East Tennessee’s most important destinations.

More About Integrated Signs
Albert Oberst founded Integrated Signs in the late ‘80s with “a commitment to excellence.” Its portfolio includes retail (Atlanta’s Atlantic Station, Phoenix North, Miami’s Dadeland Mall), restaurant (Applebee’s, Johnny Carino’s), institutional (Keeneland Race Track, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts) and educational (University of Louisville wayfinding system) clients for nationwide installations.

“We have a reputation of being problem solvers, with flexibility and the passion to see projects of very large and complex scopes through to successful completion, on time and under budget,” he said. “Our commitment is to a process that will provide superior products through open communication, comprehensive documentation and service from the first meeting through the life of the project.”