posted
I have done a few "large" signs in my time, and as I see some on TV or at sports events, I wonder, "who the hell did that?" What is the square footage of your largest sign? Where didi you paint it? What technique did you use to do the layout? Did you use any "unique methods" or tools? What troubles did you encounter? Stories? Any pictures?
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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I know this won't break any records, but my largest sign to date was a corregated trailer...10'X35'. The corregations and rivits where a challenge; so was the layout. The layout was fairly simple, but the trailer was inside a shop and there wasn't room to use a projector for the pattern. I printed out a paper pattern, drew a grid on it and then snapped chalklines on the trailer. I drew the lettering by hand and then wasted lots of time masking the letters. I found out on the last line of copy that it was actually easier to paint without the mask (no bleeding and drips)...live and learn, right? Another funny thing about that job, I ordered a gallon of black one shot and a gallon of red. My supplier didn't have a gallon so they sent me 3 or 4 quarts of red. I didn't even use 1/2 of a quart, so I had LOTS of paint left over. I wanted to be sure I wouldn't run out!
I know this will be peanuts compared to some of the work you've done!
Suelynn
-------------------- "It is never too late to be what you might have been." -George Eliot
Suelynn Sedor Sedor Signs Carnduff, SK Canada Posts: 2863 | From: Carnduff, SK Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I once painted a 5000 square foot mural in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, biggest lettering job was in Abbotsford BC at 300 feet long and 20 feet high making the job around 6000 sq ft... but Si has that beat by a country mile.
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
And I thought I'm working on a large sign.....
It's only 6'x48'(9-4'x8's) and it has been in my shop for about a year. It's going to be a mural for the 2005 Centennial celebration and has thirteen different handpainted scenes from the past, as well as a town map and business directory. I can't wait to get it out of here already!
posted
About 5 years ago. All on the same Job for Holcim Concrete we painted their logo on the side of a Concrete Silo that was 100 feet tall by 40 feet wide that was the one,only and last time I will ever go on a swing stage. We had to grind the wall first then Paint it. We painted by using the grid technique. Then we did a 24panel logo for them on the pre-heater tower that was 724 sgft. All Dibond and 3m vinyl. That was installed 200ft in the air. That was installed with a climb crane that was attached to the 400 ft tower. The crane usage cost more the sign but it was already there for the tower they were building. (If I remember right was around $750 an Hour) I'll Dig out my photos for this and post them if I find them. This concrete plant was like the 3rd largest in world at the time..
Oh SIIII... I have seen that Mall.. It was suppose to be Ontario Hills not Mills
posted
53' semi trailer is about the biggest I have done.
Not as big as others posted but there *were* two sides.
I applied the vinyl singlehandedly and worked the rivets myself, if that accounts for anything.
They insisted on vinyl (for easy replacement) but I would have gladly learned how to paint something that size and pocket more $$$.
By the way, the vinyl was applied in the middle of the monsoon season here in AZ, which means heavy winds, blowing sand dirt and small rocks and an occassional downpour of mud. What a fun job... I got to play a game of chase to track down my final payment on top of it.
[ January 27, 2005, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: Mike Pipes ]
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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At Darlington every year a buddy of mine used to give me a call to paint the grass in turn three,.....Jimmy Jolly and the rest of us usually painted about 6 to 8000 sq ft of grass in the two or three days before the race there twice a year,....usually it was about a football field and a half or so of signage to paint in less than three days before the events,.... Now for the largest sign I ever painted that was actually a sign,.....the end of the Long Pond straightaway sign at Pocono International Raceway was the largest,...seems it was at least 40+ feet high by 80 to a hundred feet long,....Can't quite recall the exact measurements but it was at least 3000 sq ft. of sign,..funny thing was it looked kind of small at the end of the over one mile long straightaway.
-------------------- fly low...timi/NC is, Tim Barrow Barrow Art Signs Winston-Salem,NC Posts: 2224 | From: Winston-Salem,NC,USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Biggest thing was a now-razed 14'x 28' foot mural painted on the back wall of a drive-in when I was 4 months pregnant with Rachael. (the Rhett carrying Scarlett scene from GWTW) I'd paint, go and puke, then paint some more. Fun times. I have helped to paint a billboard on 4x8s for a barn, and I also painted a 12'x18' logo way high up on another barn. Si has me beat tho! (I think that Ontario Mills needed a drop-shadow) Love....Jill
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
The biggest Sign I ever painted was the circle around home plate at Fenway Park for the Boston RedSox alongside my good friend Cam Bortz. The area was roughly 35'x41'
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've been paintin 14'x48' and 20'x 60' billboards for 25 yrs. In the 'good old days' we would paint 90 to 130 of these puppies a year. We had 3 14x48 racks in the shop, plus outside 14x48, 20x60, and various walls. Swing stage on all the outside work and scissors lift or swing stage inside.
Don, if they were standard size billboards they were 14 x 48!
-------------------- Bill Dirkes Cornhole Art LLC Bellevue, Ky. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are. Posts: 591 | From: Bellevue,Ky. US | Registered: Aug 1999
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Hey Si! What method did you use to layout that sign?
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
The largest I had the opportunity to do was a Sylvania banner for a New Years eve Times Square event about 8 years ago that was 50' x 50'. Since it was a pull chain and the lettering below, we did it in those two sections which was roughly half at a time then welded. The thing was quite a monster to fold and ship!!!
-------------------- AirbrushBobby.com Clearwater, FL The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.1Cor1:18 “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord”Rom6:23 Posts: 505 | From: Clearwater Florida USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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Well Tony, hate to rain on everyone's party about the Largest sign. I have been holding back to excercise my braggars rights, but here is my largest sign I painted while I used to work for NASA.
It took my crew of 23, four days 6 hours, all 1-Shot Medium Brown 18-55 gallon drums, We used a firefighters hose to spray it on, making sure all rocks and things got painted right. That little sign that Si Allen guy painted ain't got nothin on me! So do I win???
[ January 28, 2005, 12:02 PM: Message edited by: FranCisco Vargas ]
-------------------- aka:Cisco the "Traveling Millennium Sign Artist" http://www.franciscovargas.com Fresno, CA 93703 559 252-0935 "to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98 Posts: 3576 | From: Fresno, Ca, the great USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Bob and I talked about this thread yesterday, and I think he has some photos of the Red Sox job. We used pounce patterns for the letters, which were each about four feet high by two feet wide. Painted that chicken in about twenty hours, which included scraping and brushing the old paint and crud off the surface, coating with Ti-cote for adhesion, then coating the entire area with white bulletin enamel catalyzed with one-shot hardener. The two-inch wide outlines of the letters were cut in, then the background cut in around that. After everything dried overnight, we did the letters with another coat of white, and the final step was going around the entire job with a small brush to "clean up" the edges. Even though the job was primarily intended to be seen on TV cameras from the overhead booth, we knew the Red Sox executives would be down on the field to look at it up close.
Charged the Red Sox ten grand for it, and they paid like everyone else, half up front, half when we finished. We took pictures of the checks before we cashed them; I think Bob has those somewhere too.
Neat job, in that we had total access to Fenway Park and got to see how much manpower and effort goes into getting a major-league stadium ready for Opening Day. Fenway is the only place in New England with acres of perfect green lawn in April, and that's not easy.
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Cisco's got me beat. About the biggest I have done would be out at the Gatornationals, about a 40x90' "MAC Tools" on the asphalt behind the starting line. I taped a 1"x2" strip of wood to a cutter, to make a long handle, and cut in the letters standing up. I did the hands and knees thing one other time, and that was it...so much easier standing up.
Also a board about 16x100 ft "Budweiser"...I made a giant adjustable t-square out of plywood strips, and hung it on the board to get the slant just so.
Both jobs layed out by hand with scale drawing, tape, snapline and yardtick. Sometimes I make a template or paper pattern for distinctive features like a serif or a curved corner or something like that.
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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We painted the runway numbers at Kennedy Airport and Newark Airport, during my internship with the Port Authority. I think they were 25' wide by 60' tall, or thereabouts. Kinds unnerving because runways next to us were active, and planes we're taking off and landing right next to us. We also had to do it at night.
[ January 29, 2005, 07:50 AM: Message edited by: Dan Antonelli ]
"Some are born to move the world, to live their fantasies. But most of us just dream about the things we'd like to be." - Rush Posts: 1192 | From: Washington, NJ | Registered: Feb 1999
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Fosters Sign The logo is a yellow/orange irregular oval on the outside with a midnight blue interior around a yellow "F" The sign was neon and designed to sequentially illuminate each colour from the inside out. All layers were neon lit, the letter F being approx 8 metres top to bottom and the nearest concentric ring was about .5m from the top of the "F". Each set of colours was in its own channel. Each section of glass tube was arrox 2.4m long measured by epidiascope. Load per transformer was calculated by measured tube length. Production was completed to a full scale drawing created by myself and another fellow. The drawing was then used as a pattern for the sheetmetal workers and boilermakers that made the housing, as well as the glass blowers that made several kilometers of neon tube. The ovals were drawn using geometry and a flexed piece of .5" acrylic as the straight edge as were the production layouts for the concentric "neon" tubes between. The sign was fitted to the roof of the brewery in the centre of the CBD and stood for about 8 years. It was an interesting project to be involved in but... Fosters still tastes like urine and should only be consumed as a last resort.
[ January 29, 2005, 08:07 AM: Message edited by: David Fisher ]
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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