I’ve been making signs for a long time, and a lot of the signs I make involve using PVC. One of the fun projects I made several years ago was for a company called Asset Protectors and Advisors. The company presented me with a nice color rendition of the logo they wanted mounted behind the reception desk in their lobby. I was asked to come up with a proposal for a nice sign that fit the décor of the office.

 

My normal inclination is to think dimensionally, and this was a logo that was easy to imagine in layers. The blue outer circle of the design was a perfect fit for PVC. I painted the PVC with a blue automotive enamel (Omni AU) paint. Automotive enamel gives a highly polished finish. The PVC for this part of the project was 1" Komacel. I like Komacel’s consistent thickness. Consistent thickness is of utmost importance when v-carving letters into any material. If there are thick places in the material, the letters carve thicker and if there are thin places, the letters carve thinner. The Gerber Saber 408 and Autocarve 3-D software are blind and can’t adjust for varying thickness. Both are based on consistent thickness, and material surface gets set before starting the job. I have had a lot of sales people guarantee me that their brand of PVC has consistent thickness, but when put to the test they would invariably fail. Komacel in the 1" thickness comes boxed in its own cardboard container and has a slick finish on both sides. It’s a bit pricier than most PVC’s of that thickness, but it performs.

 

PVC1 and PVC2

Back to the project at hand. You can see that the white letters on the blue outer circle were v-carved into the material. Before carving, I applied a vinyl mask to the painted sheet. The gold stars are also v-carved, and carving through the vinyl mask allowed me to easily paint the gold stars. After the paint dries, I carefully peel back the vinyl mask, revealing a perfectly painted gold star. OK… give me a gold star for that one.

 

The edges of the outer circle are white, and I used a v bit to carve a slight reveal on both the inner and outer edges. The lowest layer of the sign is a circle of white ¼" PVC attached to the back of the sign. A digital print of a leaf wreath is applied to that layer. You may notice the word layer as I explain this project. That’s what dimensional is all about. The visual interest of this type of project is based on multiple layers.

 

This Corian “$” was cut prismatic, meaning it was projecting rather than incised. It was attached with VHB double sided tape.

In photos titled PVC1 and PVC2, you see that the A, P & A is v-carved into a sheet of ½" PVC and sits on top of the outer blue ring. This layer appears to float over the digital printed area because I used scrap 1" PVC as a spacer. On top of the ½" blue PVC is a gold colored cross made from 1/8" PVC and attached with VHB double sided tape. At the bottom of the ½" blue piece is an oval that is part of the blue shield. I attached a 1/8" white PVC oval to this area and on top of that sits a dollar sign made from Corian. I made this piece from Corian because of the delicate nature of the piece and the fact that I can get a lot smoother surface from the Corian. This Corian “$” was cut prismatic, meaning it was projecting rather than incised. Again, it was attached with VHB double sided tape. If you’re counting, this makes five separate layers, not counting the letters being carved in.

 

That’s pretty much it for the main logo, but there is also the prismatic copy to both sides of the logo. For this copy, I used white Corian again because of the smooth surface and delicate nature of the serifed letters. These letters were only about 2" for the Capital letters. The client requested that the letters be spaced off the wall, and I accomplished that by making custom pieces of spacers from the same Corian material. Corian, which is mainly used for countertops, has a glue that readily bonds pieces together. You never even see the seams in the countertops. The letters were attached to the painted sheetrock walls with VHB double sided tape.

 

That project was completed several years ago, and I had just about forgotten about it until the phone rang this past winter. This same client wanted a different logo on another wall and wanted it to look very similar to the past project. Again the logo was to be a circle, but instead of a solid paint color it had a gradient of burgundy, running from dark burgundy at the bottom to a light burgundy middle and a medium burgundy at the top. I fretted over this a bit but was able to accomplish this effect by buying a medium burgundy automotive enamel paint. I first added some black automotive enamel to the medium burgundy and painted the entire sheet the dark burgundy color. I cleaned my paint gun of this color and painted the top portion of the sign with the undiluted medium burgundy, and before cleaning the remaining paint I added a bit of white automotive enamel to the paint in the gun and sprayed the middle section with the lighter burgundy. 

 

This same client from the previous photos wanted a different logo on another wall and wanted it to look very similar to the past project.

I let the paint job dry for a couple of days before masking it with the light blue vinyl mask you see in the photo. I usually use an intermediate vinyl for masking and the color doesn’t really matter as much as the glue formula. Some adhesives just want to stay on the surface when you remove them, and some don’t. You may want to run some tests on scrap material before undertaking complex projects. Also, the paint you spray the carved copy may react to the adhesive, so test that combination as well.

 

 

After masking the PVC, it was placed on the router table, held down by double-sided tape. In the photo you can see the router has v-carved the copy of the outer circle and the PCG and Strength, Growth and Security pieces. White PVC shows through the mask and is easily painted with gold paint. Edges were masked while painting the gold to retain the white reveals. Photo PVC3 shows removing the masking from the painted piece. There weren’t as many layers to this project as the last, but it was similar enough in nature to be placed in viewing proximity to the last project. Again, I used a digital print for the tree in the back layer and attached the PCG on top of it with the VHB tape. The entire logo was attached to the wall using aluminum studs and a paper mounting pattern.

 

I just love it when my work gets an encore. Until next month, go out and try something new.