www.signshop.com: It seems like food and portion sizes just keep getting bigger, and shows like Man v. Food and Ginormous Food scour the country for menu items that tip the scale. But one recent sign project involving the construction of an eight-foot-diameter-by-five-foot-tall burger may have put all those offerings to shame.
7 comments:
I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting this article to be, but the fact that I learned a lot about building, sculpting, and finishing an outdoor 3D sculpture was rather surprising. I thought maybe the article would be about portion control (as the first few lines seem to indicate) or maybe about a new chain restaurant. I thought I was going to read one of the more comedic pieces on the newspage, but instead I actually learned a lot. It’s really interesting the materials they chose to use, and how they chose materials that expand and contract in a way that prevents cracking. This article also made me realize how different our priorities are in theatre versus industrial design. I know we have a giant burger in our shop but I’m sure its very very different from this giant burger. It’s so funny how one sandwich can tell us so much.
I think the model and sign industry for the general public is very underrated. I wish the article would of gone into a little more how they deal with planning for the weather and outdoor atmosphere the project will live in. Their is almost an assumption it will need to have an infinite lifespan, meaning it means to survive time, rain, snow, and sunlight - and still hold up. The burger was not all that impressive looking to me. It is meant to be seen from far away, so it does do what it was designed to do. Up close it looks very fake and you can see what each of the materials are. On a very different note - I want to know how long is it acceptable for a Construction Ahead sign to be on the street, after the construction is over. It has been at least 8 months, and has been fallen over from 2 of those months, and it is very tempting.
It’s just a burger but this article went into such detail on the design, build and install of the burger. And yet somehow it still was really vague. Like they “provided a pattern for the drilling”. Okay. Great. What is that pattern. I would have loved to see a picture of the connection point. And I would have loved to see more of the production and build process itself though I suppose that information has copyright. Despite what was lacking in this article is was a fun read. You could really tell the author and owner was really excited about this giant burger. And it is pretty impressive. Most restaurants don’t bother with sculptures to augment their signs; they just have their logo across the front. And none of them try to make anything that looks so realistic. I can’t stop thinking about how we have that burger in the shop though and how realistic they made it look and how up close this burger looks rather fake.
This article was very informative in its description of the entire process that went into making this sign. One of the most interesting things I learned from this article was what Michael Fetter said about how when they make a 2D design into a 3D design, they take the liberty of doing whatever they need to do to achieve the feel of the piece. I thought it was interesting how they decided to build this burger out of foam as well. I'm sure this project called for a very sturdy foam that would hold up for a long time on the exterior of this restaurant. I had just never thought of foam as the most durable material. I am glad to hear that they thought of the durability when painting the outside of the object. Another aspect of this burger project I found interesting was the fact that the artists wouldn't be installing it, so they had to thoroughly inform others to do it.
I’m not sure if this is all that impressive – I mean, we’ve got one hanging in our shop (granted, it is a bit smaller). This is also an interesting case study in commercial manufacturing and outsourcing. The client hired US Signcrafters to design and fabricate the sign. US Signcrafters then jobbed out what seems like the brunt of the fabrication to Peachtree City Foamcraft. From the article, it seems like these companies have a good working relationship. I find it a bit shocking that US Signcrafters hasn’t invested more in this type of fabrication, since it seems that they are tasked with making this type of foam sign on a regular basis. If this were a one-off project, I’d understand. One of the other parts of this project that I find interesting is that the installation was left completely to the hand of the client. Granted, the client may have hired a contractor do actually do the work. It seems like the installation was easy – assemble a jig, drill some holes, thread some rod, tighten the bolts. I wonder if the installation was more complex if US Signcrafters would have made the trek down to Florida.
I think its particularly interesting that the sign industry faces major challenges in the fact that they not only have to design something unusual such as this giant burger, but they also have to worry about making it long lasting and unaffected by the elements. When they were talking about how this burger would be constructed from foam/acrylics and be painted, I was curious as to how they would be able to protect that foam and acrylic from the outside world when it needs to be attached to a building and face a lot of potential destruction. I didn't know that they would be able to use foam for a project like this because of the product that they pour over it to make it be protected. I also had know idea the length of time it would take to create something like this, but I'm surprised to hear that it took only six weeks to both design and fabricate this sign.
People do not often think about the time and effort that goes into making signs for restaurants and stores. There are some very elaborate 3-D store signs around the world that probably took a design and fabrication company some time to develop and create. The burger sign is almost like a set piece that needs to be made for a show. It is a large item that needs to look realistic with materials that do not have the same properties that the food does. It is hard to make lettuce out of foam and make it actually look like lettuce. Another difficult aspect to making a 3-dimensional sign is that you need to find a safe way to secure it to insure it will not fall down and hurt someone. The foam also needs to brave the elements of weather and withstand birds landing on it and sitting on the foam.
Post a Comment