TWL: Firsts - Vinyl Boat Signs and More
Ever since we bought the boat, we've wanted to change the name, but nothing
seemed to hold our attention for any length of time until we saw a blue
heron standing quietly but staring intently at the fishpond in our garden.
(We are already minus quite a few goldfish, but since they spawn in large
numbers, we write the losses off to natural population management.) The
heron's profile is not unlike our boat's, so we had found the name.
I sat down at the computer, used Google to search on blue heron, and got
hundreds of hits, most of which were for businesses using that name. Almost
all of them have stylised heron logos. I down-loaded a dozen or so that
looked interesting, and we finally settled on one that we particularly
liked. I knew that having the name and logo hand-painted would cost about
$300, so I called a sign shop and asked what it would cost if I sent them a
graphic. Very attractive pricing if I could sent them the graphic as a
vector image which is what they all work with, preferably as an .eps file.
That's an Adobe format, so I opened the image into Adobe Illustrator which
is a huge and complex program that I do not know at all well. Nevertheless,
after a bit of trial and error, I was able to strip away all of the
company's info to reduce the image to the heron only. This was a line
drawing that I was able to "trace" and stylise somewhat, and convert into a
single solid colour so that it no longer looked like the original logo, but
still retained the elements that had attracted us. I then found a cursive
font I liked and inserted the words "blue heron" in the biggest point-size
on offer, on either side of the bird. Looked great. Except that I wanted to
put the name on both sides of the fly bridge, and to have the bird looking
forward on both sides. A bit more searching located Illustrator's "reflect"
command, and I was able to flip just the bird. Now I had two files, one each
for port and starboard.
I then e-mailed the files, together with a copy of the font, to three sign
companies and asked for a quote, specifying the height of the bird to be
13", and the length of the lettering to be whatever. It turned out to be 34"
wide. The lowest price for the pair in best-quality vinyl was a mere US$30
all-in, so I drove to the company to pick the colour. The two pieces were
ready the same day, and I was told exactly how to put them on.
I first washed the areas with Windex, then went over them again with ethyl
hydrate. I held the sign in position and marked the starting point and the
base of the lettering. (He had told me to key on the "e". I then used a
level to draw a pencil line.
The sign package comes in three layers. The bottom is a coated backing
paper, the middle is the sign itself, and the top is low-tack masking tape.
Step one is to peel the backing paper away. This should come off easily, but
I found that once in a while, a letter would stay on the backing and peel
away from the masking tape. They can be stuck back together so it's just a
matter of taking it easy. Once the backing is off, however, it's essential
be very careful, because I now had a big piece of very sticky material that
will pick up dust and garbage from anything it gets near, and anything it
picks up will show through.
The moment of truth: I held the sign up to my marks, but was still careful,
because static electricity will attract it to the fibreglass. Once lined up,
the theory is to stick the middle and work out to the ends. I found that
with a very clean surface, I could lightly attach it, and then peel it off
to move it a bit if necessary. Since I really wanted it to be absolutely
level, I stuck the bottom on the line, then did the bird and worked out to
the edges. I had no bubbles, but they can be fixed by cutting a small X with
an Exacto knife to release the air and then pressing the area flat. It won't
show. Another trick is to put a drop or two of detergent in a bucket of
water, wet the work area, and then put the sign on. It can be slid all over
the place, and once in position, just has to be allowed to dry undisturbed.
They really look great. And to top it off, my wife has imported the image
into her embroidery program and is all set to embroider it on a couple of T
shirts and ball caps.
The next challenge is to remove the old name which was hand-painted on the
stern 20 years ago. Someone suggested a product called "Pint-off" would do
it easily, but that the name would remain in the gel coat as a shadow, so it
would be necessary to take some rubbing compound to "cut" the surface, and
then polish it. I'd be grateful for anyone's experience with this task.
Cheers, Garrett
Could you tell me where you went to get your logo/name printed? I am about
to do the same job on my 30' Willard.
Thanks.
Joseph
----- Original Message -----
From: Garrett Lambert e16@telus.net
To: TWL trawler-world-list@samurai.com
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 11:04 PM
Subject: TWL: Firsts - Vinyl Boat Signs and More
Ever since we bought the boat, we've wanted to change the name, but
nothing
seemed to hold our attention for any length of time until we saw a blue
heron standing quietly but staring intently at the fishpond in our garden.
(We are already minus quite a few goldfish, but since they spawn in large
numbers, we write the losses off to natural population management.) The
heron's profile is not unlike our boat's, so we had found the name.
I sat down at the computer, used Google to search on blue heron, and got
hundreds of hits, most of which were for businesses using that name.
Almost
all of them have stylised heron logos. I down-loaded a dozen or so that
looked interesting, and we finally settled on one that we particularly
liked. I knew that having the name and logo hand-painted would cost about
$300, so I called a sign shop and asked what it would cost if I sent them
a
graphic. Very attractive pricing if I could sent them the graphic as a
vector image which is what they all work with, preferably as an .eps file.
That's an Adobe format, so I opened the image into Adobe Illustrator which
is a huge and complex program that I do not know at all well.
Nevertheless,
after a bit of trial and error, I was able to strip away all of the
company's info to reduce the image to the heron only. This was a line
drawing that I was able to "trace" and stylise somewhat, and convert into
a
single solid colour so that it no longer looked like the original logo,
but
still retained the elements that had attracted us. I then found a cursive
font I liked and inserted the words "blue heron" in the biggest point-size
on offer, on either side of the bird. Looked great. Except that I wanted
to
put the name on both sides of the fly bridge, and to have the bird looking
forward on both sides. A bit more searching located Illustrator's
"reflect"
command, and I was able to flip just the bird. Now I had two files, one
each
for port and starboard.
I then e-mailed the files, together with a copy of the font, to three sign
companies and asked for a quote, specifying the height of the bird to be
13", and the length of the lettering to be whatever. It turned out to be
34"
wide. The lowest price for the pair in best-quality vinyl was a mere US$30
all-in, so I drove to the company to pick the colour. The two pieces were
ready the same day, and I was told exactly how to put them on.
I first washed the areas with Windex, then went over them again with ethyl
hydrate. I held the sign in position and marked the starting point and the
base of the lettering. (He had told me to key on the "e". I then used a
level to draw a pencil line.
The sign package comes in three layers. The bottom is a coated backing
paper, the middle is the sign itself, and the top is low-tack masking
tape.
Step one is to peel the backing paper away. This should come off easily,
but
I found that once in a while, a letter would stay on the backing and peel
away from the masking tape. They can be stuck back together so it's just a
matter of taking it easy. Once the backing is off, however, it's essential
be very careful, because I now had a big piece of very sticky material
that
will pick up dust and garbage from anything it gets near, and anything it
picks up will show through.
The moment of truth: I held the sign up to my marks, but was still
careful,
because static electricity will attract it to the fibreglass. Once lined
up,
the theory is to stick the middle and work out to the ends. I found that
with a very clean surface, I could lightly attach it, and then peel it off
to move it a bit if necessary. Since I really wanted it to be absolutely
level, I stuck the bottom on the line, then did the bird and worked out to
the edges. I had no bubbles, but they can be fixed by cutting a small X
with
an Exacto knife to release the air and then pressing the area flat. It
won't
show. Another trick is to put a drop or two of detergent in a bucket of
water, wet the work area, and then put the sign on. It can be slid all
over
the place, and once in position, just has to be allowed to dry
undisturbed.
They really look great. And to top it off, my wife has imported the image
into her embroidery program and is all set to embroider it on a couple of
T
shirts and ball caps.
The next challenge is to remove the old name which was hand-painted on the
stern 20 years ago. Someone suggested a product called "Pint-off" would do
it easily, but that the name would remain in the gel coat as a shadow, so
it
would be necessary to take some rubbing compound to "cut" the surface, and
then polish it. I'd be grateful for anyone's experience with this task.
Cheers, Garrett
Joseph,
I went to a local sign shop here. They can do any size, font, color, style
etc that you want, and they're reasonably priced. And you can see what
you're getting in person, vs ordering from the net or mail order. They gave
me some good tips about installing as well.
Bob Deering
Juneau Alaska