The United States Sign Council (USSC) is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s USSC Sign Design Contest. These First Place honorees were judged the best of the best when it comes to the top-notch creative signs that are being designed and fabricated by sign makers today.
The USSC Sign Design Contest is an annual event that identifies and recognizes signs that demonstrate excellence in client identification, creative graphic expression, and a combination of materials and/or techniques. Hundreds of entries submitted from across the country—and even the globe—were grouped into twelve distinct sign-related categories and judged on three criteria: the submission’s overall appearance, its effectiveness, and its originality.
This year’s award-winning entries are:
“Banners, Murals, or Supergraphics”
Rogers Sign Co., of Milton, Delaware (company and location)
Deborah Breneman and Lynn Rogers (designers)
Town of Milton (client)
Description: This mixed media vinyl/hand-painted wall mural covers a 17-by-30-foot area in downtown Milton, Delaware. It welcomes people to Milton while simultaneously embraces the community’s heritage of shipbuilding. Rogers Sign Co., designed this entire piece from scratch for the customer. The sign shop hand-painted the lettering and flourishes using Nova Paints from Artex Manufacturing Co. They used their Roland SOLJET PRO II V printer to output the picture of the ship onto 3M™ Envision™ SV480 vinyl and laminated it with 3M™ Envison™ Glow Wrap Overlaminate 8548G. It took three days to complete this job.
“Building Sign, External Illumination or Non-Illuminated”
House of Signs of Frisco, Colorado (company and location)
Roger Cox and Periandros Damoulis (designers)
The Clubhouse (client)
Description: The design for this outdoor 3-by-6-foot double-sided identity sign combines the Frisco, Colorado-based establishment’s indoor golf simulator with its lounge cocktails and the surrounding Rocky Mountains scenery. House of Signs made this sign from 12-inch-thick multi-layered HDU. Concealed LED lighting externally illuminates all the lettering.
“Building Sign, Illuminated”
John’s Studio of Batavia, New York (company and location)
Theresa Deuel (designer)
Attica Pharmacy Inc.; Owner Ryan LaVarnway (client)
Description: The overall design goal of this identity sign for a new pharmacy was to achieve a historically appropriate piece that would match the recently restored 1916 building’s exterior. The sign makers custom-fabricated a two-sided, contour-shaped cabinet with a corner-mounting bracket built through it for extra durability and stability. They custom-painted embossed block-out faces to give depth to the internally LED illuminated sign. They also added flexible LED to the perimeter of the sign to bestow a faux-neon look.
“Carved/Dimensional Sign, Affixed to a Building”
Middle Creek Signs, Inc., of Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania (company and location)
Patricia Brill (designer)
Bull Run Tap House (client)
Description: Sign makers created this 40-by-48-by-3-inch double-sided identity sign for a tap house in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania out of high-density urethane. Adding to its dimensionality, the finished sign features raised panels and a hand-sculpted bull. It also combines digital prints with painted elements.
“Carved/Dimensional Sign, Monument or Freestanding”
House of Signs of Frisco, Colorado (company and location)
Roger Cox and Periandros Damoulis (designers)
Breckenridge Heritage Alliance (client)
Description: This 4-by-4-foot, multi-layered, single-sided sign was made from 8-inch-thick HDU. Its custom wood post structure was painted with oil stain.
“Electronic Message Center Sign”
Danthonia Designs of Elsmore, NSW, Australia (company and location)
Doreen Shirky (designer)
The Waves sports club (client)
Description: Sign makers designed this 11-by-28-foot monument sign using Adobe Illustrator. The electronic message board is a full-color, P10-resolution Danthonia Message Centre. The monument housing this display was made from an aluminum structure clad in EPS and hard-coated with polyurethane. Avery paint masks were plotted using a Roland Camm-1 Pro cutter. The add-on letters and logo were cast using dyed resin and lit from behind using LED lights. The monument was painted with Dulux Weathershield Paint.
“Freestanding Sign, External Illumination or Non-illuminated”
Lunsford Sign Works of Hot Sulphur, Colorado (company and location)
Joel D. Lunsford (designer)
Lunsford Sign (client)
Description: It took two years and approximately 1,000 man-hours for this sign shop to craft their new machine-themed identity sign, titled “Think-a-ma-jig.” It stands 22 feet tall and weighs about three tons (not including the four tons of concrete at its base). It was fabricated from three-inch-thick Precision Board HDU, aluminum, glass, and steel. The shop applied Matthews metallic paint finishes and Modern Masters Metal Effects coatings to further arrive at its appropriate appearance.
“Monument Sign, External Illumination or Non-illuminated”
House of Signs of Frisco, Colorado (company and location)
Roger Cox (designer)
Abbey’s Coffee (client)
Description: This sign is a perfect reflection of the atmosphere one will find inside this popular coffee shop/bakery in Fresno, Colorado. All the components featured in this 4-by-12-by-2-foot, three-sided identity sign were fabricated from multi-layered HDU. It features a steel bracket and frame with a mesh inlay.
“Monument Sign, Illuminated”
Danthonia Designs of Elsmore, NSW, Australia (company and location)
Ramona Gattis (Danthonia Designs) and Rockingham City Council (designers)
Rockingham (client)
Description: This giant 93-by-7-foot monument sign consists of 14 separate pieces, each designed using Adobe Illustrator. It was made from an aluminum structure clad in EPS and hard-coated with polyurethane. It was painted with Sculpt Noveau Iron B Metal coating for a genuine rust effect. Avery paint masks were plotted using a Roland Camm-1 Pro cutter. The add-on letters were fabricated from Sign•Foam® and painted with Dulux Weathershield Paint. It features solar lighting to tie in with the environmentally friendliness of the client.
“Multimedia”
House of Signs of Frisco, Colorado (company and location)
Roger Cox and Periandros Damoulis (designers)
The Sign Invitational (client)
Description: It took 400 labor hours to fabricate this 2-by-2-by-6-foot, 4-sided art piece entirely out of HDU and acrylic. It took some modern-day touches to achieve this classic ’40s style, as internal illumination is achieved with LEDs while the exterior tubes are fully active lava lamps.
“Sign Systems”
Danthonia Designs of Elsmore, NSW, Australia (company and location)
Ramona Gattis (designer)
Harrison School (client)
Description: To keep in sync with the school’s colorful and eye-catching architecture, Danthonia Designs designed and built creative signage that kept up with the appearance of the buildings. All the signs for this project were designed using Adobe Illustrator. The wall- and post-mounted signs were constructed from Sign•Foam4® HDU and laminated to a PVC backer. The monument sign was made out of an aluminum structure clad in EPS and hard-coated with polyurethane. Avery-brand paint masks were plotted using a Roland Camm-1 Pro cutter.
“Vehicles”
Middle Creek Signs, Inc., of Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania (company and location)
Patricia Brill (designer)
Lester Stuck Building Supply (client)
Description: The customer requested a ’40s-type graphic for use on a recently restored vehicle, so the sign makers designed and applied contour-cut wrap vinyl featuring period-appropriate lettering to the vehicle.
Judges for the contest were Joe Diaz of Diaz Sign Art in Pontiac, Illinois; Francis Lestingi of Signs of Gold, Inc., in Buffalo, New York; and Dan Sawatzky of Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
A video recap of the winning entries can be accessed here.
Awards for this year’s Sign Design Contest will be presented to the winning designers at USSC Sign World International 2017, which will be held at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey November 30 through December 2. USSC Sign World International is the largest show in the Northeast devoted to displaying signs and sign components—from vinyl and ballasts to digital displays and service equipment.
For further details about USSC Sign World International and/or the USSC Sign Design Contest, call (215) 785-1929 or visit www.ussc.org.
