Meet Chris Eppolito, a third-generation sign painter who still uses his grandfather’s sign painting kit and original brushes. “My grandfather, Sam Eppolito of Cleveland, Ohio, actually started painting shortly after World War II ended,” he says.
Eppolito currently works for Glavin Industries, Inc., a full-service sign company in Solon, Ohio that also has a screen printing department, an engraving department, and a neon shop. (Note: Although Eppolito has been with Glavin since 2006, he’s been painting signs ever since 1992.)
Now meet Wildwater Kingdom. This newly rebranded water park is located in nearby Aurora, Ohio and was recently bought by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (which also owns a number of theme parks across the country, such as Knott’s Berry Farm, Kings Dominion, and Carowinds, to name a few).
Cedar Fair Entertainment has been a long-time client of Glavin Industries, and when they purchased the “Geauga Lake and Wildwater Kingdom” property and decided to rename it solely as “Wildwater Kingdom,” they knew this would require rebranding—particularly for its giant Splash Landing attraction.
The four-story Splash Landing structure contains water slides, soaking gadgets, geysers, and water cannons. It also has a giant, wooden bucket that, when it fills up with 1,000 gallons of water, swings and spills out the water onto all the kids (and adults) playing underneath.
At the beginning of this project, this faded bucket still had “Geauga Lake and Wildwater Kingdom” painted onto it. “They wanted to rebrand this bucket and put their new name on the front of it,” says Eppolito, “and that’s where we came in.”
The solution devised ended up being a combination of the traditional and the current.
The art department at Cedar Fair Entertainment sent Eppolito an email with the new logo and its PMS colors, and he then crafted a handmade pounce pattern from it to create the outlines for this paint project.
While the bucket is 96 inches tall-by-92 inches wide, the new logo measures 66 inches tall-by-82 inches wide.
Using a belt-sander, Eppolito and co-worker Mike Coleman stripped off the “Geauga Lake” logo from the bucket in about twenty minutes. He then primed this area in order to repaint the new “Wildwater Kingdom” logo. “The new logo covered about 98 percent of it anyway, so I could’ve just painted right over it,” says Eppolito, “but the customer wanted it sanded off.”
Eppolito placed a roll of paper in his vinyl cutter/plotter and a pen (instead of a knife), and this pen drew the logo for the transfer. “I basically sized it to fit the bucket, drew out a pattern for it, and pounced it using a pounce wheel,” explains Eppolito. “I did a charcoal transfer of all the outlines and started painting.”
Eppolito painted with five colors for this project and performed all the painting and hand lettering with Scharff fitch brushes, 1-Shot enamels, and mixed-paint store oil-based paints. “We don’t have a mixing station in-shop, so if we need a special color mixed, we’ll go to a paint store and have them mix it for us,” he says. “We had to do this with the light blue.”
Eppolito did all the painting himself. He decided to use fitch brushes instead of lettering quills, because the wood surface of the giant bucket was older and rougher. And although he still uses his grandfather’s painting kit and brushes on other projects, “I didn’t want to ruin them here on the rough wood and its splinters,” he adds.
To reach the heights needed for painting onto the bucket, Eppolito utilized a basket lift to reach forty-five feet off the ground. This step required the need to also wear a full-body harness and being tied off so he wouldn’t fall.
Amazingly Eppolito did all of this lifting-and-positioning-and-painting himself. “All the controls were in the basket with me,” he explains. (Note: Eppolito also stored quarts of paints in a milk crate inside the basket, so he could access them whenever necessary.)
Because of the set-up of the structure and its surroundings, positioning the basket lift sometime proved a bit daunting to handle.
For instance, its base had to be positioned in a shallow bit of water at the bottom of the attraction.
Eppolito also had to be careful to avoid a red awning that was jutting out. “Otherwise I could’ve hit it,” he says.
Another challenge: Actually working in the basket at times. “While I was painting, the slightest little movement made it move up and down and left and right,” says Eppolito, “so trying to paint something steadily was an adventure in itself.” To solve this, he moved the basket down a bit to where it rested on a couple of beams, making a nice and solid landing spot.
Eppolito also adds that he had to paint in-between guardrail bars in front of the bucket. “Being up in the basket meant I could only move so far,” he says.
Despite the wind, the only thing really blowing around was the pounce pattern, so Eppolito used duct tape to get it to stick to the wood. “My next option would’ve been staples,” he says.
Painting on-site took three days. “It didn’t take a whole lot of time to paint,” he says, “but I let it dry in-between, because all the colors touched each other.
“The first day, I just primed it thoroughly and went back to the shop. The next day, I started on the teal color, proceeded to the outlining, and then went from there.”
The water park opened for patrons on Saturday, May 26, and Eppolito finished just in time the day before. Impressed with this job, Cedar Fair Entertainment officials retained Eppolito to also repaint and touch-up a couple of hanging identification signs for the structure.
Eppolito isn’t just a classic sign painter; he also works with the latest in technologies at Glavin Industries. He’s the company’s sole CNC router operator (a Gerber Sabre), so when Cedar Fair Entertainment also needed additional signage, they turned to him.
One was a post-and-panel identity sign for a section of the park called “Little Tykes Town.”
He routed three layers and pieces for it out of 1/2-inch Sintra® PVC and applied digital prints to it. “To attach the different layers, we used stainless steel screws from the backside,” he explains. “Sometimes for pieces like this, we’ll double-stick tape and silicone, but envisioning kids around there probably pulling on it, we decided they wouldn’t come off with screws.”
Another job was a brand-new replacement for a worn-down wood sign for the “Tropical Waters” ride.
“This sign is also multi-layered,” says Eppolito, “however unlike the one for ‘Little Tykes Town,’ it was made from 3/4-inch Sintra PVC. I hand-painted it as well.”
Since Eppolito grew up in a sign-painting family, he’s very adamant that sign professionals should at least know their roots (even if they’re only involved in using the latest technologies). “I guess I’m very sentimental about this,” he says.
And speaking of family, Eppolito is also thrilled that he’ll be able to take his four kids to the park this summer and show them the work he did. “For them to see it will be cool,” he says. “It’s also something different and unique that you’re not doing or seeing every day. That’s also a treat!”
