The Sign Depot

class="tag"Posts Tagged ‘re-purposed signs’

Posted by Lisa on 8/31/2011

Heritage Signs, Traditional Signs, Re-Purposed Signs And Historic Sign Replications

Sometimes Its About Making Old Things New and Sometimes Its Vice Versa

Upon entering our showroom you will notice the newest edition of the Sign Depot crew. ‘Roman’, as I’ve named him, was created from several rusted gears, scrap metal & imagination.

Projects like this pop up all over the shop, as we have a very creative bunch here. You never know what materials are going to be re-purposed to create something entirely different.

But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the client needs something new to replicate something old. This happened recently when Doon Heritage Crossroads required a new sign to match their Historic surroundings. The local attraction is a replica of a 1914 village where guests are invited to experience A DAY IN THE LIFE…

In order to achieve an authentic look the letters were hand-painted and the script was very basic, as was often the case for that era. Creating this sign to easily match the other buildings on site would be a challenge for many, but through the use of the staff’s lettering techinques and fine craftsmanship they gave the sign the look of days gone by. Heritage sign replications give sign makers a chance to use traditional sign techniques with modern materials. This gives the heritage sign a historic look while making it a low maintenance sign through the use of present day sign materials.

Whether you choose Cedar, MDF, Acrylic or HDU these materials when treated properly add longevity to your sign and keep it from looking weathered. Now if you are looking for the weathered look, we can help with that too. Once you have decided on the sign finish you want we are able to create it from a variety of custom crafted sign materials and sign finishing techniques. This will give you a unique, one of a kind heritage-look sign.

Posted by signmaster on 12/15/2009

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Re-purposed Doon Twines Business Building And The Sign Depot, A Good Move For Custom Signs

Moving due to an expired lease, we have taken the opportunity to reassess Sign Depot. Where do we want to be? What kind of company do we want to be? How do we want to service our customers going forward? What do we want to look like within the sign market and to our customers?

All big questions and while daunting at first, it is a revitalizing

belly-button gazing exercise. We will continue to redefinte who we are and what we do.

Over the past month we have slowly and steadily moved into our new crib. Directly across from the old location we are still located at the corner of Borden and Charles but now south…about 200 ft.

The heritage space we choose to work in influences the custom work we produce. We look for, and create work spaces that inspire us, have a story, and inevitably say something about us.

We have chosen Kitchener’s historic Doon Twines building as our next shop/studio. A grand factory from the early 1900’s that wears the history of it’s workers like smile wrinkles of a experienced traveller. Boot polished hardwood floors, sturdy steel rivet I-beams, soring steel truss vaulted ceilings and sky-lite work area’s. This building has a straight forward honesty, it’s structure is not hidden, beams and braces are exposed and understood.

Artistic sign design shares these structural attributes. Good design makes sense with a clear message and materials reflecting the business and suggesting a story you want to know more about.

We look forward to working within Doon Twines to create some of our best work.

We thought it would be a good idea to capture some behind the scenes photos from our new space to serve as memento of this chapter here at The Sign Depot. One day we can look back and see how we evolved within this re-purposed factory.