I volunteered my time to help out the Town of Buckeye Arizona with some hand drawn sketches for their Downtown Signage Overlay. Thankfully, I had inspiration from photos that I took while I was visiting well established downtowns like Port Townsend,Washington State, Wickenberg, Arizona, and Beacon Hill, Massachusetts. Notice the heavy line on the awning edge, that is what you call profiling. That is used to make the object pop out. Tells you that something is beyond. Don't try it at home.
The Leader is a Port Townsend newspaper with a publication since 1889. It is a fortress of a building covered in thick green ivy. When I stuck my head in to talk to Fred Obee, the general manager he told me that the buidling had seen many different uses in it's lifetime. Some story about a great Native American chief having a wake in the building. I liked this signage because the signage had plenty of white space around the edges. When a sign is too crammed with text and information there is no where for the eye to rest.
Window display is signage. A creative window display needs to change with the seasons and surprise you. This window display in Port Townsend did lure me inside to buy a few things. It worked.
The Old Livery was taken from the Town of Wickenberg. The oversized letters really pop off the board and batten storefront. The wooden letter colors are red and yellow. The only problem is the paint is peeling. All signage needs to be metal when used in the desert. If you ever need a rubber saguaro with sunglasses on to stick on your car antenna or a dead scorpion that is frozen inside a lollipop, look no further. You will find all the Arizona souvenirs ever invented at this place.
These sketches will be used in the Signage Overlay for Buckeye. There is something undeniably human and comforting about hand sketches. I usually make sure I have a pot of really strong tea before I put pen to buff paper to get a good squiggle on my line work.
