Signs of the Times - December 2012 - 22

STRICTLY ELECTRIC
By Albert Oberst & Brother Zank

Albert Oberst is the proprietor of Integrated Sign Co. (Lexington, KY). Brother Zank is the founder of Custom Craftsman Sign Co. (Sevierville, TN).

Back on Track
Two shops collaborate to develop a go-cart racetrack’s new signage.

Ecollaboratively authoredwe feature ditor’s Note: Rarely do a article in
the Strictly column. However, this project featured International Sign Contest winners joining forces – Zank has won several awards in the Commercial Monument, Commercial Freestanding and Electric Monument categories, and Integrated Sign teamed with Lorenc+Yoo Design (Roswell, GA) to create the Firewheel Town Center signage, which won Best of Show in ST’s 2007 International Sign Contest – and we couldn’t resist. We hope you enjoy it. Zank The Track, a sprawling, familyrecreation center in Pigeon Forge, TN, offers go-cart racing, miniature golf, bumper-car rides, video-game arcades and many other fun activities for kids of all ages. For the very adventurous, it also offers bungee jumping and skydiving. Morris Gallagher, a designer of amusement facilities and themed attractions who’d done work for The Track, referred me to Pigeon Forge LP, its ownership group. It’s been very successful in building and developing attractions that are well received by the family-oriented tourists who visit Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and other, regional tourist destinations. The client wanted a new main-ID sign on the property’s road frontage that would appeal to today’s techsavvy families – and with a modest carbon footprint and energy consumption. Initially, they said they didn’t want an electronic message center (EMC). The previous sign, a V-shaped configuration, included an older EMC, fluorescent can lighting, and flexible-faces, but its very dated graphics needed an upgrade. They weren’t convinced an EMC would add value to their sign package, but, in such a competitive

Brother Zank, proprietor of Custom Craftsman Sign Co. (Sevierville, TN), and Albert Oberst, president of Integrated Sign Co. (Lexington, KY), spearheaded their respective shops’ collaboration on developing a new entry sign for The Track, a Pigeon Forge, TN-based, go-cart racetrack and family-friendly entertainment center. Morris Gallagher, a designer of amusement parks and other themed attractions, enlisted Zank to develop the program. Zank subsequently enlisted Integrated Sign to execute its fabrication.

After having begun his process with a series of hand sketches – a key component, Zank said, for creating appropriate proportions for the design elements – he developed the digitized rendering with a combination or 3DS Max, AutoCAD and SketchUp.

The rendering is superimposed on a photo of its environs. The previous sign had an aging message center; Zank convinced the customers, Pigeon Forge LP, to invest in a new-generation Watchfire display.

22 SIGNS OF THE TIMES / DECEMBER 2012 / www.signweb.com

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Signs of the Times - December 2012

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