Signs of the Times - July 2020 - 40

PHOTOS BY PAIGE LEMON

Stokes Sign Co. (Austin, TX) was
tasked with creating laser-engraved
signage for Lake Travis' High School
golf team's wall of honor.
precision that led Erik Henson, head
golf coach for nearby and long-time
client Lake Travis High School, to
approach Stokes with a general idea
of the look and style he desired for
the school's golf wall of honor. "Once
we were fully able to understand the
client's vision and the display parameters, we realized that this project
was a perfect application for the laser
engraver," Marketing Manager and
Graphic Artist Jenna Albright said.
"The spatial considerations and the
requirement to view the sign up close
demanded a high-level production
fidelity. This made using the laser
engraver a natural choice."
Because Henson wanted to honor
both team and individual efforts of
players from the past, present and
future, Stokes' proposal included a
series of laser-engraved name plaques
adhered to acrylic photo displays with
laser-cut, two-layered acrylic lettering
above them. Although the Stokes
design team was given creative freedom
40

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

JULY 2020

over the sign wall, there were other
constraints. For example, the team
had to determine how to incorporate
traditional, digitally printed material
(such as athlete photographs) into
the final design. They also needed to
take into account the sign's overall
weight by making the plaques as
light as possible, since more would
be added in the future. 
Ultimately, the Stokes team delivered a sign package that would scale
with the golf program over time without sacrificing compositional balance,
while incorporating design elements
of the school's brand for a cohesive
look to fit other pre-existing signage.
Albright said they used Photoshop
to treat and edit the sign's photos and
SAi Flexi to marry the photos and
vector elements together. 
To add dimension, the team used
1/16-in. Rowmark UltraGrave matte
red/black engraving plastic and 1/16-in.
Rowmark UltraGrave plus antique
gold/black for the name plaques. The

Stokes team mounted the plaques
onto acrylic photo displays using 3M
double-sided tape. The shop then
reverse-printed the graphic onto the
second surface of acrylic with their
HP Scitex FB700 flatbed printer. They
then flooded the printed side with
white paint to both enhance the
images' colors and make them opaque.
The two-tiered, laser-cut, layered
acrylic lettering above the award
plaques was made from a solid sheet
of 3/16-in. black acrylic overlaid with
Avery Dennison brushed silver vinyl
and attached to laser-cut, 3/16-in. red
acrylic letters with 3M double-sided
adhesive. All the pieces were mounted
onto ¼-in. P95 frosted acrylic with
silver, ½.-in. Pizazz Monomounts.
Finally, Stokes used a 36 x 24-in. Full
Spectrum Pro-Series to laser-cut the
double-layer acrylic lettering and
engraved name plaques. Then, they
employed RetinaEngrave and CorelDRAW to finalize the setup for cutting
and engraving on the laser.
Signs of the Times - July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - July 2020
