Making a sign for channel 4

In 2020 we were asked to make a sign for the channel 4 / NBC tv show ‘We are lady parts’. We have worked with the production designer Simon Walker on previous projects when we were based in London, so we were super excited when he gave us a call.

The sign would be user during a surreal cut scene where the main character finds herself on a reality dating show.

We started by working out how we would make each part of the sign. The design was to have the hearts and text in neon and the border of the sign in the cabochon style with lightbulbs. We’ve made a few of these in the past and they always end up looking great, they have a warmth which is difficult to achieve with just neon.

A cabochon sign we made for designers Abbey and Alice in 2019, photo from there website.

Once the style and design were finalised we worked in Adobe illustrator to make some files that we could CNC cut. We made each shape and letter a vector and then added lines in the middle which would become our channels for the Neon flex to sit in.

When making detailed signs like this its important to use the right materials we used birch ply for the sign because its strong, dosen’t warp easily and it paints up really nicely. For the neon parts we decided to use silicone neon flex which is better for bending around the tight corners in the letters, you can be very precise and make the exact shapes you want, its also not as fragile as glass neon, even if part of it did break somehow the process to repair it is much easier.

Once all the pieces are cut we checked it would fit together nicely, Then we sand, fill and prime before spraying each part the correct colours, we use a water based satin wood paint to give a really nice smooth finish. We also sprayed the fittings for our bulbs in a gold.

The sign was then assembled and we started on the electronics. We used LED bulbs to keep the wattage of the sign as low as possible. Using 60w filament bulbs on a sign like this would need a hell of a lot of power. We then fitted a 12v LED driver to power the neon flex parts. Because elements of the sign were 240v we took the sign to an electrician so it could be signed off as safe.

We then delivered the sign straight to the studio and talked the prop department through it so they knew how to operate it and the best way to mount it on the set. I cant quite remember which episode the sign features in but you should watch the whole series anyway as its a great watch! Good job guys!

With all signs that we make for film and TV we offer a free collection service to pick up the sign once its been finished with and dismantle it so the components can be re used. Having worked in the industry a long time we are aware of how much stuff ends up in skips at the end of shoots and always strive to recycle and re use as much as possible.

take care fans x

Making a zinging sign

We were asked by our friends at Imagineerium to build two signs for there client Drty to be able to use at festivals. The main sign was to be an american diner style sign to go on top of a structure at El Dorado festival. The other sign was just a smaller lightbox which could be used wherever they wanted a bit of extra branding.

Image from the El Dorado website

Imagineerium are an amazing creative design agency who we work with on many projects. They have great designers and project managers, which means when they ask us to build something for them we’re always excited to see what its going to be. There were a couple of initial design ideas for the main sign and we gave a rough quote for each to help the clients decide which one they wanted.

The initial SketchUp done by Channon at imagineerium

The design chosen by the client had quite a few interesting elements to think about making it an interesting job for us. We had two main light boxes one with a pink light and one with a white light, We also had a triangle with a white neon style light. These would all need to be mounted on some sort of frame which in turn would be installed on top of the set around 4 meters high. The sign would also need to be resistant to the weather and be easily stored and re assembled for use at different events.

We started by building the two light boxes. We CNC cut the fronts and assembled the signs using birch plywood and opal acrylic, The 5mm opal acrylic allows the perfect amount of light transmittance for a light box. We then filled and sanded the signs ready for priming.

After everything had been primed white (including the inside), filled and sanded, we installed some timber sections inside the signs and added t-nuts to allow us to easily bolt the sign to a frame later.

LED modules time! we used LED modules evenly spaced to get a good spread of light, we drew a simple grid in pencil to make this easier. We used heat shrink water proof wire connectors which are often used for auto electronics to make sure that even if some rain did get into the sign it wouldn’t matter. We used RGB LED modules so that we could get the pink colour that the client wanted, it also meant that if they wanted a different colour that was possible too. The lightboxes operated on a 12 volt system and we installed a control unit so that when the sign was up high you could operate the signs using a remote.

To make the triangular part we cnc cut 3 strips of ply with the groove in the middle. i then used these strips to make the front of the triangle and boxed it out to give it more depth. The groove was so we could slot the 8mm cool white neon flex straight into the wood, this is the best way to create intricate shapes using neon flex as it means you can CNC cut the groove exactly to the design you want. Then the neon flex was cut to the right length. We then filled sanded and marked anything that we didn’t want to paint. To paint the light boxes and triangle we did 3 coats sprayed with a hard wearing acrylic paint. While waiting for the paint to dry we worked on the frame.

The frame was designed so that each sign can be easily bolted on or off and used on there own if needed. We used 20mm box steel welded and attached scaffold fittings so that the sign could be mounted to two upright scaffolding tubes.

Once the signs were bolted on and the LEDs tested it was ready to be installed at the festival.

On site we put in the scaffold that would hold the sign to the existing structure we then lifted the sign as one piece using a telehandler into the right position. We then used ropes to climb up and make secure it using the scaffold clips that were on the sign. We were really happy with the way it turned out! Hopefully the clients liked it too!

Thanks for reading guys send us a message if you want a sweet sign for your brand! X

Building a spitfire

When we were asked by a local circus/theatre producer to build the skeleton of the front half of a plane we were pretty excited.

The project was for ‘The Little Prince’ a family fun circus musical at the Taunton brew house Will from Metta theatre approached us about making the plane part of the set , he wanted a sustainable but practical piece of set which could be moved around the stage, used to hold circus props and that the performers could interact with.

In order to make something light weight and of course within the budget of the small theatre production we started work on a 3d sketchup model. This was a very involved process, the initial sketches that we’d been given to work on resembled a spitfire so we decided that was the right direction to take the design. Sam contacted the vintage model company who were really helpful and shared drawings of a spitfire skeleton that they had used to produce a ‘make your own spitfire model’. Working with the show producer we came up with lots of designs and there was a lot of back and forth to try and get something that would work for the performers as well as keep the right style and look of a WW2 plane. Above you can see one of the later renders of the design.

The next step was to convert the 3d SketchUp model into CNC files, Over the years we have had plenty of experience with this type of work, We have worked on a similar project CNCing some dinosaur skeletons for a music festival called Standon calling. The process of drawing the parts with the correct slots so that it would all fit together nicely took some time, we used ‘dog-bones’ so that the CNC cutter takes a little more out of any corners in the slots allowing the pieces to fit together more precisely.

Once we had the files it was time to get cutting. The CNC machine (Collin) had a busy week that week. We had lot of offcuts from previous jobs and so most of the pieces we cut were from ply which we already had. Will wanted to keep to as many re-used materials as possible or wastage from previous jobs, This takes more time but obviously its great to use up all those weird shaped pieces of ply that have been sat in the offcuts rack for months and stops them ending up in the bin. The longer parts of the plane had to be cut from fresh sheets as we didn’t have anything long enough, we use FSC products so that we know our wood has been sustainably sourced.

After the pieces were cnc cut we then sanded them and cut the tabs which hold them in place during the cutting process. The first part cut was the main body of the plane so using glue, screws and nails we fixed it together, and we were pleasantly surprised that it all fitted together really nicely. We repeated the process for the cockpit sections and the wing. This was probably the quickest part of the project and before long we were admiring something that resembled the 3D model!

The wings and cockpit windshield required a little bit of work with a few extra supports being manually cut and added. The windshield would need to be lifted off by the performers along with the top half of the cockpit to allow room for handstands and other feats of strength and dexterity. This meant adding in some extra pieces of timber. We used quick release latches to hold everything together which would be strong and help the pieces to locate together properly but easily come apart when needed during the show.

Image taken from the Metta Theatre website

We also had to add the circus elements to the plane. The nose cone was actually made from a fruit bowl which we adapted so it could hold three lethal juggling knives, the wing had a cutout to hold a hula hoop, this was designed as a nod to the circular logo found on RAF wings during WW2. The landing gear of the plane was a unicycle which would be taken out and used during the show.

This was a really fun project to work on and we love the creative aspects of our job, working alongside nice independent companies to help realise something that looks good and works well for our clients is always something we strive to do. It was a pleasure! thanks for reading our first blog post.

here’s sam taking the plane for a test drive around the workshop