Internally Illuminated Faces

[dave parr]

A good segment of the work I have been involved with over the last 20 plus years has been sprayed faces for lighted sign cabinets. I picked up the basics from the sign painter on the job when I had my first go with spraying a face. Since then it's been learning the hard way. I've learned some by discussing the various problems that come up with suppliers reps. These guys are usually pretty savvy and can offer some suggestions that often lead to a solution.

In the end, every person holding a spray gun of the various types needs to get their hands dirty and move those gray matter cells around a little. Once there is an understanding of what is happening with the materials and conditions, one can move on to solve any troubles at hand. I've often thought it would be great to kick these problems around with others doing the same work. There have to be better ways for everyone doing a specific task. There are certainly things one can point out that will help another along the way, and vice versa.

Are there any other signoholics out there spraying illuminated faces?

[pete witney]

Dave, Hi, My wife and I used to spray illuminated advertising hoardings back in the 80's and 90's, didn't know anybody still did it, thought it was all printed now. Pete

[dave parr]

Pete,

I'm not really sure what advertising hoardings are. Are we talking about the same animal? I just did a search and it may be an illuminated sign can fall in that category.

If it does, what pants did you use, lacquers? Did you usually spray on acrylic and polycarbonate faces?

[pete witney]

Dave, sorry, couldn't remember which site we were talking on, it was quite late. The signs we used to paint were for Airports, stations, side of the road, anything from 30' - 80' long. Advertising mostly cigarettes, drinks, duty free , cars, etc. they're probably all printed now. My wife did a lot of Marlboro cowboys, mostly for the Asia. We did some small ones on acrylic, but mostly on stretched PVC. The company I worked for used Polyplast PY screen printing inks, but others used different brands. We didn't have computer cut lettering then either, all lettering cut by hand out of vinyl on the taught pvc skin, it wasn't unusual for people to cut right through and have the centre of an O fall out.

[dave parr]

Wow, Pete. Those were some real monsters. Here is an example of a face I sprayed after I went back to work for my current employer. This business is long gone. I did this design for him starting with a few elements he had on a business card. I painted several MDO faces using the same design, but don't have those photos. That was about twenty-five years ago. I think he had three stores.

The face in the photo is clear acrylic sprayed on the back using translucent acrylic lacquer. The standard method is to spray all the colors quite evenly and back them up with white allowing the light from within the cabinet to light the face evenly. Kind of tricky at times.

That stretched PVC sounds a bit like flexible fabric, or a rag face. Is that the same animal?

[pete witney]

Dave, not sure what "rag face" is, the smaller skins were a sort of opal pvc very thin and flexible, the larger ones were woven more like banner material. We always sprayed on the front, and yes it could be a b.....r to get an even colour, especially blue. Hopefully I have attached a few pics. Marlboro and Jamesons are my wifes. Jamesons would have been painted on its side. Marlboro is probably about 40' long, Jamesons 30', Raffles cigarette packets about 12' high as is Tropicana carton, stretched round a wooden frame and internally illuminated. Pepsi drinks about 5' high. As you can see, some of the skins are rolled up, sometimes we never saw the whole of the sign.
I may be wrong but I think Harry Dean Stantons brother was doing something similar at the beginning of "Paris Texas", can anyone confirm that

[pete witney]

and one more, gives an idea of how we had to paint them. feel free to delete these if they take up too much space, Pete

[dave parr]

This is awesome work. It would be a treat to see this scale of work being done. I'm amazed.

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing this, Pete.

[Wayne]

You have shown me these before Pete- But they still amaze me!!
awesome!

[Technoholic]

Pete, those pics of your's and Jo's work had taken my breath away - absolutely awesome. Thank you for sharing!

[Signoholic]

A credit to what we do, recently started to push some of the modern methods - digital printing etc, sort of in a hope to generate building wraps and stop scaring modern media away! I wont tell them if you don't Pete - exceptional work! Have extended your upload size - fire away!

[Chunkie]

Wow Pete! That's great stuff and out of the ordinary. I'd love to watch this stuff being made - what a great experience.

Good job guys!

[pete witney]

Thanks chaps, Iseem to remember they could only print that big in those days with a seam or a join or something, now obviously size is no problem, but they don't have the punch of the old painted skins. Pete

[Cranky]

Being one of the old school, I would prefer to back spray illiuminated signs any day and I can still talk the customer into coming my way over the vinyl jockies. I once had a 16' x 6' back sprayed that was still perfect after 20 years in the Australian sun. the newspaper company that I did it for changed their logo and (as per usual, it had all the bells and whistles , blends etc. in it) and someone replaced the perspex with a skin 2 years ago and you should see it now. it is nothing short of a ghosted image. I even refuse to do translucent vinyl on opal perspex as the vinyl fades and the perspex "yellows'. When I did my trade the company where I worked had a huge tilted light box that i would place the masked up perspex on so that when spraying it you could see the gradual build up. They can not be sprayed quickly as you would paint a car, as the paint has to be misted on to avoid over lines and this is where the amateur goes wrong. Back in those days the paint companies even made special lacquers for the job, but with the advent of cheap quicky sticky shops the need wasn't there any more. I now use commercial acryllic lacquer mixed in the proportion of about 3/4 color to 1/4 clear to make it translucent. I set the job up on an easel outside my booth facing the light so I can see where I am going and do it from there. I don't get as much of this work as I would like because of price cutting but how the hell can I compete against vinyl, and trying to tell a potential customer the difference is very hard when they can't see beyond their wallets. As I am at home now I don't have access to my portfolio, but if anyone is interested I can put some pics up at work.

[dave parr]

Sure, Heck yes I'd love to see them, Cranky.

Fire away.