A Sign

Just a quick post to show that momentum hasn't gone completely from the Carlaw project. Lately, I've been working on one of the signs on the front of the Carlaw Brothers Stone Yard polishing shop. Working with my prototype photo, I matched the sizing and spacing of the original sign, but the lettering style is markedly different. The original had a distinct 1930s art deco feel.
I used a freeware program, Inkscape (www.inkscape.org), to render my sign. I credit the railroad-line forums (www.railroad-line.com) for introducing the program to me - specifically the Chuck Diljak thread about it found here: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29058 . I also used Inkscape to help spruce up the blog's header illustration.


For the sign I fiddled with different font types and color squares. Since my reference picture is in black and white, I'm just going with whatever color looks good to me. On the left is my color test picture I used to determine how things look when the file is printed out. You can also see where I was testing an art deco style font. Eventually, when I'm happy with everything, the finished sign will be printed on decal paper.

The original sign was painted on the building at ground level. It was about fifteen feet wide and six feet tall. The two windows on the front wall of the shop were a full eight feet above the street level, so this sign easily fit below them.

I've also been working on scratch-building those big doors on the back wall. I'll have more on them soon.