Origin Story Sign Making Process
Directed by: Delicia Turner
Fall 2019
For the newly produced Origin Story being put on for the first time at Sonoma State University, I was appointed as the Assistant to the Set Designer, Theo Bridant. The fact that this was a newly produced play gave Theo and I immense creative control over how the set would turn out because we had no other sets from this production to base ours off of. I was assigned to create "The Burg" Logo Sign while focusing on characteristics of old school pop art to give The Burg restaurant an obvious "comic book" feel.
Click Photo to Expand Image ! :)
Step 1:
After creating a basic sketch, I cut my logo design out of foam with a utility knife and a jigsaw. I then gave it a white coat of primer to prep for the "stabilizing" mud.
Step 2:
Next, I put on about 2 to 3 coats of a premixed stabilizing mud substance to help the foam stay up durably when being mounted on "The Burg" Restaurant. This prevented the sign from getting any major damage when entering the set building process
Step 3:
Next, I decided to work with bright colors like orange and yellow because the inspiration for this restaurant was inspired by comic book coloration. I did a few coats of orange for the background
Step 4:
Here is an overview shot of the finished orange background painting and filling in the letters with a bright yellow paint.
Step 5:
I then traced a thin outline around the letters in the spots that I wanted to darken and add further depth to with black paint
Step 6:
Next, I decided to help myself out in the shadowing process and thicken each letter up further with a black sharpie so I get the least amount of dark color bleeding into my yellow.
Step 7:
Finally, I painted the chef's hat a shade of off-white and added depth to the letters by shadowing them with some watered down dark purple paint. Then do add further beatness to the sign, I dabbed a paper towel in water and dark purple paint, then splotched it all over the sign!
The Final Product!
