Here's a closer detail:
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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
Portfolio: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
Where I work: Excellent Signs and Displays Inc.
For a person celebrating the century mark herself, I feel that it's very "image appropriate", and also quite unique.
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Ken Henry
Henry & Henry Signs
London, Ontario Canada
(519) 439-1881
e-mail kjmlhenry@home.
Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.
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Arvil Shep' Shepherd
Art by Shep
Oak Island, NC
shep@ec.rr.com
http://artbyshep.homestead.com/index.html
" As long as they say your name, you will live forever"
You know me, always asking a million questions! Bet she'll love it!
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Amy Brown
AMBO Design
Lake Helen, FL
jabrown@cfl.rr.com
www.ambodesign.com
Duck Soup Bound!
[This message has been edited by Amy Brown (edited September 06, 2001).]
mark
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Mark Fair Signs
Montgomery, Alabama
http://www.markfair.com/flash.html
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Dave Grundy
AKA "applicator" on mIRC
"stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!"
in Granton, Ontario, Canada
1-519-225-2634
dave.grundy@quadro.net
www.quadro.net/~shirley
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"When Love and Skill Work Together ... Expect a Masterpiece"
Janette Balogh
Creative Studio
The only improvement I can think of is if I had done that design!!!! Then I'd enjoy it even more 
Once again, I'm almost overwhelmed at how much I have to learn. Thanks for posting and continuing to inspire us.
Suelynn
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"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -George Eliot
Suelynn Sedor
Sedor Signs
Carnduff, Sk Canada
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http://www.slamgraphics.com
Rochester, N.Y.
mark@slamgraphics.com
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Brad Funk
Artisan Signs
Phoenix, AZ
www.artisan-signs.com
take a bow, mr. darnell. truly excellent work!
have a great one!
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Bruce Bowers
DrCAS
Signtech
"how great are His signs..."
Daniel 4:3
i am a proud supporter of this website!
Well, it looks like nobody else is going to rip into it, so I'll tell you what I see. Then you can either agree with me, disagree with me, or declare me insane.
I think the most problematic thing about it is that it doesn't DEMAND to be read "Celebrating Tena
McLarty's 100th Birthday" - it sort of "hopes" you go back and decipher it that way. A clearer
starting point for "Celebrating" would have been better, even though I wanted "100th Birthday" to be
the primary copy. Using a different letterstyle for each element didn't help in that regard either,
even though I tried to tie things together a few different ways.
I struggled with fitting the "Tena McLarty's" copy in a pleasing manner above "Birthday", but now I
see I could have brought it down a little more by lowering the ascender of the "d" and perhaps a hair
lower on the "h" ascender as well. That would probably also fix what appears to be a slight
difference in the arcs between the two lines of copy. It seems like it could use a little tightening up.
I find the end "y" in birthday a little stringy at the baseline just as it starts the curve. Maybe
it's the angle that it enters the curve that is bugging me.
I also think that the ends of the brownish/burgundy panel would compliment the design better if they
were tapered in at the bottom to match the angle of the "y" in "Birthday". (I just tried this one
out, and I think it does look better)
I made my own ornaments... I think I should study what makes a good ornament a little more.
I originally had the "1" in "100" at the same angle as the double zeros, but then I straightened it
out. I think either the bottom serifs should be raised more in line with where the baseline of the
zeros are, or the "1" should be skewed back to the same angle of the zeros. Something just doesn't
sit right there.
I am pleased with it, and I think a did a lot of things right. But I try to always analyze what is working and what isn't working so I can avoid the same "mistakes" the next time. I always appreciate gaining from other people's experience, so by all means - don't hold back if you've got some good advice. Maybe you're able to see things that I haven't learned to look for yet. Anyway, thanks again for all the compliments.
Amy,
I tried a little different method than I normally would this time, and was pleased with how it
worked. Normally I would design it in CorelDraw, declare the design finished, export it into
Photoshop or Photopaint and add any bitmap effects.
This time, to avoid a lot of complex masking and also to retain as much ability to edit the design, I
exported the individual elements from CorelDraw that I wanted to add bitmap effects to. After I
added the effects, I imported them back into CorelDraw and powerclipped them back into the vector
version of the element that I had added the effects to. The only drawback to this is that with quite
a few full size high-res bitmaps in there, the CorelDraw file weighs in at 675 megabytes, where the
final TIFF image sent to be printed was only a mere 192 megabytes.
As for the printing equipment used, I haven't the foggiest idea. I just send it to a place in Toronto that specializes in all that stuff with all the high end equipment and tell 'em what is needed. They can do some really nice stuff. This one was a 3' x 12' image to be printed directly onto banner material. I should see how they did with it in the next few days.
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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
Portfolio: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
Where I work: Excellent Signs and Displays Inc.
This is a great piece of work. I mean it, I dont give praise lightly when it comes to design. Unlike some folks I just cant slap an attaboy (or girl) on something I see as a candidate for the next ugly sign contest in SOT magazine.
You sir, wont ever be in that issue.
I will say if I had been standing over your shoulder during this creation, I might have hinted to the fact her name should be a bit more prominent. I mean, the ol'girl has made it to the century mark, and it is her birthday, but I agree the 'headline' is the 100th part.
I swear, I'm tempted to order a print of it from you just to hang on the wall and admire myself!
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Robb Lowe
Hub City Graphics
Spartanburg, SC
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Mike"Spud"Kelly
theSignWorx
Ashburnham, MA
978.827.4439
"Your reputation is made by others; your character is made by you."
you are very consistent with great design and i mean that with envy! LOL
your designs and layouts have a rhythm to them, a natural flow.
you have a great grasp of design.
now that i am through slobbering let me say one thing in closing.
yoo rock bubba!!!!!
i can't spell, but i know great design when i see it!
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Mark Fair Signs
Montgomery, Alabama
http://www.markfair.com/flash.html
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"Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st.
Neil Butler
Paradise, NF
I wouldn't change a thing!
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Pat Neve, Jr.
Sign Man, Inc.
4580 N. US 1
Melbourne, FL 32935
321-259-1703
signman@signmaninc.com
Capt. Sign
Letterville Constituent
constituent: "One of the individual entities contributing to a whole"
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Henry Barker #1924
akaKaftan
SignCraft AB
Stockholm, Sweden.
A little bit of England in a corner of Stockholm
www.signcraft.se
info@signcraft.se
Neil, it was a pony tail. I did have hair down to belly button level at one point, but it's all gone now. I'm almost respectable looking now. And I'm not that red-faced as in the photo.
Henry, I drew maybe two dozen little squiggles and things a little while ago and scanned 'em. Then I've been fooling around with placement and rotating/sizing/stretching all the little pieces. It is not an easy thing to do! I've been planning on getting some of Mike Jackson's and David Butler's cds, but I'm in a little bit of a weird position because I don't have my own business. If I make my employer buy 'em, then if/when I leave, I have no ornaments again. I think I'll just get them myself at some point. I was definately going for the look those guys are so famous for, but what I came up with isn't nearly as professional. I've drooled over their work for years.
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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
Portfolio: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
Where I work: Excellent Signs and Displays Inc.
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Henry Barker #1924
akaKaftan
SignCraft AB
Stockholm, Sweden.
A little bit of England in a corner of Stockholm
www.signcraft.se
info@signcraft.se
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aka: Cisco
aka:Traveling Millennium Sign Artist
http://www.franciscovargas.com
Fresno, CA 93703
559 252-0935
"to live life, is to love life, a sign of no life, is a sign of no love"...Cisco 12'98
