This was one of two matching painted sign for a restaurant in Westerly, RI, done this past summer. The material is DiBond, an aluminum/polyvinyl laminate, and the image is hand-painted with sign enamels. This type of sign is fairly typical mid-level work in my shop, yet the use of color and some fairly sophisticated design work makes it unique and effective.

This client was impressed by my signs on another Westerly restaurant, so from the beginning of our consultation, I knew she was looking to create a strong and appealing image for her business. At the same time, opening a restaurant is a daunting task, and she made it clear that she was working with a limited budget. Using a prefinished, man-made laminate like DiBond - which requires no priming or sealing - allows me to spend more time on design, while painting the sign allows me a virtually infinite color palette to bring this design to life.

The fact that this sign is handlettered is not really the point - this design could be cut and applied with multi-layered vinyl, or printed on a large-formant inkjet. The reason I display it here is to show that even with a limited budget, it was possible to design and create signs that exceeded my clients expectations.