August 2006 Archives

Ray had a really great idea the other day to promote his Stockton Christian Fellowship at freshman move in. Ray and a team of volunteer students are on hand today and tomorrow at Stockton helping students move their belongings into their rooms. Arriving at College on the first day is stressful enough without having to carry everyting up the stairs into your dorm. The help carry and distribute water to the thirsty masses of students. The water bottles they give away sport custom labels (waterproof, printed in house) that promote the SCF and an upconing event. I'm blogging it because it's a really great, low cost way to promote any event or organization. We're even thinking about ways in which we could use the concept for our own promotion. If you're planning on holding or attending an event where water is available, consider this low cost promotional program.

The printed labels applied to the bottles.

That's a lot of water to give away!

With a degree in Business and a double major in Marketing and Advertising, Sampson Gortner understands the value of powerful advertising tools and the results they generate. We created Sampson's first vehicle advertising program a few years ago and it was a big success. So successful that Sampson has expanded his real estate business and once again turned to us to execute his mobile advertising campaign. This vehicle is unique because it not only advertises for Sampson, it also advertises for his clients. This is a new twist in real estate marketing, and in a competitive marketplace makes Sampson stand out from the crowd. If you need to stand out in your crowded marketplace, we may be able to help. I'm always available via email and phone during the daytime hours. Thanks, Sampson!

Here's a unique application of our sin carving capabilities. Almost seven years ago we were challenged by Stafford Township's Planet Playground committee to produce donor recognition fence pickets for a new community built playground concept that was in the planning stages. We really liked the idea of the community built playground concept which was popularized by two architectural firms, leathers and learning structures. The architect wanted the committee to invest in a special jig for a hand router to make the pickets. We knew that completing over 1000 of these by hand would be an insurmountable and dangerous task for volunteers. We devised a system to manufacture the pickets on our Gerber Sabre router. Since then we have perfected our system and have made sponsor recognition pickets for many other community built playground projects. Here's a few shots of our process, working on pickets for the Barnegat Playground project. Admittedly this is a dirty nasty bit of sign making that does not generate any real revenue for us, but that's counteracted by the fact that we're doing a tremendous service to the communities in which we live, work and play.

Carving the pickets on the router.

Painting the carved copy.

Watching paint dry......

One of the greatest joys of living on long beach island is actually going to the beach.So many of us live and work literally yards from the beach and never set foot in the sand during the season. We're greatful to live here and have a business here with so many wonderful clients.

The sign for Voodoo Steakhouse (Ship Bottom, NJ) was one of the most materially diverse projects we have completed to date. The architecture of the building called for a substantial structure to support the sign. We designed the support structure, had it approved by our engineer and fabricated 2, 3 and four inch square and angle aluminum tubing, which was bolted to the roof and knee wall structural members. We still had the faces and all of the letters to make as well as the reverse lit halo neon and the front lit neon outlines. The backing panels are alumalite, which was chosen for its durability, rigidity and compatibility with the neon requirements. The lettering is SignfoamIII HDU, which was reverse cut to fit over the neon that makes the halo effects. The steer head is also SignfoamIII HDU which was shaped by hand to give it the proper look and feel. All of the parts for this sign were cut on our Gerber Sabre router. We knew the big issue we would face would be to have so many parts from so many materials fit together properly. It went together like a breeze! The neon portion of this job was a challenge. We supplied our neon glass bender with full size patterns to design from. He returned a mix of american and italian glass and only had to remake two letters due to breakage. One because I'm a fool and one because of a good ol american accident. To connect everything together we opted to use the more expensive and safer Neon Power Pro powerflex cables. We had to custom order these special cables but they made us feel much more comfortable with a neon installation that's only 100 yards from the ocean. Thanks to the Christian, Sharon and the entire VonGorski family for allowing Typestries Sign & Design to complete this wonderful project.

I've mentioned many times that our entire team really considers anything we put on a vehicle to be an advertising tool for your business. One of the keys to any successful business venture is not only careful planning of the expenditure of advertising dollars but also the creation of effective advertising tools. Tools designed and executed by professionals are often the most carefully planned and the most effective. Dollar for dollar vehicle advertising garners the largest exposure counts for very reasonable costs for the longest period of time of practically any advertising medium. Radio station owners have long realized the power of vehicle graphics and Press Communications is no exception. These graphics were recently created for the new country station K98.5 Radio.

This was a really fun project that we produced as a donation to DVGRR. They're a great organization providing all types of support to displaced golden retrievers. Rescuing and caring for dogs is a costly proposition and DVGRR needed a bit of help on this one. The layouts were designed by Westlawn Graphic, which were supplied as digital files. We adjusted the files for the actual vehicle, produced and installed all of the images, lettering and logos here in the shop. The images are digitally printed onto 3M Controltac vinyl with Clearstar laminate for many years of service. The doggies themselves have their families names nearby to recognize the volunteers that gave their time to have their own adopted dogs photographed. Adopting a dog is a lengthly proposition that requires careful consideration of among other things household climate and the presence of other dogs and children. Hopefully once Logan gets a bit older we'll be able to adopt a golden that needs a good home!

Here's a shot of one of a batch of glass vases that Connie Becraft brought in to be laser engraved. The vases will be filled with beautiful flowers by the Long Beach Island Floral in Beach Haven in preparation for the St. Francis Night at the Races fund-raiser this Sunday at the Bonnet Island Estate. Special thanks to Bob Stohrer of Quality Tire and Muffler for sponsoring the event and to Chris Vernon for making the Bonnet Island Estate available. See you at the Races Sunday Night! I'll try to grab a photo of the completed vases with the floral arrangements to post here. We're also working on some foamcore easel signs for sponsor recognition for this event.

If you have a need to recognize a winner or a sponsor we've got a solution!