Sign o' the Times

Our new sign got installed!

We've been working on a logo for the business off-and-on for about a year. Kathy and I quickly realized we can't do it ourselves, so we hired somebody creative to design one for us. We had all sorts of clever ideas about integrating the "hart" (elk) into the logo, incorporating an outline of the house, adding swirly Victorian elements, etc. In short, we were probably a graphic designer's worst nightmare. "Oh, goody. Customers who think they know what they're doing..."

Eventually, we hit upon a design and a designer that we really liked. He's done a number of signs for local businesses around here, and we've always admired his work. His initial designs were a little too elaborate, with 3D pop-out deer and cute hearts, but in the end we think he got it about right.

The sign itself is made from a block of solid red cedar that's been sandblasted to give it a wavy textured background pattern. The main lettering is laser-cut from PVC (the same stuff they make sprinkler pipe out of) and will last more or less forever. The smaller lettering is expanded foam. The whole thing weighs maybe 100 pounds or so.

The black signposts were already here -- they held up the previous restaurant's sign -- but the top bar had rusted badly. No way it was going to hold up the new sign. Replacing it turned out to be pretty easy. I cut off almost the entire bar, leaving short stubs at either end. Then I rummaged around the local welding shops looking for inch-and-a-half square stock, the same size as the original bar. I also got some scrap pieces of square stock that were slightly smaller in cross section -- just the right size to slip inside the hollow cut-off ends of the old bar and support the new bar. A couple of metal screws and some JB Weld, and it's all as good as new. I can even disassemble and replace the bar again if I need to.

One nice side-effect of hanging the new sign is that we'll probably get fewer misguided visitors who want to check into the B&B next door but drag their suitcases up our front steps instead. This makes it pretty clear that we're not the local inn. On the other hand, if you try to make something idiot-proof, you just encounter newer idiots.