Havana's General Store

[Bob Sauls]

Havana is a small town 20 Minutes north of Tallahassee, Fl.
It was a agricultural Community mainly Tobacco in it's glory days. As that died away, like many small towns it has reinvented itself. It now promotes quaint little boutiques and antiques to draw in some tourism. I was excited to get this one because all of the cheap vinyl sign up there just do not fit.



The hand drawn quick-sketch to close the sale



The vectored components for client approval/revisions.
She decided that my color scheme was too washed out, so we made the project a bit more vibrant. It is OK, it does work but I still prefer the washed out look.
The fonts used were Atkinson French Condensed altered (NOT WARPED) in Illustrator along with Egyptian with points relocated with the Direct Selection arrow tool. The Early '55 Chevy Illustration was easily accomplished by finding a Google searched image, opening in Photoshop. Under Image menu find posterize select 4-6 colors, then under images adjust menu back-off on the saturation.
save and open in Illustrator Do a live trace and you have vectors which any plotter can draw. then it is carbon paper transfer to board and paint by numbers.







All signs were double faced on Poly-Metal. Sprayed on SW SuperPaint background, All hand-lettered without masks, wth satin finish Latex SuperPaint.

After Install, handed out business cards up and down Main Street, I think I have my foot in the door in a few more shops.

[Aaron Taylor]

Way to go Bob! Very nice im sure you will get more work from that job. Go get em buddy.

[Lee Littlewood]

Very nice! I am just beginning to use waterbase paints - is "SW" short for Sherman Williams? Can the SuperPaint be rolled on instead of sprayed?

Yes for getting out there and being visible. An old(er) guy once told me that, "Motion is the better half of Promotion".

[Bob Sauls]

Yes sir, SW stands for Sherwin Williams. Their SuperPaint is a good one but you can only get white and black in quarts. For quarts go with their Resilience line in is available in quarts, any color, it actually is the better paint of the two. Be sure to ask your SW salesman if the color you pick is a color fast one. A few of the colors are not recommended for exterior use but only a few.

It can be rolled on but do expect an orange peel texture no matter what type of roller cover that you use.
I tend to gravitate to the satin finish it shows the texture less and is less sticky when dried. This stickiness or flexibility of the coating is what helps latex last longer outside. Better expansion and contraction with the substrate.

I was taught an interesting tip by Dave Correll. You can roll on a water
based primer and it will lay down pretty well when dried, little texture. You can then just spray on the actual latex paint this could save you spray gun cleaning time.
Before the latex dries it will look textured but as it dries it lays down well.

Aaron Taylor of Pensacola taught me about another wonderful product. Benjamin Moore's Direct to Metal latex paints it bonds fantastically. Here the neat part it stays on PVC (properly degreased) like nobody's business with out a primer.

[DAVE SMITH]

Excellent job Bob.