My clients at the Fox and Hounds Pub are fans of the British TV sitcom Coronation Street. They asked me to make a sign that features the pub on the show, Rovers Return Inn. I did a little research online and came up with enough material to begin the design. It will be cartooned just a tad to fit in at the Fox and Hounds. For a background of the sign I used the beer label of the beer they serve there... Newton & Ridley.
I did up an illustration which the client approved. As I began the file design in EnRoute I got a call from my client asking whether it was possible to put some LED's inside to light up the windows. No problem but it certainly made the project a bit more of a challenge!
I traced the basic vectors in illustrator, then imported them and the original drawing into Enroute. Then I looked at it a long while and scratched my head. I had to decide how many layers I would route the sign with and how and where I would hollow out the back for the LED lighting modules and transformer.
In Enroute I used the vector editing tool to modify the vectors one by one, bending things up as necessary. Then I grouped the various elements into the layers I would route them in. I spent about an hour on the rather tricky file.
The bay window was the most complex element. Since the building is bent and the window is off center I couldn't merely duplicate and mirror the two sides.
The final vector files looked like this. After supper I'll start in on building the reliefs we need. I think I have it all figured out... time will tell.
Stay tuned...
-dan
