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Hey guys,

Starting a new business on a budget can be hard enough without having to worry about were you’re going to find the money to have sign made. I know, I’m there… I’ve made some signs in the past with nothing more than a piece of plywood and some cardboard boxes. I thought that I’d share the technique I used incase someone wants to give it a try themselves:

I went to Lowes and asked the Delivery Manager if they had any refrigerator boxes that I could have, usually they will have plenty of them. I got 3 just in case I messed up so I had a backup. Be careful breaking them down, remove the top and bottom so you can fold the box up flat for transport.

Step 1) I set up a table in my shop and cut 1 one folds in the box from top to bottom and opened it up on the table. Them I cut a 48” x 96” piece out of the box to match a 4’ x 8’ piece of plywood I wanted to use for my sign. (this can be any size you want, but it should match the size of your material)

Step 2) Starting from the center of the piece of cardboard I drew a 4” grid on the blank side of the cardboard so it looked like a piece of graph paper. (vertical & horizontal every 4 (four) inches apart) This left me the same size boarder around the edges.

Here is a link to a website that describes the technique - http://www.gridart.com/articles/gridmethod.html

Step 3) I made a scaled drawing on a piece of blank paper that matched my sign. (a ¼ scale is easy to use with ¼ of an inch representing one of the 4” squares on my cardboard) Some ¼” graph paper will work too, just draw the outline of you cardboard, count the number of squares down and across so they match your cardboard.

Step 4) Draw the sign on your piece of paper on top of the grid. I used my computer for this so I could have a good looking font. (letter type) Microsoft Excel works great for this, you just have to be sure that the lines show up when you print it out. If you don’t have Excel you can download the Open Office version for free. (make sure your drawing is centered on your grid or you will have a hard time centering it on your cardboard)

Step 5) Using a PENCIL and an ERASER, I transferred the layout to my cardboard. The grid pattern helped me to keep everything in proportion. I just free handed all the wording on the cardboard, and a good straight edge helped with the longer lines.

Step 6) After I had the entire sign laid out on the cardboard I used a utility knife to cut out the letters. (be careful not to remove the centers of letters like; e, o, A, B… If you do cut the out by accident, cut a piece coat hanger and center them back were they belong) Don’t worry if it looks like something you did in school, this isn’t the finished product, just a template.

Step 7) I took the piece of plywood that I wanted to use for the sign and gave it a good coat of flat white paint. (if white is going to be the back ground color of your sign you could use a semi-gloss)

Step 8) After the white paint dried, I placed the plywood on the table and laid the cardboard template I made on top of it and duct taped the edges of the cardboard to the plywood so that it wouldn’t move. I them took some flat black spray paint and MISTED the entire template being sure to push down on the cardboard where it didn’t make good contact with the plywood. I wanted to be sure that the black mist didn’t get under the cardboard and that I would end up with crisp lettering on the plywood. (Hold the spray can about 12” inches off the cardboard, all you want is a spotted pattern, a good MISTING)

Step 9) I removed the cardboard template to see the misted lettering. (do not remove all the tape until you are satisfied with the outline of your lettering, getting the template to line back up could be a problem) This gave me a sign that was laid out very nice and uniformed. All I had to do was Paint it.

Step 10) I used a couple of different paint brushes to paint the lettering, a small 2” chip brush worked good for the larger letters and I detailed the letter outlines with an even smaller brush. (if you don’t have smaller brushes use Q-tips to do the letter outlines) I even used a bright color for the main part and dark color for the smaller parts. After I had all the lettering painted I came back and painted the background again to fix any places that I may have messed up the lettering on.

Step 11) Repeat steps 8 thru 10 on another piece of plywood to get an exact copy of the first sign. I used my cardboard template multiple times, you just have to let the spray paint dry between uses or it will start to run and make a mess.

Note: It’s best to use Oil-based paints for the final colors if you’re going to leave the sign out in the weather.

Here is a sample layout that I made up with a nice font and some simple clip art from my computer. See attached file...