They started by routing the rough shape of the sign out of 15-pound Precision Board.

（他们在一块15磅重的精密板上画出这个标识的大致形状）

My name is Steve Kolacz, and I am with GrafiXhouse Design Studios. Our artist-driven shop is located in Garner, North Carolina (just outside of Raleigh) in an old First Citizens Bank building that we renovated. We have three professional artists with degrees in fine art and advertising on-staff, and, here at GrafiXhouse, we do everything from concept to design to install. We produce a lot of mixed media signage and custom displays, along with logo design, visual marketing materials, and true company branding.

我是叫史蒂夫·科拉茨，是格拉菲克斯豪斯设计工作室的一名设计师。我们公司的地址在北卡罗来纳州的加纳市的一座银行大楼里。我们有三名美术和广告专业学位的专业艺术家，我们工作室从概念到设计，再到安装无所不包。我们制作了大量的媒体标识和定制展示，以及标识设计、视觉营销和公司品牌。

In the world of business, though, it can be really easy to lose one’s self in the work—to forget that art is made for entertainment and the elation of creativity.

然而，在很多时候，人们容易在工作中迷失自我——忘记艺术是用娱乐和创造力来激发的。

Here at GrafiXhouse, we love to have a good time and bring enjoyment through our art, to remember the fun behind the function of what we design.

在格拉菲克斯豪斯，我们能够通过艺术来享受美好，还能享受设计背后的乐趣。

When a customer approached us to create a sign that would take an inside joke and turn it into a vibrant, dimensional piece of art, we were happy to oblige.

因而当一位顾客找到我们，告诉我们他想要做一个标识，创造一个充满活力的艺术品的时候，我们非常高兴接受了这个委托。

Living the High Life

过精致生活

The customer wanted a fun sign for his lake house that played off an inside joke, which we were not told. (Therefore the joke would no longer then be an inside joke, natch.)

这位顾客想为他的湖边小屋设计一个有趣的室内标识，而且他并没有对这个标识提出具体的要求。

The only design criteria we had to work with was using the name “Whitaker,” the phrase “Living the High Life,” and a 40-ounce Miller beer bottle.

他对我们唯一的要求是标识上面需要刻着“Whitaker”这个字母，以及“过精致生活”这句话，当然，他还说最好可以加上一个40盎司的啤酒瓶。

We decided to play off the colors of the beer itself, as well as its distinctive label. We wanted to evoke the feelings one gets relaxing and enjoying each other’s company at the lake while, at the same time, also creating a fetching piece of art for the customer.

我们决定淡化啤酒本身的颜色和它的标签。我们不仅想要唤起人们在湖边放松和享受彼此陪伴的感觉，同时也希望为顾客创造一件艺术品。

As with all the projects and designs that we create, we used pencil and paper during the brainstorming process before bringing the drawings to life on the computer. We will show this idea to the customer, and after they approve, we then begin the routing, shaping, and priming processes.

和我们之前做的所有项目一样，我们在设计过程中使用了铅笔和纸，然后在电脑上进行绘图。之后我们将向客户展示这个基础设计，在他们同意初步的设计之后，我们进行接下来的制作。

However we weren’t sure how we were going to shape this particular sign. The only direction we were given by the client was that he wanted a hand-carved, hand-painted look.

然而，我们不确定应该如何去塑造这个特殊的标识。客户给我们的一个建议是，他想要手工雕刻的、手绘的外观。

We decided to use 15-pound Precision Board (PBLT-15) high-density urethane (HDU). I knew Precision Board would be able to route and shape well, as well as offer depth without the weight.

最后我们决定使用15磅重的精密板和高密度聚氨酯。因为精密板能够很好的调整形状，以及拥有更轻的重量。

The Whitakers letters were also cut out using using the ShopBot PRSalpha CNC router.

（使用ShopBot PRSalpha刨槽机制作了Whitakers字母）

We opted to do an aluminum composite material insert for the “Living the High Life” phrase; this would not only add a different media to the sign but also place more emphasis on the phrase since the “Whitaker” name above it was going to be so big.

我们选择使用铝复合材料制作“过精致生活”这句话，她不仅是一个标识而已，也会更加突出“Whitaker”这个单词，因为“Whitaker”字母在标识上面显示得如此之大。

To start, we routed out the rough shape of the sign with our ShopBot PRSalpha CNC router. We then used rasps and sandpaper, as well as a bandsaw and a RotoZip rotosaw, to shape the bottles and foam by hand.

首先，我们用我们的ShopBot PRSalpha CNC刨槽机把这个标识的大致形状制作出来。然后用锉刀和砂纸，还有锯子手工制作这个啤酒瓶子。

We used the ShopBot router to also precisely cut out the “Whitaker” letters. We ended up attaching them with pins pressed into the HDU along with some application of Gorilla Glue®.

我们还使用了ShopBot刨槽机来精确地切割“Whitake”这个字母。最后，我们用大头针将它们压入HDU中，并使用Gorilla Glue进行粘接。

Once we completed the shapes, we primed the Precision Board and gave it a top coating. (Note: Before we primed anything, we first applied SealKrete sealer to the raw Precision Board.) We hand-painted the entire sign with Ronan and 1-Shot lettering enamels. Although we do airbrushing here in the shop, we used regular brushes for this project.

We made the sign with the original intention that it would be installed onto the front side of a lake house. So we crafted a metal French cleat and attached it to the back of the sign. However the owner loved the finished sign so much that he decided to bring it instead into his living room and show it off as a piece of art.

在完成大致形状之后，我们给精密板涂上油漆，然后使用一些工具进行手绘，接着我们进行了喷漆制作。我们做这个标识最初想要把它安装在湖边的房子前面，因此我们制作了一个金属法式夹板，并把它贴在了标识的后面。然而，顾客标识非常喜欢这个完成的标识，他想要把它安装在客厅中，作为一件艺术品来展示。

In the end, we were able to create a mixed-media sign full of life and color that served to remind not only the customer, but also us, that sometimes you need to step back and enjoy the high life.

最后，我们制作出一个充满活力，色彩丰富的标识。它不仅提醒客户，也在提醒我们，有时你需要退后一步，享受精致生活。

The finished mixed-media sign is full of life and color.

（完成后的标识充满活力，色彩丰富）

Mementos of Railroad Spikes

石中钉

Another fun project for us started when a customer came into our shop and asked if we could make something personal as a memento present for his twin grandsons. He mentioned that they really loved trains, so he had brought along two actual railroad spikes with him and told us that he wanted to incorporate them into a finished design of some kind.

接下来，我们的另一个有趣的项目开始了，一位顾客来到我们公司，问我们是否可以做一个个人纪念品送给他的双胞胎孙子。他提到他们很喜欢火车，所以他带来了两个铁路铁钉，并告诉我们他想把它们放到这个设计中去。

Both of his grandsons work in corporate offices but in different cities; so our customer’s idea was to create two identical pieces featuring the railroad spikes that they could display at their job. He was thinking something along the lines of paperweights or conversation pieces that could be placed on their desks.

他的两个孙子在不同城市的公司工作，所以客户的想法是制作两件完全相同的标识，将带来的铁路钉子安装在上面，可以放在孙子的办公室里面。

The grandfather wasn’t really sure what he wanted as a finished product. After some back-and-forth discussions, he casually mentioned maybe laying the spikes on their sides and then us painting the name of the grandson on the spike.

客户并不确定他想要的成品是什么。经过一番反复的讨论，他提出，也许我们可以把铁钉放在它们的侧面，然后在铁钉上写上孙子的名字。

Magic Sculpt filled in the hole left over from hammering in the spike.

（使用Magic Sculpt公司的环氧粘土来填充这个钉钉子留下的洞）

Since there are always rocks found along railroad tracks, we thought this motif should somehow be incorporated into this project. We knew we would be able to create the rocks out of Precision Board HDU. I thought it would be cool to base the design off the “sword and the stone” legend from King Arthur, so we decided we would “drive” the spikes into the Precision Board rocks.

因为铁路沿线一般有岩石，我们认为石头可以加入到这个项目中。我们可以用精密板来制作石头。再结合根据亚瑟王传说中的“石中剑”会很酷，所以我们决定把尖头钉“钉入”精密板制作的岩石上。

The spikes given to us were pretty heavy, so we used thirty-pound Precision Board here. We really needed the weight so that the spikes would be held upright in the finished rock pieces.

因为钉子很重，所以我们用了30磅的精密板。毕竟有了重量，尖峰就可以在岩石中保持直立。

I ended up using a bunch of scrap pieces of Precision Board lying around the shop to craft the rock textures. Again I like to use Precision Board because of its ease of tooling.

最后，我们用一堆散落在店里的精密木板碎片来制作岩石纹理。因为精密版很容易加工，我非常喜欢使用它。

On this project, I only had to use an angle grinder with a very aggressive sanding disk. I made sure to wear leather gloves while holding the Precision Board rock in my hand, in case the grinder skipped or slipped off the piece. (Note: I wouldn’t recommend this process for everyone because, hey, I like to live on the edge!)

在这个项目中，我们需要使用一个带有锋利圆盘的角磨机。在使用它的时候，一定要戴上皮手套，然后在手里拿着精密板制作的石头，防止角磨滑落下来。

Once all the faux rocks had been shaped and clamped together into one giant piece with Gorilla Glue®, we treated the Precision Board HDU with SealKrete and then primed it with all-purpose Kilz.

在使用Gorilla Glue设备将所有人造岩石塑形并夹成石块之后，我们用SealKrete设备对精密板进行处理，然后为它涂上了克尔兹涂料。

We drilled a hole into the top of each piece and hammered in the spike. I used Magic Sculpt® two-part epoxy clay to fill in the hole so we could paint it.

我们在每一个的顶部钻了一个洞，然后把钉子钉上。我使用了Magic Sculpt公司的环氧粘土来填充这个洞，之后我们再对它进行粉刷。

The finished pieces stand eight to nine inches tall.

（成品有八到九英寸高）

One of our artists, Stacy, has a real knack for painting. She painted the rock pieces using Testors metallic model paint and 1-Shot. The metallic paint was employed so that every time someone would pass by the rock, they would see a certain shine or shimmer (like rocks one would find on railroad tracks). She had both the rocks, the steel spikes, and the grandsons’ names painted within an hour.

史黛西是我们公司的艺术家之一，她有着极高的绘画天赋。这次岩石上的绘画出自她之手，她在这个上面使用金属涂料，因此人们每次经过岩石时都能看到某种闪光或微光(就像人们在铁轨上看到的岩石一样)。并且她在一个小时之内就把石头、铁钉和需要刻的名字都完成了。

The finished pieces stood eight to nine inches tall, and our client was all aboard with our attention-grabbing solutions.

客户对这个高达有八到九英寸成品非常的满意。