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Cooking up details of a tasty sign project.
“W
e love a challenge,” states Stephen Hoey, an “Old World craftsman with Twenty-First Century tools” and president of KDF Custom Graphics (www.kdf-comp.com) in Rockleigh, New Jersey. “Usually our challenges come in the form of a tight schedule, a difficult design, or a slew of creative ideas that need to be quickly conceptualized, sifted through, and executed on.” However KDF not only had to solve all these aforementioned challenges on a recent project, but they also had to deliver an extremely detailed custom dimensional sign featuring layers of HDU, steel tubing, and LED modules. And they had eight days to build and install it for a restaurant in time to greet patrons on St. Patrick’s Day. “So we were going to earn our pint of Guinness on this one!” says Hoey.
First Course: Getting Started A year ago, KDF had successfully designed, printed, and wrapped vinyl graphics onto a Bailey’s Smokehouse van. Because of this, the restaurant owners told Hoey they’d keep his company in mind for any future projects. Bailey’s Smokehouse (www.baileysny.com) in Blauvelt, New York has earned a reputation as one of the best BBQ places in the area, and its owners are always on the lookout to make their restaurant even better. But one thing causing them fits
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was an old light box hanging over the restaurant’s original front door. “It didn’t look good any more, nor was it functioning properly,” explains Hoey, “so they removed it.” However this left the owners with an empty space. So a year after the van wrap, they tapped KDF with a bigger request—a complete logo redesign and brand-new custom sign! KDF is far from your traditional sign shop. Their wellrounded employees are always pushing their creative limits when it comes to large and wide format graphics, flatbed printing, wraps, dimensional signage, and custom fabrications in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut areas. Hoey told the owners upfront that they could do either inexpensive, reverse-printed graphics to cover the empty light box space or create something that would “blow everyone’s minds.” Fortunately for all involved, the owners eagerly opted for the latter. (Note: Bailey’s Smokehouse gave KDF carte blanche in the sign and logo design.) Here Hoey promised them the “best sign that anyone had ever seen” but admits he gave them what he considered a decent estimate without really knowing how his shop was going to build it. “We always go in promising a lot, however we want to make sure that we’re going to hit it out of the park and give them even more than what we promise,” says Hoey.
June 2014 // Sign Builder Illustrated
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