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Vinyl-cut sign for a quote wall

Design Project 3 lessons Small build

Design and cut a single-colour vinyl sign of a quote you believe in, no bigger than 20" × 18", on the Roland GS-24. The typography has to do something a printout could not.

A single-colour vinyl quote applied to a white wall, with letters arranged in an unusual stacked layout, transfer tape half peeled away.

Overview

Pick a quote that means something to you. Short is better; ten words is plenty. Then design how those words sit on the wall so that the arrangement itself says something. A quote set in a straight line in a default font is a printout. This is a sign.

The constraint is one colour and a drag-knife cutter, so the whole design is silhouette. That rules out gradients, outlines that are too thin to weed, and detail smaller than about 3 mm. It leaves you a lot: letters stacked, rotated, broken across lines in ways that change emphasis, words built from the negative space between shapes, letters that share strokes, a key word ten times the size of the rest, text set on a curve or a spiral, a layout that reads differently from across the room than it does up close. Look at hand-painted shop signs, protest banners, concrete poetry, and old railway lettering for ideas.

Every sign goes up on the quote wall, so the finished piece is public. Design it to be seen.

Skills needed

  • Setting type in a vector programresource comingIllustrator or Inkscape. Kerning, leading, alignment, and converting text to outlines before export.
  • Designing for a drag kniferesource comingMinimum stroke widths, no counters too small to weed, and why every shape must be a closed path.
  • Cutting on the Roland GS-24resource comingLoading media, blade offset and force test cuts, sending the job.
  • Weeding and transfer taperesource comingPulling the waste, applying tape, and the hinge method for putting it on a wall straight.

Assessment

  • Typography. The arrangement of the letters carries meaning or emphasis that a plain line of text would not. Spacing is deliberate: kerning and leading are adjusted, not left at defaults.
  • Craft. Clean cut, clean weed, applied straight and bubble-free. Corners of letters are sharp.
  • File. Text converted to outlines, closed paths only, no stray points, fits within the limit. Someone else could cut it from your file.
  • Process. The paper proof was made and looked at on the wall before cutting. The reflection says something specific about the choices.

Marks weight Product (the sign) and Process (proof, file, reflection) about evenly.

Deliverables

  • A paper proof at full size, taped to the wall where the sign will go
  • The final cut file, text converted to outlines, named with your initials
  • The sign applied to the quote wall
  • A photo of the applied sign and three sentences on what the layout does for the words

Materials

  • Sign vinyl, one colour per student, up to 20" × 18"
  • Transfer tape
  • Weeding tool, squeegee, masking tape
  • Roland GS-24 with a 45° blade

Steps

  1. Choose a quote and write it out by hand five different ways: all one line, one word per line, biggest word first, vertical, as a shape. Pick the one that changes how the quote reads.
  2. Set it in a vector program at real size. Pick one typeface, or two if one is a display face and one is small text. Adjust kerning by eye; type at sign size shows every gap.
  3. Check the rules: measure the thinnest stroke and the smallest counter. Fix them by changing the size or the typeface, not by hoping.
  4. Print a paper proof at 100% (tile it if you need to), cut it out roughly, and tape it to the wall. Look at it from across the room. Change what needs changing.
  5. Convert text to outlines, save as SVG, and check for open paths and overlapping shapes. Unite overlaps so the knife does not cut through a letter twice.
  6. Load vinyl on the GS-24. Do a test cut and adjust force until the blade cuts the vinyl but only scores the backing.
  7. Cut. Weed the waste, starting with big areas and finishing with counters. Keep the weeded pieces; sometimes the negative is the better sign.
  8. Apply transfer tape, squeegee hard, and use the hinge method on the wall: tape along the top edge, fold down, peel the backing, squeegee from the hinge out.
  9. Peel the transfer tape at a low angle. Photograph it. Write the three sentences.

Stretch options

  • Cut the quote as a stencil and paint it, keeping the vinyl weed as a second piece.
  • A layout that only makes sense from one angle, using a corner of the wall.
  • Set the same quote in a second layout and put the two side by side so people can compare.