Lizard G

This is a side project we made to be entered into the Signs of the Times 2020 sign competition at the International Sign Association sign expo in Orlando, Florida. Unfortunately the stressful rush to complete the project was in vain because coronavirus canceled the sign expo (but has since been rescheduled to August).
Leading up to the completion date we were pleasantly surprised to have been featured on the cover of Signs of the Times magazine as well as a featured article inside a prior edition! To us, that made it all worth it.
Signs of the Times Magazine cover showing sign sculpture held in front of actual sculpture
Signs of the Times magazine cover photo
This year’s competition theme was “Less is More” and our creative interpretation of that, which we call “Lizard G”, depicts a cyborg lizard holding a giant G. Inside the G is our team/employees doing what we do best, making cool art! Our current company goal is to do “less” of the boring work and “more” of the custom 3D sign work.
Rusty and Amanda co-conceptualized the piece shortly after attending the 2019 ISA sign expo in Las Vegas where they were inspired by sign competition contestants including co-founders Dan Sawatzky and Jim Dawson.
drawing on paper
Concept sketches
sketches on a paper
More concept sketches
Computer designed shapes
Pieces and parts all designed in Adobe Illustrator
Decorative words
Amanda hand drew the filegree to be laser engraved
drawing of a lizard climbing on a large G
Lizard G concept sketch
In our piece you’ll find many of the different materials and techniques we like to work with including: cnc carved wood (black locust), laser engraved wood (cedar), steel, acrylic, sculpting epoxy, layered plywood and more.
Man grinding metal
Grinding the steel G
wood with carved detail and laser engraved word "Graphics"
CNC carved black locust wood and laser engraved cedar
close up detail of laser engraved wood
Laser engraved wood with satin clear coat

The G is made up of nine layers of plywood cut on our cnc router and glued together to make it 6.5″ thick. The G is 27″ tall. After hours of sanding it was ready to be primed and painted. But first we added some Coastal Enterprise’s TSF-45 to create some texture and interest.

CNC router cutting plywood
CNC routing the Gs
Person gluing plywood shapes together.
Gluing up the G
Lots of weight and clamps gluing boards together
Gluing the steel G to the plywood
Hand painting filigree
Hand painted filigree with translucent paint

The wood base is hollow and holds an electric motor attached to a shaft with bearings that connects to the bottom of the G with a welded plate. Internal LEDs illuminate the 1/2″ thick acrylic.

under side of mechanical device
The hollow base holds a motor and LEDs
base of sculpture made of steel, acrylic, and wood.
Base made of wood, steel, and acrylic

Man hand painting with silver paint
Painting the base
The cyborg lizard (a nod to our 7 year old son who loves lizards) has a welded interior structure and a hand sculpted 2-part sculpting epoxy outer skin (scales). It was fun tearing apart old machines to gather some interesting parts (wires, gears, computer chips) to add to the lizard’s cyborg body. 
wood and metal sculpture
Beginning to take shape
sculpting a lizard
Details on the eye
Woman sculpting a lizard.
Amanda sculpting the lizard
One side of the G is layered with 1/2″ thick acrylic and 1/8″ thick steel inlaid into a plywood border. A small scene depicts a worker laying mortar on a base of mesh and plywood. The other side represents the workings of our Gibbs Graphics shop and depicts a scene of people constructing and decorating the G. Each figure was hand sculpted and then hand painted.
hand sculpting a figure
Putting details into a figure
miniture sculpture
Jason the mason at work
Sculpture of small figure troweling concrete.
Many layers make up this sign
Mininutre lady painting a mural
Ladies painting murals and hand painted sign
sculpture of lady on a ladder painting words
Hand painted signs
Sculpture of old man hanging a sign
Epoxy sculpted miniature sign worker
Sculpted office lady with stack of papers.
Less Filing, More ShopVox

 All in all this pieces has close to 200 hours into it. It’s home will be in our office for customers to see. Enjoy the following photos and video. Thanks for looking!

Update 8/12/20:
We won! Holy smokes, what a surprise! Unfortunately the sign expo was canceled so we didn’t get to show it off in person, but through a virtual voting platform Signs of the Times Magazine tallied the votes from nation wide readers of their magazine and we took the win