Modern print technology and media presents a rich palette for creative sign production companies. Signwright Chobham is making the most of it.
现代印刷技术为标识的创意制作提供了丰富的调色板，在标识行业大受欢迎。
The creative options available to today’s well-equipped signmakers are practically without limit. For once, the old adage about imagination being the confining factor might actually be true. The current crop of wide format inkjet printers, and the substrates they use, can form the basis of countless novel alliances and when a dash of creative flair is added the end result can be sensational.
对于当下设备齐全的标识制作，各种创新元素的产生几乎没有限制，除了一点 —— 我们的想象力是唯一的限制因素。目前，广泛使用的大幅面喷墨打印机及其使用的基板可以形成无数产品组合，加上创造性天赋的配合，标识的设计成果会令人眼前一亮。
One such company that exemplifies the creative approach is Chobham-based Signwright, which is run by Mike Tropia and Ed Pearse. Signwright has built itself a reputation both locally, and in the wider market, for delivering signing and other graphic solutions distinguished by strong design foundations and a mastery of media and technology.
一个创意标识的成果来自于一家Signwright公司，这家公司由Mike Tropia和Ed Pearse两人所经营。Signwright在本地市场上已经建立了良好的声誉，拥有强大的设计基础和和图形解决方案。
The company, which has been in business since 2009, was founded on the deceptively simple business principle that it would strive to deliver signs that embody a powerful identity. As seen through the eyes of Mike, a trained illustrator, this means paying proper attention to detail, quality and creativity and happily, this ethos meshes perfectly with a powerfully configured Mac-based design system built and managed in-house by Ed, and through a recently acquired Roland SP540i printer, which yields exceptional results for the company’s customers.
自2009年以来，该公司一直在运营几个业务，其中，主要的业务是为客户提供强大身份的标识制作。该公司经验丰富的插画师得到灵感，发现标识设计要充分注意细节、品质和创造力，除此之外，还与设计系统有关，因此，他们收购了一些功能很强的打印设备，为公司的客户带来了卓越的成果。
Mike takes the sensible view that signs are about getting noticed. Thus, a bad or indifferently made sign will get noticed for the wrong reasons or worse, won’t get noticed at all. Do the job well though and a sign acts as a beacon for the business it promotes. Something that radiates quality and that provides a solid identity that firmly cements business’s foundations.
Mike Tropia认为标识设计中的细节很重要。 因此，一个坏的细节会因为错误的原因而被注意到。从另外一个角度来说，一个标识可以作为促进业务的灯塔，是一个能辐射出质量的东西，能为企业提供坚实的身份，巩固在商业市场上地位。
Signwright works with many customers who have a prescribed design or identity but thanks to its reputation and skills, it is often given free licence to create something from scratch. It’s at such times that Mike and Ed both agree that Signwright is at its creative and technical best, something borne out by an attractive job it recently produced for a newly opened local fish and chip shop.
Signwright公司与许多有身份的客户合作过，由于他的声誉和技能得到了认可，他们的很多创作都是被一些企业所赞助。当下，Mike Tropia和Ed Pearse都认为，Signwright公司的创意和技术是最好的，最近，他们为新开业的薯条店的工作，就证明了这一说法。
Now, head-turning window graphics announce the business in style. Combining patriotic overtones, expert use of type and layout and some cartoon styled characters, the sign is effective and undeniably attractive. Colour, swept in density and tone gives the sign’s elements an impression of depth accentuated by diffused holding shadows. The effects are perfectly resolved by printer and Metamark media.
现在，他们开始在每个窗口图形的风格上做文章。例如，结合爱国色彩，他们会使用一些卡通风格的人物来进行布局，充分地调动密度和色调的元素来强化标识的风格和视觉形象，并利用打印机和Metamark媒体完美地呈现了这一效果。
Signwright used a novel construction technique to produce the sign and turned to Metamark MD-Class print media, continuing a long-standing supply relationship originally entered on the recommendation of the engineer who installed its printer.
Signwright公司使用一种新颖的施工技术来生产标识，并转向Metamark MD级打印介质，形成了长期的供应关系。
The sign is applied inside the shop’s glazing and was produced by printing the detail on the print-receptive surface of clear, Metamark MD-3. A second layer of MD-3, white this time, was then laminated to the printed face of the clear MD-3, using the white material’s adhesive. This technique yields a sign with sub-surface printed detail, visible through a clear adhesive face. Once applied to the inside of the window, the optical connection with the glass causes the printed graphic to ‘pop’ showing the deeply saturated colour for which Metamark media is known, to its best advantage.
应用于商店玻璃窗上的标识，是通过Metamark MD-3印刷，覆盖在表面上形成的窗膜，这是利用白色材料的粘合剂将第二层MD-3白色层压到透明MD-3的印刷面上形成的，这种技术不仅使表面印有细节，通过透明的粘合面还能可见。一旦应用到窗户的内部，显示出了Metamark介质的深度饱和颜色，会进一步提升标识的美观度。
Gary’s Fish and Chip shop sign has produced numerous referrals for Signwright and appears to confirm that Mike and Ed’s strong design ethos is ultimately a profitable one too, as is their determination to extract the best possible performance from hardware and materials, while also providing the customer with a sign that will endure, in addition to an identity statement its delighted with.Give an illustrator a palette as rich as that represented by modern materials and media and interesting things may result.
薯条店的标识制作出来后，受到了很多人的喜爱，已经为Signwright公司做了大量的转介绍，这也证实了MIke和Ed两人强大的设计精神是有利可图的，接下来，他们决心从硬件和材料中提取最佳性能，为客户提供更好的标识解决方案。此外，他们认为拥有一个丰富的调色板，会给标识的视觉效果带来完全不一样的变化。
The lifespan of a sign is such that a customer may not return for perhaps five years or more after a successful installation. However, one of Signwright’s regulars operates on a more frequent basis, coming to Signwright annually for a change of window manifestation. Baines Simmons is a world leader in Aviation Safety and Signwright provides it with aviation-themed window décor.
一个被成功安装后的标识的使用寿命一般能维持五年或更长的时间，在这个期间内，客户一般请况下是不会来找标识制造商的。然而，Signwright公司的客户却频繁地找他们进行运作，每年都会向Signwright公司来沟通窗口图形的变化。Baines Simmons是航空安全领域的世界领导者，近来，Signwright公司为他们提供了以航空为主题的窗户装饰解决方案。
Metamark MD-3 clear material was used to produce a design resembling a tree with leaves formed from aircraft silhouettes. EcoSolvent inks render the subtle colouring with transparency and clarity and the MD-3’s adhesive doesn’t betray its presence. As a manifestation exercise, the design once again shows its worth. It provides the coverage the application demands, admits the passage of light, and is well connected with the overall theme of Baines Simmon’s business.
首先，他们选用了Metamark MD-3透明材料，然后将材料做成了树叶的形状，在叶片上做了一个飞机图案的剪影；接着，他们使用了具有很好的透明度和清晰度的EcoSolvent油墨，对材料进行着色；最后，他们利用覆盖面和光线，使整个标识呈现出主题色彩。
Drawing on creative reserves involves taking applications to places beyond solutions arrived at by intuition alone. The very basis of sound design is supposedly rooted in contrasts, but seeing things from the polar opposite end of the telescope recently helped Signwright create an undeniably attractive vehicle livery for its client NDC Garage Doors.
在这次标识设计中，他们主打视觉中的色彩元素，为客户的NDC车库门创造在视觉上非常吸引人的车辆图形。
Signwright used the panel colour of NDC’s vehicles as the basis for creating elements within its livery design. Visualised as a large reflection of NDC’s logo, on the vehicle’s flanks, the livery’s dominant design element only contrasts minimally with the vehicle paint surrounding it. The effect though, is eye-catching and novel.
Signwright公司使用NDC车辆的面板颜色作为整体设计的基础，可视为标识的大体色调，在车辆的侧翼上，这个包装的主导设计元素与其周围的车辆有明显视觉上的区别，吸引了很多人的眼球。
Signwright chose Metamark MD7 to produce this element of the livery. The process involved using the Metamark ‘Brick’ colour swatch to locate a close match for the base paint, and then in turn matching it with digital print produced on the Roland printer. The colour isn’t an exact match and that’s the point. Minutely ‘tweaked’ by Ed, it creates a convincing illusion of a structure reflected in the vehicle’s paint. The whole effect, taken with the crisp typography and layout elements is one that’s tightly ‘on grid’ in terms of NDC’s corporate ID, but that radiates innovation though design.
Signwright选择使用Metamark MD7“砖”色，然后与Roland打印机上生成的数字打印进行匹配。要注意的是，在一开始颜色不可能完全地匹配成功，Ed对颜色进行了微调，使整体效果与清晰的排版和布局元素非常相匹配，这得益于NDC公司紧密“网格化”的结果。
In interpreting and presenting it, Signwright may style itself as a signmaker, but it’s using media, materials and print technology that elevates its value as a company to the customers it serves. It takes the brief a yard or more further than invited and, in doing so, it creates signs that carry with them a sense of real character and enduring identity. To Mike and Ed, the materials they have access to and the creative potential of the production system they’ve built provide endless combinations of o ideas and solutions that ultimately distil into highly individual signs and graphics. The results are clearly producing happy customers and their number is growing.
Mike和Ed也为自己的Signwright公司设计了一个标牌，融合了媒体和印刷技术，这种创造性符号结合了他们真正的性格和持久的身份，以更好的品牌形象展现给客户。对于Mike和Ed，他们所建立的生产系统的创造潜力，利用视觉效果中颜色这一元素来创新的解决方案，充实了个性化的标识和图形，为客户带来了满意的结果和理念，当然，他们还在继续创新更多好玩的有趣的标识。
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