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we've been hired to repaint this exhibit at a zoo in Nashville but they have no record of the font used as it was a loooong time ago

O

O1OO1O11

New Member
zoo would prefer us to use the same font if we can find it. free or commercial makes no difference. the original artwork is pretty old but i do believe they used an actual font for the design.

i've ran it through several reverse font engines with no luck. thought i'd try some forums.
 

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Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Hate to break this to ya, but while there might be a font similar, that was hand-painted. All 4 'e's are different, the 'r's, the 's's and the 'a's are different. The keep-away shadow is all different, too. To me, it looks like someone who had good command of off-the-brush capabilities and executed rather well.
 
P

ProSignTN

New Member
Didn't you get the memo James Burke? This is Print 101. What's an Onion skin? Trace it, you mean with like a pencil? Good call Gino.
 
James Burke

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
ProSignTN said:
Didn't you get the memo James Burke? This is Print 101. What's an Onion skin? Trace it, you mean with like a pencil? Good call Gino.
Click to expand...
The OP's heading on this thread:

we've been hired to repaint this exhibit at a zoo in Nashville but they have no record of the font used as it was a loooong time ago​

 
Johnny Best

Johnny Best

Active Member
Onion skin?, take white butcher paper, rub it with mineral sprites rag and it becomes transparent and trace the copy, clean it up, pounce it and re letter.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
If you've been in this business for some time, of course you heard of and used onion paper, but how many old sign painters had onion paper in their kit ?? Duhhhh..... none. But we all had meat wrapping paper.... butcher paper to be more exact. Can't tell ya how many thousands upon thousands of paper signs I painted on that stuff. Like mentioned, if I hadda make several signs all saying the same thing, I just layed out the first one and once it dried, just laid it down and painted right over it on another piece of paper. When I graduated to heavier paper, I just made a light box outta 2" x 4"s, an old fluorescent fixture upside down and a piece of old plexi and did it the same way. The way we looked at it, only the sissies used onion paper. Sh!t, back in the good ol' days we used papyrus paper. ;)
 
jochwat

jochwat

Graphics Department
Gino said:
If you've been in this business for some time, of course you heard of and used onion paper, but how many old sign painters had onion paper in their kit ?? Duhhhh..... none. But we all had meat wrapping paper.... butcher paper to be more exact. Can't tell ya how many thousands upon thousands of paper signs I painted on that stuff. Like mentioned, if I hadda make several signs all saying the same thing, I just layed out the first one and once it dried, just laid it down and painted right over it on another piece of paper. When I graduated to heavier paper, I just made a light box outta 2" x 4"s, an old fluorescent fixture upside down and a piece of old plexi and did it the same way. The way we looked at it, only the sissies used onion paper. Sh!t, back in the good ol' days we used papyrus paper. ;)
Click to expand...
Gino, you mean those butcher paper signs we used to see in all of the grocery stores? Something like... this?

(At a previous job, I thought we'd try to bring this kind of sign back for nostalgic purposes, but only I enjoyed the idea... This wasn't painted, though -- all fonts and mirrors).

sign.jpg
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Haa...... yeah, that's the same concept. Looks kinda hand-done, but you can see the fonts, like you mentioned and the squigglies are identical, just turned upside down and reversed.

That's a really small sign, judging buy the pushpins, I highly doubt anyone would've done that by brush. Maybe a 1/4 and some speedball action.
 
K

karst41

New Member
With Corsiva as the starting Font, Set it correctly and convert to outlines.
Place the type on top of the photo (locked) and adjust.

If you auto trace you will have a Bazilion points to clear out.
Take a good Level and straight away photo.
Todays cell phone cameras will allow a B&W adjustment. Adjust the contrast and saturation. Import into Illustrator or Flexi Sign and Trace. Clean up the Noise.

The more you do this the better your skills become.
You also need to know when to walk away for a few minutes.
This increases your mental recovery and vastly speeds things up.

Save, Save Save and Save.
 
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