Stencil and Hand Painted Sign

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I was commissioned to make two stencils (2 feet wide and 4 feet wide) and to hand paint a 2' wooden sign.

Hand painted sign of Omega Psi Phi crest

Design

I ended up combining characteristics from three different versions of the fraternity crest design to make the client's ideal version, and then I converted it to a single color graphic with added support bars for when it was cut out of the final material.
three reference images and the final design
Reference images from https://oppf.org/, theshieldmaker, and wallpaperuse.com

Stencils

There was significant research and experimentation with different ways to physically produce the stencil. Maker spaces did not offer a work space large enough to produce the stencil at either of the final sizes (2 feet in diameter or 4 feet in diameter) and generally focused on laser cutting, which is a bad idea for most types of plastic. Ultimately I opted to produce it at home with my Cricut.

Image of multiple passes on thick plastic, none of which cut all the way through
Materials testing: this is not the right kind of plastic

NOTE TO CRICUT USERS: 1mm plastic is too thick and acrylic thicker than a transparency sheet is tempting fate. Don't do it! Go for softer plastics. I'm pretty sure I actually broke something in my machine, since this I've had trouble getting my Cricut to cut large or complex shapes.


Because my device also has a limited work area size, I needed to split the design into segments that were easy to reassemble once cut. On the plus side, the ability to break down a large stencil makes the end product much easier to store.


Design split into 3 pieces for the 2-foot wide stencil
2-foot wide stencil

Design split into 11 pieces for 4-foot stencil
4-foot wide stencil



4-foot stencil assembled, taped to a wall
4' stencil taped to a wall
I don't have enough floor space to put it all together and test the fit

Painting

I would do it a little differently next time, but I'm pretty pleased with how it came out in the end!

Collage of images showing painting process


Video of the final (can't seem to embed for some reason):

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