The 2021 Sign Invitational rules are as follows. We are excited about this one!
Theme: GO FISH! Use your imagination. 🙂
Build Envelope: 24″ x 24″ single sided wall mount sign.
Contest Date: Wed, Apr 7, 2021 – Fri, Apr 9, 2021
Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas Nevada
Fan voting will be counted and awards announced Friday Apr 9, 2021
Contest Booth: Signs of the Times ISA Booth #TBD
Congrats to Amanda and Rusty Gibbs on their big win this year. Your piece was awesome! You can read the whole article here.
Back in 2015 when Dan and I sat on a grassy hill at the EnRoute summit in Denver Colorado, I would have never guessed our crazy ideas would turn into an amazingly fun event. The premise, Invite the best of the best in the sign industry and see who answers the call. The challenge, set some rules and see how creatively people can break them. That my friends is exactly what we have seen in the past 3 years. 24 amazing entries later, I would like to think we have done our little part in helping the visionaries in this business dream a million dreams. The best part is we are not done yet!!!
This year’s Sign Invitational may have been small in participants, but there was no lack of fan involvement or passion across the entries. Competing were Dan Sawatzky (Imagination Corporation), Gary Johnson (Great American Sign Co), Douglas Hancock (SignPro of North Florida) and myself, Jim Dawson (Synergy Sign & Graphics).
Everyone showed up with amazing creations that were true reflections of themselves as well as creative solutions to the guideline limitations.
Dan Sawatzky
Gary Johnson
Douglas Hancock
Jim Dawson
In end, 567 fans had voted for their favorite and Dan Sawatzky took the crown home for the 2nd year in a row.
Next years contest is going to be extremely interesting. Stay tuned for some major announcements including 2 divisions and something that is surely to be a show stopper!!!
Check out the video here! The Sign Invitational 2018
Thanks again to our amazing sponsors.
Here it is folks. Many of you have been asking and now it’s here. The Sign Alchemy Class. 3 days of intensive training that covers how we do what we do. Presented by Jim Dawson of Synergy Sign & Graphics and Doug Haffner of Haffner’s Fantastic Creations. We’ll be covering everything from carving to finishing and everything in between.
Here is the rough course overview http://thesigninvitational.com/sign-alchemy
We hope to see you here in October!
-J
The 2017 ISA Sign Expo was held this past week at Mandalay Bay convention center in Las Vegas. The show was very well attended and directly translated into an all out mob of traffic for The Sign Invitational located in Multicam USA’s booth for the second year. On display were pieces from Peter Sawatzky and Dan Sawatzky ( Imagination Corporation ), Doug Haffner ( Haffner’s Fantastic Creations ), Aubrey Gealsha and Jim Dawson ( Synergy Sign & Graphics ), Doug Hancock ( SignPro of North Florida ), and Janey Freid ( Atlas Signs and Plaques )
While the show was not as big as it was last year, competitors clearly pulled out all of the stops and created some amazing pieces this year.
In the end, after over 900 votes were cast by show attendees, Dan Sawatzky came out on top with his awesome train design. Finishing second was Doug Hancock by a mere 25 votes. Doug’s piece literally defied gravity with his awesome levitating sign design that payed homage to Nicola Tesla. Rounding out the top 3 was Jim Dawson’s piece with his mash up design called Poe’s BBQ Pit and Pendulum.
Doug Hancock and his Tesco Levitating Sign
Dan Sawatzky and his Magical Train
Aubrey Gealsha and Magical Palmistry and Fortune Telling piece.
Doug Haffner and His Sign Magic piece.
Janey Freid and Her Rabbit with the Magic Hat
Jim Dawson’s Poe’s BBQ Pit and Pendulum build.
The 2017 Competitors.
Huge thanks to all of our sponsors once again this year. Multicam USA, SAi Enroute, Coastal Enterprises, Signcraft Magazine, and Laird Plastics Akron. Without all of you, this contest doesn’t happen.
We all had a blast this year and cannot wait for next years competition. The theme will be Marvelous Machine. Do you have what it takes?
-Jim
7 months out from the 2017 Sign Invitational and we are off and running. Invites were sent out this week. 16 of the 25 spots have been filled and we are extremely excited with the field already. The field will be announced once the 25 spots are filled or on November 1st, whichever comes first.
Judging by the way the field is shaping up so far, everyone better bring their A game this year.
Sign Magic! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!
-Jim
More pictures from The Sign Invitational 2016.
Noella Cotnam’s (farmsigns.com) amazing nesting sculpture
The Multicam Booth was the talk of the show. We had a steady crowd for most of the show along with periods of an all out mob!
Roger Cox’s gas pump and Dan Sawatzky’s Sign Police in the foreground.
Phil Vanderkraats (Signs By Van) whimsical ” The Art of Design ” piece with Doug Haffner’s (Haffner’s Fantastic Creations) Rat Fink mouse trap in the background.
Manfred Didier’s ( Timber Signs ) attention to detail was second to non.
The wining entry from Peter Poanessa ( Keene Signworx ) was a masterclass in Goldbergian design.
Peter Sawatzky’s (Imagination Corporation) Artistic Android was a master class in character design.
Who doesn’t love a robot chicken. Xpressive Graphix’s entry from Dave Mattingly and Tony Rose had everyone chuckling.
Roger Cox’s ( House of Signs ) tribute to Rube was amazingly detailed and displayed some awesome finishing.
Dan Sawatzky’s (Imagination Corporation) piece showcased why Dan is at the pinnacle in carved sign design. He always tells amazing stories with every piece.
Jim Dawson, Bryan Gray, Aubrey Gealsha, and Jason Bair from Synergy Sign & Graphics sure do know there way around tentacle sculptures.
Voting was extremely close and the competition was fierce. The Multicam USA booth was the talk of the entire ISA 2016 show. We received tons of compliments and have already decided to expand the show for next year. Details on that soon.
Back to this year. Peter Poanessa showed up with his amazing Acme-Goldberg Autosign machine and pulled out the win after some very close results in the voting. The best part was we were all able to meet some of the top sign makers in the world, share ideas, and build lifelong friendships with our fellow sign makers.
Here are a few pictures to hold you over until we get home and edit the rest.
Thanks to all of the contestants, sponsors, and fans who made this a smash hit!!!!!
1st Place – Peter Poanessa, Keene Signworx
2nd Place – Roger Cox, House of Signs
3rd Place – Jim Dawson, Synergy Sign & Graphics
4th Place – Phil Vanderkraats, Signs By Van
5th Place – Peter Sawatzky, Imagination Corporation
Peter Poanessa of Keene Signworx with his winning entry
Roger Cox and Periandros Damoulis from House of Signs with the 2nd Place finish
Jim Dawson, Jason Bair, and Aubrey Gealsha from Synergy Sign & Graphics finished 3rd place
Phil Vanderkraats and Donna Shriver from Signs by Van took 4th place
Peter Sawatzky from Imagination Corporation took 5th place with his Artistic Android
Stay tuned for more pictures and the rules and theme for next years competition.
-Jim
Today we loaded everything into a trailer and packed up for Orlando. The trailer currently houses the ballot box and stand, Peter Sawatzky’s entry, Dan Sawatzky’s entry, a sculpture for Coastal Enterprises that Dan made, Peter Poanessa’s entry, Phil Vanderkraat’s entry, Synergy Sign’s entry, number plaques for all of the entires, Xpressive Graphix’s entry, and various other tools, thank you plaques, and other things needed to pull this contest off.
( 5000 ballot entries for the voting process. )
I hope everyone can make it out to ISA 2015 and see these works of art on display for everyone!!!
You can come see us in the Multicam booth during show hours.
Trade Show Floor Hours
Thursday, April 21 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday, April 22 9:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 23 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Stop in and vote for your favorite!
Today, we finished up one of the most important parts of The Sign Invitational. These sponsor plaques will be applied to the ballot box where the fan voting takes place. Without the help of these amazing companies, we wouldn’t be talking about the invitational.
Again from all of us… THANK YOU!!!!