We recently completed a large job for East Carolina University, creating a whole new look for the baseball team’s players room in addition to creating signs for the ECU Athletic Hall of Fame, the Pirate Club, and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Our Senior Designer Will Neisler headed up the project for ECU Baseball, and gave us some insight about the process he went through to create the signage. Will has over 2 years of experience in the signage industry, and he oversees all sales and production drawings for Capital Sign Solutions. Here is a behind the scenes look at Will’s strategy and what really went into creating this comprehensive sign package:
How long did the project take?
Will: “From start to finish almost 8 months. John and I went up to Greenville in February and did the survey and the install was completed in October. Only a small part of that was design / production time, what takes the most time when dealing with a client as big as a University is the approvals. We would have to get the initial approval from Cliff, the Head Coach of the baseball team, then he would pass it on to their brand and marketing department, once they approved it, it would be sent to the Athletic Director. At any point in that process it might be kicked back to us to be reworked. It was something they all took very seriously so we wanted to make sure that everyone loved the designs before we moved forward.”
What was the process?
Will: “When we first started ECU had some designers from their Graphic Design Department start us off with some concept drawings. When John and I went to do the survey we met with Pete, the Director of Operations for the team, and JJ, the Associate Athletics Director. We laid all of the concepts out on the pool table in the players room and went wall-by-wall and talked about what they wanted to see. After that I started the design process. We stuck with a lot of the ideas that we came up with there, but made some major changes along the way to the overall look and theme. Pete was a huge help in tracking down images for us to use and getting feedback quickly.”
Where did you get your inspiration?
Will: “I used to go to ECU Football games when I was a kid and the thing that stuck out in my mind was the when the cannons fired, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’ started playing, and the players ran out on the field as purple smoke filled the air. I wanted to try and capture that feeling. Coach Cliff and Pete also had a lot of input in the design. The biggest achievement in College Baseball is winning the College World Series, which is always played in Omaha, Nebraska; so a big part of their program is “the Road to Omaha Starts Here” which is their way of saying that to win the World Series, you have to start here, so play hard no matter who the opponent is.”
What was your favorite part of the project?
Will: “Seeing it all come together and work the way we wanted it to. With a project this big, you always have worries. Specifically, I was worried things wouldn’t line up right and I would have accidently put a Hall of Fame player behind a fire extinguisher or something like that. We were very careful with all of our survey measurements and I was confident that we had everything right, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still nervous. So when John texted me the completion photos from our installer, it was a mix of excitement to see the final product looking great, and relief of knowing it had all worked out.”
Like Will, the entire team at Capital Sign Solutions is truly dedicated and motivated to create superior signage for your business’ signage needs. We look forward to helping you reach your goals and make your envisioned signage come to life. Contact us today to get started!
