Frederick D. Andres

Over the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of being my own client. Not to be confused with being your own boss, designing for yourself might as well be the real world equivalent of self inflicted personal harm.

You see, I’ve got quite the momentous occasion later this month. When tasking myself to design and print invitations for roughly 60 parties, I found my nights later than normal and my sanity slowly slipping away. I joked about hiring someone else to do it and then actually considered asking a friend. However, the end product was well worth the labor.

As a side note, my year old Epson 1100 literally paid for itself within one run. If you’re in the market for something relatively cheap and large format, it’s awesome.

A recent trip to El Paso, Texas provided me with an incredible amount of perspective on design challenged products. Within environmental graphics, I found that most things in Texas are indeed large. Sign ordinances and programs are non existent. As a result, a small market can build as many signs and at any size as they so desire (or can pay for).

This isn’t about unnecessarily large signs.

It’s about Action Jesus (and Moses if you so desire). I’m not going to pretend I know much about packaging. Like every other Graphic Design student, I’ve had to design and implement controlled assignments. But witnessing Action Jesus sold in earnest was by far the best design related experience in Texas.

This isn’t to say that I don’t believe in religious action figures. Certainly, they have their place in society. Action Jesus speaks to the design-centric crowd that believes only a small portion of the world is designed because it isn’t designed well. Since then, I remind myself of Action Jesus whenever I question the earnest and honesty in design, however horrible and blasphemous it might be.

When I jumped into Environmental Graphics four years ago, LED (Light-emitting diode) use had already become commonplace within the sign industry. I was taught neon provided superior halo illumination and looked much better in exposed treatments, but was also twice as expensive to produce and maintain.

Still relatively new since it’s restoration in 2009, the cost of restoring and refining The Fox Theatre is apparent by both the cost of tickets and the craftsmanship of every detail. Miles of neon accent the marque and blade sign, while cove lighting is used throughout in illuminating a dimly lit setting.

I’ve learned to accept neon’s faults much in the same way printers have embraced the Letterpress within the last decade. As LED technology continues to improve, neon has inevitably become a secondary niche treatment.