The Boatbuilders Yard

 The Boatbuilders Yard bar and cafe, located next to Polly Woodside at South Wharf, have a huge canvas in their outdoor bar area that changes approximately every 6 months. They use an innovative program where designers are asked to submit designs to suit the site. This provides a great opportunity for them to get their work on display in such a prominent place. Our brief is to translate the design into signage that can be installed on the canvas - on site! One of our jobs of note was to print and install a design using translucent vinyl so that it lights up from the internal lighting within the building. The effect was great. Get down there for a drink and have a look!

The Union Club Hotel - Digital Print

Finished "Wallpaper" Digital Print applied to brick wall view from LHS

Finished "Wallpaper" Digital Print applied to brick wall

Work In Progress

Recently one of our long time customers, designers & illustrators Tin & Ed, approached us about a project at The Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy which involved the treatment of a 9m brick wall in their beer garden. Their brief was to supply a digital photographic print to cover this area. We printed this on super high tack print vinyl designed specifically for use on brick and hard to stick surfaces and over-laminated it with a matte clear. It took our intrepid installers a day to install after which we hand touched around the gas piping & any other little protrusions to really complete the job.

We think this has been a really successful collaboration with Glenn from The Union (happy), Tin & Ed (happy) and of course, we’re happy!

Gorski and Jones

Just recently, Meagan from Gorski and Jones Collingwood approached us to help with a bit of a re-brand of their restaurant signage in Smith Street. The brief was to sign the premises in a classic style to compliment the warm interior - something that had an ageless appeal. After Tyler had run up the layout we suggested 23k gold leaf as the medium with the main body of text highlighted with a drop black shade.

Using skills acquired in the old dart, Grant then completed the job over 3 – 4 days. Gilding requires several processes with drying time in between but with an extremely co-operative client it was one of those projects that was a real joy to be part of. Meagan from Gorski and Jones was extremely happy & we think that the end result exceeded her expectations.

seed aged signage

seed heritage VM department utilise old world and aged signs in their fabulous looking store fit outs. Their brief to us is to recreate an aged look on the many items they bring to us for signing which can range from an actual store directional sign to a name on a box, crate, clapper board, street sign or skateboard. We employ many of the hand-painted aging techniques we use in our Film and TV industry work to re-create that authentic aged look.
Here are some examples of our signage in seed stores which includes seed heritage, seed femme and seed child.

seed store directional signage - aged white painted text on aged black background

seed old world look signage - black outlined chrome vinyl on glass

seed child skateboards - painted aged text on aged surface

seed child bus stop - painted aged text on metal surface

seed directional signage - painted aged text on aged timber surface

seed child directional signage and boxes -painted aged text on aged timber surface

Film and TV

A substantial amount of the work we do at Vital Signs is in the Film and Television industries. The work ranges from period and contemporary street and store signage to decals on vintage cassette tape players and instrument panels. In fact the range is huge. We even re-signed an area of Collins Street in Melbourne to look like a street in Paris!
Unfortunately, we cant tell you about all the current stuff we are working on (we'll let you know after the work has been released - or an official site is available) but we can tell you that this past year we have worked on the following TV programs and Films - click on the name of each production to go to a link to get a preview or watch the show and look out for our signs!

• Jack Irish
• Killing Time
• The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
• House Husbands
• Winners and Losers
• The Slap
• Neighbours
• Killer Elite
• i Frankenstein
• Mrs Biggs
• Conspiracy 365
• Paper Giants 2 - Magazine Wars 
• Twenty Something
• Woodley  

And this is just to name a few! 
We also do signage for advertisements which include well known brands such as ANZ Bank, Boags draft, Target, Masterchef, Coles and Dulux.

Hush Puppies Dog

"Aged" finished sign

Painted Hush Puppies Dog

 



















Rarely is a sign actually painted these days (with digital printers at the ready) but here the client brief was to hand paint the Hush Puppies dog onto an interior brick wall at their new Miranda Shopping Centre store. The dog had to be fully painted at 3m in height and then "aged" back to give it its final look. Have a look at the before and after photos - Tyler even painted the "brick" work onto the final aged sign. Impressive hey? The client is very pleased with the job and so are we.

Fat GPO Store

This is the latest sign we have completed at the GPO. The original brief was for a timber look but after consultation with the people from FAT and the architects, it was decided to go with a satin black finish. The cream text was router cut then rebated into the background. The title lettering and ledge were fully fabricated with the lettering at 150mm depth. The customer response was "Fantastic" and we agree!

Combi Coffee : Beetle Jooce Volkswagen - Melbourne

Combi Coffee sends out this cute VW to surf locations around the Victorian coast and serves up freshly made juice from an ingeniously designed long board counter which mounts under the bonnet. The brief was to in some way emulate a Californian Woody. We could have gone down the digital path but decided it was a perfect opportunity to utilise traditional techniques along side current techniques by combining a hand painted woodgrain background with vinyl cut text. The client loved that we used a method that was appropriate to the style we were trying to emulate. The finished result was therefore superior to that we would have achieved from digital print.

Jasper Coffee : Caffeine Dealers - Chadstone Melbourne

Jasper Coffee have been a valued customer since they began in Smith Street Collingwood some 21 years ago. From that first small store they have had a minor love affair with gilded signs!

With their latest foray into Chadstone Shopping Centre, some 2 years ago, the love affair continued, this time using white gold onto glass with a black painted background over some 11 metres of bulkhead signage. We feel the result forming a stunning store entry exceeded their expectations.

Alpha60 : Fashion - GPO Melbourne

Alpha60 has its city based store in the prestigious GPO shopping precinct in the heart of Melbourne. We at Vital Signs, working closely with the Alpha60 designers, architect and Centre Management,  produced and installed fabricated high quality acrylic letters mounted to the store entry plinth. This sign delighted the client and met the high standards of the GPO centre. To see the sign in situ go here.