Wood Sign with the Designer Tool by Don Owens

Don Owens recently shared his method for creating wooden signs using the Designer tool and you may find some of the tips helpful too! He writes:

I started my design by using the Letter Stencil Maker to generate the arched version of the name of the facility. This file was saved as a stand alone design, but it really was simply one element of the final design (I did not realize at the time that the Designer has an arch capability as well).

I next went to Designer and and imported that file to start the design. The entire design is simple in that it has the facility name on top with the principals names below, all located around their logo. The logo was loaded using the import function as well. I'll call that Element 2, and Elements 3 and 4 are the names of the owners.

Now the value of Designer comes out. Arranging these four elements on a white background and making it look right is difficult, especially lining up the names and making them the same size. I did the by enabling the grid function. I put the first name where I wanted it and determined the size I wanted.

With the grid on, I was easily able to move the second name to the same level as the first name, and was able to make it the same size. The first thing I did was change the size of the grid to match the height of the letters in first name. then I sized the second name to match the first name. Sounds busy, but when you understand the process, it really does save time.

Then I determined this design would look good with a curved top, so I used the arc function to draw a cut line over the facility name.

Finally, when carving a sign, many sign carvers use a horizontal line to guide us when carving a line of lettering. I used the line function to draw this line for me. Since I transfer my designs by using a reverse image printed on freezer paper, I use this line also to line up the image on my board.

You might be wondering about these extra lines. They are removed during the sanding of the carved image in preparation for finishing. And here is the finished sign:

If you have questions or comments and would like to email Don you can contact him at donowens38@gmail.com or comment below.

Thank you for your wonderful sign tutorial Don! Much appreciated.