In 2018 I purchased a small condo in Pasadena called "The Regency". Most of the condos in Pasadena have given themselves similarly fancy names like "Chateau Fontaine" or "Grosvenor Square"—and have signage to announce those names to the world.

The Regency was no exception, except for the fact that their sign was old, rather mundane, and did not live up to the idea of that name. I decided to create better looking signage for the building.

I wasn’t happy with the first sketches I drew. They were way too complex and involved to work for signage. I put them aside and started working on ideas that went in a different direction.

I don’t usually go this route, but I began by typesetting the name. I used Neutra Display Bold Alt, then began altering and tweaking its forms to suit my vision.

Going in this direction was worked well, and I ended up creating a look for all the HOA’s internal correspondence. The look that I had come up with I felt could also work well for the signage—except for the fact that the requirements for signage are are quite different from those for print—or for computer screens.

One huge difference is that letters for signage usually need to be much more widely spaced for legibility. So after working on, refining and adapting my design for signage, I consulted with my friend Wayne Hunt, a nationally recognized leader in environmental graphic design and wayfinding signage.

Since I had never before dealt with signage on this level, Wayne was an indispensable source of encouragement and advice on how to get this signage done and up on the wall of my condo.I created several mockups of the proposed signage, and Wayne helped me through the process until I settled on a final design.

I took my art (Adobe Illustrator) to Pasadena Sign Studios where, with the help of owner Eric Wilhelm, I decided to have the sign fabricated in 1" thick acrylic colored to match Pantone 414. I told Eric that I really wanted to install the sign myself, and he instructed me on the process—how to use an exact paper template which would provide me with a guide for getting all the screw holes in exactly the correct positions for installation.

I’d take a hammer and a nail—and using the crosshairs provided on the template, I was able to position the starter screw holes exactly where they needed to be before drilling.

With the template positioned correctly and taped to the wall, it was relatively easy to install the letters perfectly—and it only took me 2–3 hours to finish the job.

I think I achieved what I set out to do—which was to create signage that looked like it was always there—and not like new signage installed on a vintage building.