The Big Kahuna restaurant recently opened at the Kankakee Elk’s Club and needed a new main sign for the entrance and a directional sign at an intersection. I kicked around the idea for different looks that would work well to show the “Tiki Bar” feel and “Steakhouse” atmosphere. I started with trying to find a typeface that would work for both and still have an impact on signage. I immediately looked at House industries Photo-Lettering site for some samples. (I did a post on the launch of this site a few weeks ago.) What I found couldn’t have worked out better for this project. After purchasing my letter set and re-adjusting the type sizing and spacing I had exactly what I was looking for in this design. The letter set was then routed from white acrylic and mounted with spacers to give the lettering a nice shadow effect on the material behind it. I wanted the main sign to have a detailed dimensional look so I purchased realistic “bamboo” paneling material. The material looks and feels so damn cool you’d swear it was REAL bamboo. The directional sign was to be a simple double face aluminum sign with a digital print applied to each side. That sign is located at an intersection in the middle of nowhere and didn’t need the full effects of the main sign. But I didn’t want the sign to just “be a directional sign.” I wanted it to look like the main sign. So after finding a suitable bamboo stock photo I added the design elements and had it high resolution printed.
I hope other business owners see that not all signs are the same and with a little bit of creativity – a sign can have the same personality as the business it represents.
I can’t thank everyone at The Big Kahuna Steakhouse & Tiki Bar enough for this opportunity. It would have been easy to go overboard on the different materials and picking letter sets that wouldn’t work on all mediums. But having the open creativity that they have giving me and my studio, I think the finish product speaks for itself.
To Mark and Crew at The Big Kahuna Steakhouse & Tiki Bar, THANK YOU!
