Brookside Farm

Sign Board Designer

Brookside Farm is a small rural business with strong roots based in Permaculture and community.
There are often many visitors to the site so educational and way finding signs were nessecary to help them find thier way around and learn about the site.

W.E.T. System Display Board

At Brookside Farm there is a very special Wetland Ecosystem Treatment (W.E.T.) System, it takes the waste water from the farm, cleans it, provides a large yield of various foods and crops whilst creating habitats for many creatures.

This display board was produced to explain to visitors how the W.E.T. System works - showing them what foods are produced and the overal benefit of such a system.

The Design Process:

1) Inital Designs

Three designs were drawn up and presented to the client.
The client then chose the design they preferred. We spoke about what they liked and disliked - ready to perfect the design for the next stage.
2) Vectored

The image was then digitalised on the computer, with any changes or suggestions from the client intergrated.
This image shows the vectors of the main drawing.
3) Image, Text & Texture Combined Digitally

Texture and text were also created digitally and layed on top of the vector image.
At this stage we had another meeting with the client to check the artwork and text to ensure it meets their requirements.
4) Getting It CNC Ready

Collaboration with the CNC technician meant taking the certified design and putting it through a software that reads the digital data and translates it into a code that is then fed into the CNC machine.
5) CNC Machining

The machine has been told which bits and how deep to cut the wood.
A softwood was chosen for this particular board as it was the largest and most ambitious project this CNC machine had done before.
Choosing a softwood meant it was easier to cut so halfing the time the machine was running.
6) Detail After Painting

After the wood was cut, some elements were painted with simple pastel colours to make them stand out and add interest.
Text was burnt into the wood by tracing the CNC machines work using a pyography pen, adding a pleasing hand crafted aesthetic and texture.
7) In Location

The final display board is currently hung in the main visitor hub at Brookside Farm.
It is used to educate, explain and inspire visiters to the venue.