Designing on spec: Breaking into a new market

Before we begin, it is important that I first give my definition of a sign: At our shop, we define a sign as anything that draws attention to a customer’s product service or business.

We would like to break into creating signs (and more) for the winery industry. It is a large enterprise in our province and is a huge tourist draw. There are some amazing wineries in our region with some great-looking signs. But it is also a fact that many of the wineries look unremarkable, as do their signs. It is our hope that we can help inject some unbridled imagination into the industry. A theme park approach would definitely draw lots of attention and traffic.

Keeping in mind our definition of a sign, I did a series of renderings of both an entrance structure/sign and a building. This building could be built as a stand-alone structure or as a facade of a larger (more conventional) building as dictated by our client’s needs.