Hey there!
So i’ve gotten lots of questions about the windows at the pop up and I thought I would do a step- by-step guide!
First, I start out by sketching my plans for the windows using my Ipad Pro and Apple Pencil in Adobe Draw. I stuck in a human for scale, and I took lots of photos of the windows so that I could practice the size/scale of the letters and see how it would look from far away. I also realized I would need white paint (after in the photos) the windows looked super dark, even in the middle of the day.
These were some of my original sketches! Kind of crazy to look at now.
It was super helpful to work off of actual photos of the space!
Human for scale! Super helpful to figure out what would be at eye-level. I originally wanted to have paper airplane window displays but it didn't work out, which is all good.
So I knew from the start that I wanted white, handlettered, huge typography on the windows announcing what was inside. My bright idea was to design the windows on my ipad and then order them in a huge vinyl die cut sheets that I could just apply to the exterior of the windows and be done. I measured the windows out and found that they were each about 81 inches wide, so i decided to get quotes on artwork that would be 60 in. wide and 120 inches tall. Perfect! Hooray! Done!
Not so fast.
Without naming names, I pretty quickly got 2 quotes back- one was $923.08 before shipping and one was $468.14 before shipping. Whoops. Way more than I was wanting to spend on windows.
So, back to the drawing board! My neighbor let me borrow her giant ladder (I’m 99% sure this is the same one- it can get you up super high and is just $65! Way better than the ones I saw at Lowe’s/Home Depot) and I decided that the easiest and cheapest solution would be to do it myself! I found some wonderful Chalk Markers (I got mine at Art Center in Memphis but there’s a zillion colors available from Amazon here. There are also different widths, so double check before you check out!) and got to work as soon as I got access to the space. Working on the windows actually served as a great ad- I got tons of comments and questions from people as they walked by!
Get the marker here!
Exterior paint only, before I traced it on the inside
Process
As far as my process, I started by creating each complete window design first on the outside and then I traced (and edited) on the interior of the windows. There were a lot of reasons for this- first and foremost, the paint on the outside wouldn’t hold up against rain and inclement weather, which we actually had a lot of. There were also lots of people coming in contact with the windows and before we got to the cleaning stage, we literally had some people that would come by and wipe it off just to be punks. The letters popped a little more being on the outside, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of re-lettering them daily.
Anyway, so thats about it! They served as a great ad throughout the pop-up and I’m really happy with how they turned out. Hope you loved them, and that this is helpful for your windows!
Sean Flowers Photography
*salsa dancer emoji*
Sarah