Do What You Love: The Creation of a Sign

Hi, my name is Stephanie!

I am a senior at Babson College concentrating in Operations Management and Marketing. From a very young age, I took an interest in art, specifically mixed media art, where I could experiment and use different materials to create a new and unique piece of work. This included paint, canvas, wood, cardboard, string, clay, etc. 

“DO WHAT YOU LOVE” is a quote I personally live by. Every day I strive to do something that I love from creating art, to taking a walk, or grabbing my favorite iced coffee to class. Therefore, I wanted to have a way of displaying this phrase and came up with the idea to create an LED sign. 

I began designing the sign in Adobe Illustrator by selecting the type of font, spacing, and alignment. After attending the laser cutter and woodshop training sessions, I cut a piece of wood that was placed into the laser cutter. Then, I uploaded my design to the laser cutter and had it cut out the entire sign including the letters and background. I painted the letters in various colors, measured where I wanted the letters to go on the background board, and glued them in place. I cut out thin pieces of wood that were glued together to create a frame edge that could be used to hang the sign. Lastly, I attached the LED lights to the back frame. 

I would like to thank the Foundry’s Personal Project Grant for allowing me to bring my vision to life. 

**This post is made in conjunction with the Foundry’s Personal Project Grants. They received a grant that enabled this project to move forward. If you’d like to learn more about the program, please visit our info-page here.