CASE STUDY: PARADISE

[kurtkraler]

The Paradise Theatre signage consists of a prominent vertical blade sign projecting from a wrap-around marquee with chaser lights located above the main entrance. The sign installed by Pride signs in 2018 is a recreation and not a restoration, as the original signage had long been replaced before the renovation. A focused design exercise was necessary to recreate the original blade sign and marquee design, starting with archival photos from 1937 – 1959. Details like the geometry of the main body, perimeter fins, lettering, decorative elements, and neon tubing, were fine tuned until it appeared to be proportionally balanced and consistent with archival photos. Since the only photos of the original sign were black and white, the selection of the colour palette was its own design exercise. Colour photographs of similar theatres were referenced from the “Art Deco of Toronto” book by Tim Morawetz, including other theatres by Kaplan & Sprachman, and found that teal and navy blue hues were prevalent in art deco signage. The colours were also selected to be visually compatible with the proposed interior design scheme by Solid Design Creative and to complement the exterior buff brick, buff limestone, white ceramic cladding, and stainless steel trim. A single shade of navy blue, three shades of teal blue, and a solid white were selected to match the contrast and colour intensity of the black and white reference photos. A metallic bronze accent colour was selected for the perimeter banding to emphasize the warm glow of the string of chaser lights.

Original design elements were translated using contemporary materials and methods of sign fabrication. Originally the scalloped detailing around the neon scrollwork would have been painted directly on the sign face. For the new sign, the ombre effect was recreated by overlapping layers of vinyl, with the scalloped geometry cut out to reveal the three distinct shades. Originally the chaser light bulbs would have been incandescent, but the new sign was fitted with LED bulbs. A warm light temperature was chosen for the LED bulbs to imitate the appearance of an incandescent fixture. Although a variety of colours for the neon tubing were considered based on neon signs from the 1930s, bright white was ultimately chosen to support the visual clarity of the paint colour scheme, and to contrast the warm light provided by the bulb fixtures.

[matt]

Quite good. Needs about 30 words cut, which is doable if we condense a few sentences.

[matt]

in layout