St. John Ambulance sign

[daveninja]

Just had a crazy idea - I often have sung the praises of Spoonflower.com for making custom fabric - I've made a lot of Doctor Who Fabric in my time. - Now they are branching out into wallpaper and wall decals - Maybe we should upload a St. John Ambulance logo up and see what sort of quality they can provide. http://www.spoonflower.com/create - I suppose other Tardis type signs could also be made. 

do they make vinyl stickers as well? I need a Smith era sticker than can survive on an outdoor tardis. I have the graphics file but was hoping someone else already had a source for a printer

[warmcanofcoke]

their blerb says :
    Make unique wall murals & decals
    Peel & stick, easily removed and repositioned
    Eco-friendly, PVC-free polyester perfect for nurseries & children's rooms
    3 sizes:

        Small: 5" x 5" for $5
        Medium: 15" x 15" for $15
        Large: 30" x 30" for $30

[galacticprobe]

A little extra adhesive on one of those 5" stickers should hold the logo in place well enough. And you could always carefully paint a sealer over it to keep water from getting under the sticker.

Dino.

[warmcanofcoke]

Well I made two Matt Smith and One Peter Cushing style wall decals and the proof copies will be here in a couple of weeks. Spoonflower prints decals at the predetermined 5" x 5" size - the Cushing decal will not be to its proper scale of 6" x 6" (at first) but maybe I can tweak it later. (I'm can upload revisions in the future) There is a larger size of 15" x 15" but I wanted to see it before I spent the extra on the next size up.

[galacticprobe]

15" x 15"?! At that size the logo would fill the area between the vertical stiles (and flow over onto the stiles), and be almost as tall as the horizontal stiles (using the 15.5" spacing; it would touch the stiles using the 15" spacing). Of course the Cushing box would be a bit larger than the Classic Series boxes so might have more spacing between the horizontal stiles, but the vertical stiles would still only be about 13" wide. (A 15 x 15 logo would even be big for a New Series box.)

I hope they have sizes smaller between their 5" and 15" ones. And I am very anxious to see how those proofs turn out.

Dino.

[hb88banzai]

I think the idea is that the 15"x15" sticker would allow you to have multiple copies on the same sheet, then just cut them out to size - not to create a 15" sign.

The Cushing Box used a real 6" diameter metal two-hole St. John sign. Closest I've found was the sign on one of the Mark III's that were refurbished and sold a few years ago. I have a four hole sign and a couple of the Earl's Court type, but they are all a bit different.

[warmcanofcoke]

exactly right hb88banzai - I'll see if I can make it so I can fit the Hartnell Sign in there as well somehow. Probably get to print all of the signs in one go.

[warmcanofcoke]

Just got the 5" decals from Spoon Flower - they look really good.

extreme closeups.


The decals are thin but made of a sturdy material.

I will soon update the Cushing decal to be 6" and add a Hartnell to the ranks.

[galacticprobe]

They look fantastic, Nate! Now I can't wait to see how the Hartnell logo turns out.

Dino.

[hb88banzai]

Just got the 5" decals from Spoon Flower - they look really good.


...

I will soon update the Cushing decal to be 6" and add a Hartnell to the ranks.

All look very nice indeed.

One question though - is one of those supposed to be a 5" version of the Cushing sign? Reason I ask is that though the wording is correct on the one on the right (except for a cross at the bottom instead of the dot that was on the original), the animals are not right at all.

[warmcanofcoke]

Dino was kind enough to provide the images. Can you provide an alternative image?

[hb88banzai]

Regrettably, nothing ready for printing.

I've been meaning to get around to recreating things from photos for ages, but just haven't gotten to it as yet. Regardless, from comparisons to DVD screen captures, the original two-hole sign that was on a Mark 3 that was refurbished a few years ago appears to be a match.

Here is the best photo I have of it --



The earlier four hole signs were a little bit different, but that's only important for actual Met Box replicas, as they were the most commonly affixed signs.

[galacticprobe]

I created the Matt Smith version (the one on the left above). Nate (warmcanofcoke) did some tweaking on my design with the cross on the bottom for the version in the middle. The Cushing logo is just a regular Police Box version I found on the web a few years ago. I tried to shrink the animals down on that one as best I could without losing their resolution. (If you look back at the images of the original logo I (and ironageman) posted in this thread http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=1123.60 you'll notice that the animals are almost unrecognizable. So not trying to sound like I'm bragging, but I think I did a fairly decent job on cleaning them up. I can try shrinking them down more, but there's no telling how well they'll turn out.

Personally, I'm not a "Rivet Counter" so I think the Cushing version is a "close enough" rendition, especially since I didn't create that one (other than reworking the animals). And yes, the Cushing logo should be 6 inches in diameter, but I think Nate was waiting to see how these prototypes would turn out before going for that size. Also, without a really clear screen grab of the Cushing logo I don't know if it has that odd "cross" on the bottom or the dot. (My DVDs for those films are in storage at the moment so I can't even reference them.)

And I think Nate is also planning to upload the ultra-plain Hartnell version of the logo, which I also created and sent him, and after seeing these I can't wait to see how that one turns out as I'm very partial to the Hartnell TARDIS (the Original Brachacki, you might say ).

Dino.

[hb88banzai]

Honestly, to my way of thinking the car badge Ironageman posted on the aforementioned thread would have been closer for Cushing than the newer St. John version that was used as a starting point in the samples as printed. Regardless, good job throughout and nice images, it's just an FYI if it matters to whomever is planning on going this route. Purely a personal choice, but counting rivets is always good for establishing a baseline.

As to dots vs. crosses, I'm pretty sure no St. John sign on any Police Box we currently have photos of (including Earl's Court) had a cross on the bottom (the one they recently put on Crich doesn't count). Further, the fact that the Mark 3 sign is a dead ringer for the Cushing one (as best as can be seen considering the poor resolution) is ample evidence that they just used a real one of contemporary vintage. Certainly would have saved them both time and money.

Here is a cropped screen grab of the Cushing sign --



I've gotten pretty good at comparing details on these things, and there is no doubt whatsoever that the Cushing sign had a dot on the bottom.

Some limited angle shots with a bit more detail (about as good as it gets on the DVD version, unfortunately):

The bottom of the sign --



And the top letters --



All letters and primary details (including rounded edges and thickness of the plate) match and line up to a fairly high degree to those on a real two hole St. John sign of the type that was on the Mark 3. It even looks like there may be no black ring on the outer edge, just as with the Mark 3 sign.

That said, the aesthetics of the animals on many of the original signs leave something to be desired - you have to decide if you want accuracy or what looks good to you. However, when it comes to the Cushing sign I'd rather go with something more period (like Ironageman's car badge) than the type on the current TARDIS (despite the car badge version having a stylized cross and the animals being too large). It just looks more "right" for that particular sign and vintage. The newer style animals as depicted on Smith's TARDIS didn't come into common (almost universal) usage at St. John until around 1970, if I recall correctly.

As reference, here is the car badge mentioned above, as originally posted by Ironageman (noting that this form of the animals and other details have a very long history of use with St. John in various printed materials, as well as the Earl's Court Box sign) --



As comparison, here is a photo of the type used on the Earl's Court Box --

[warmcanofcoke]

Would this do as a better Cushing Box sign?


I'll have to do some cleanup work - but it will look a lot like this.