Before reading the rest of this post and coming to the conclusion that having a fabulous sign matters is important, let me just say - THE SIGNS DON'T REALLY MATTER ALL THAT MUCH! There will always be some people with great signs that catch the eye of passersby and that's great. But, if your sign is just words, that's also fine. If you have no sign at all, that's fine, too!!! You could always bring an American flag or just wave to people going by. BUT YOUR PRESENCE ABSOLUTELY MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!
When cars drive by, what seems to matter most is that they are seeing a bunch of people who are not in favor of what's going on. If traffic stops they might have time to notice a couple of signs. They don't have a lot of time to consider the messages. But they DO notice the crowd size, so please get out there and protest!
As for me, I enjoy creating fun signs when I have time. It helps my stress level. But I am fully aware that it's my presence at the protest that means the most - not my sign.
So, for those who want to have fun making signs or save a little money while making signs, read on.
MY NEWEST SIGN IS ON AN ART CANVAS
I like changing up my protest signs. This is one side of my newest one -
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| Click pictures to see them larger. |
The POINT of this sign is - these people are all the same - Trump, KKK, ICE. Cruel. Rascists. Bullies.
The whole ICE and military presence business is enraging. They aren’t targeting criminals with no papers. They are going after anyone with brown skin who looks even moderately Latino and they are well rewarded monetarily for their efforts. They don’t ask victims for papers or drivers license. They don’t show their own ID or proof of who they are, meaning anyone could order ICE looking getup from Amazon and go after innocent people. How do we know if they are official or a thug?
This past week they got two firefighters WHILE THEY WERE IN THE PROCESS OF FIGHTING A FIRE! They also got a Navajo man this past week - not their first Native American, by the way. As if he’s an immigrant. What fools! It’s beyond disgusting. It’s full on NAZI.
Enough of that. Onto a few tricks I've stumbled on when making protest signs.
SIGNS USING OLD ART CANVASES
You may notice that my ICE/KKK/TRUMP protest sign has a frame. I repurposed an old art canvas I had on hand but no longer cared for the art. It's pretty lightweight - surprisingly not much different than the foam board. I just painted right over it. I plan to look for more canvases at thrift stores - I can get a used canvas for less than a new foam board of similar size. I will likely look for slightly larger sizes. The KKK sign is 18x24, but truly a larger one would be more fun to paint.
I like to create messages on both sides of my signs. When I tire of one or when the issue is no longer at the forefront, I will paint over it and do another.
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| The Other Side - not finished |
On the flip side of the canvas (which is actually the front) I Mod-Podged words and pictures. I printed onto regular printing paper. When I glued it on, the paper turned dingy. Notice how the words IN and SHAME are brighter in this photo. That's because I redid them using thicker card stock. I redid the other two words as well but I wanted to show you this picture so you could see the difference. The two figures were printed onto legal sized paper and I don't have any card stock that size so they'll have to do as is.
CONTACT PAPER OVER FOAM BOARD
One other sign trick I discovered recently has to do with the foam boards I have used. The first sign I made said STOP THE COUP with multicultural hands all around. That was very early on. Instead of just letting that sit unused (or having to make a run to the craft store), I came up with an excellent solution. I had a very old roll of white contact paper and I put it right over the sign. I made a new sign by sticking vinyl letters right on top.
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| Covered in contact paper - you can see the shape of a hand showing through. |
Then I did the same on the back and created a sign specific to a Mike Collins protest. I knew I wouldn't be using that message again and after that protest was over discovered something great - the letters came right off without leaving a trace on the contact paper. I also had a couple of printed pictures Mod-Podged on. Those came off with a trace as well. Now I'll be able to update those signs regularly, too!
Since I have plenty of the contact paper, I'll probably use that even on new foam board so I can easily reuse it. Or whenever I come across a great piece of cardboard, I could cover it in contact paper for a cheap and easy "new" sign.