Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

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Claim to Frame
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Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by Claim to Frame »

Evening all

Something I'm being asked about more and more, is text cut outs on mounts for memorabilia.

Looking for any feedback from F1 owners, if they've found a nice font that cuts well and consistently on the machine yet? Looking at a text height around 6/7cm tall at the minute.

I've tried a couple of fonts with mixed success, so happy to hear from anybody that's found ones that cut particularly well before I work through the whole list of fonts on the machine :lol:

Thanks
Dan
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David
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by David »

Hi Dan, I generally stick to simple fonts like Arial and avoid anything with serifs like Times New Roman. A lot depends on the size I usually work at 30 – 40mm anything smaller is asking for trouble, at 6 – 7cm you’ll have a bit more flexibility. Avoid fine detail and tight curves unless you like breaking blades. I also play about with individual letter spacing to make it look right.
I tend to cut out actual letters rather than windows if that makes sense and find I have to play about with under and overcuts for individual letters, right angles are fine but WRKNM for example need fine tuning. Centre fall outs on RPDB also need scaling down to fit when you are converting letters to inverse and regular bevel. Once you have a letter working make sure you save it, I also store any special settings in the Note function – make sure you make a note of the default settings before changing anything so you can put them back afterwards.
You can also save letters into Clipart so they are easily accessible.
Good luck.
David.
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David
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by David »

And a couple more.

David.
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Claim to Frame
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by Claim to Frame »

Thanks for the reply David, you've clearly spent some time with the machine, fine tuning it's use to produce some of those pieces! They are fantastic! :clap:

Cutting out individual letters, rather than windows isn't something I had considered! Maybe that's a different way of approaching this! Do you find you had better success/better finish that way around?

I am definitely trying to keep the letters of the larger side where possible, as you say, snapping blades on small/tight lettering isn't a past time that I want to start! :lol:
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by David »

"Do you find you had better success/better finish that way around?"

That’s a very good question.

I’ve been at this for a very long time now and have developed a definite framing style, quite often based on getting it wrong or not quite right, general cock ups or realising there is a better option. I mainly do military and sports framing with lots of bits and pieces and then I complicate things further with some creative mount cutting, so they can get complicated very quickly with all the choices that are available.

While I start with a plan, the GMC software is brilliant for layouts and moving things around, but I still find it’s only when the actual components are in position at full size that you know if a design is working, especially with the balance, colour and ‘dead’ space. I may move an item a little left or right, up or down, if I’ve added a feature that is too dominant I’ll make it smaller or tone the colour down and if a detail is too weak I can make it bigger or a stronger colour. I’m always tweaking a design as it develops to maintain the balance in space and colour so the individual elements have the right weighting.

I soon found that if you start cutting into the main mount or top mount surround, that element is fixed so if you need to change it you have to cut a new board – and some of these are very large, or you might get away with covering it up or you leave it as is and compromise the design. So I try and keep the main and top mount as simple as possible and position everything on top so I can adjust and move the elements and see the actual finished design before fixing everything down. The more components the more critical this is and sometime it can be a matter of mm for everything to work. This is why I prefer cutting the letters out and fixing them down rather than cutting them into a major piece of mount board.

Basically I’m keeping as many options open as I can until the latest possible moment, especially as I am constantly fine tuning.

All the best
David.
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by David »

I was sorting some photos at the weekend and thought these might be of interest.

The customer was one of the guys in the picture, his call during the race was a major factor in them winning the Le Mans 24 Hours. He wanted a number of details including in the mount to help tell the story. Audi made a film of the race and the artwork is in the style of a film poster.

Three cars were entered and to help identify them on track they were given three highlight colours on various parts of the car, red, yellow or black, the colours of the German flag, hence the four layered mount with the a white one on top, the red and yellow mounts were cut with a reverse bevel to give the flag effect. The bevel was included on the black mount to give the image a stronger more dominant outline.

The call that was made, was to change to wet tyres, in the event a lap before the leading car, there then followed a ‘heated’ discussion with the driver who was on a very dry track at the time. The customer asked if a number of quotes from the conversation could be included. I looked at different options and ended up cutting out a copy of the track and including the quotes where they took place on track as well as including some in the outer mount surround.

The photos should give an idea of my design process, also under the bench in one of the pictures you can see the board that the letters and numbers were cut from. The first picture shows the basic mount without the extra bits. I tried lots of different layouts before settling on the final one.

The film Truth in 24, Le Mans 2008 is still available on YouTube if anyone is interested.

David.
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by theframer »

Lovely work there out of interest how long did that take you?
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by David »

I did this one some time ago, cant remember exactly, but not too long. The numbers and letters are easy and straight forward, the Audi logo I already had on file, so it was only tracing the circuit that I had to create. With entering the text it was probably about a days work to make the pieces and another day to put it all together, although I would be doing other jobs while waiting for glue to go off. I also had the original to frame in the same style so the design cost was spread across two jobs, the price was around £450 each.
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Re: Gunnar F1 Hybrid - Text Cut Outs

Post by theframer »

Thanks thats interesting great work :clap:
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