need help planning an interstate overpass sign

[BarryDonegan]

i live next to interstate 24, and my bandmate and i were interested in making a decent looking giant sign out of a bedsheet or something and hanging it over this interstate on an overpass barricade for an hour or so a day at rush hour, with us standing by it so we can make sure we keep it.

has anyone done something like this, and knows cheap, efficient ways to make this huge, decent looking and any pitfalls we might run into during this process?

[Johnnybags]

i live next to interstate 24, and my bandmate and i were interested in making a decent looking giant sign out of a bedsheet or something and hanging it over this interstate on an overpass barricade for an hour or so a day at rush hour, with us standing by it so we can make sure we keep it.

has anyone done something like this, and knows cheap, efficient ways to make this huge, decent looking and any pitfalls we might run into during this process?

its got threads running thru it so its durable, you can get remnants for cheap and it holds paint great. The reverse side is white usually so its perfect and it comes in like 48 in rolls.

[BarryDonegan]

define cheap, we are on a mega super small budget. haha.

[ItsTime]

tyvek works best! will withstand rain easily. Make sure the paint you use can too! Tie it down in many spots, keep an eye on it. The few around Manchester are tied good and when they look like they need to be retied a ron paul fan stops and ties it up again!

you can get Tyvek at a hardware store or look at a construction site they usually have a ton of it in the trash.

[Johnnybags]

define cheap, we are on a mega super small budget. haha.

interstate 24 where?

[BarryDonegan]

nashville! harding place exit.

[krott5333]

go to your local billboard company (lamar, cbs, whatever) and tell them you're doing a school project and wanted to know if they were looking to get rid of any unused vinyl

[Flirple]

Hi Barry, You should absolutely do this. I think it is the most efficient use of man hours to increase Ron Paul's name recognition.

Here is a video of what the Lincon, NE meetup has been doing and you'll see 3 different overpass banners to use for ideas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEJqjDbK16s

You can either go to the fabric section of Walmart or a fabric store and buy some white muslin (thats the name brand) fabric for cheap which is what the "Ron Paul 4 Prez" banner in the video is made of. The other 2 banners in the video were made from cotton thrift store curtains bought for very cheap. To make one 18' banner 3 curtains were sewn together end-to-end. If the fabric is not white you can roll on white latex house paint diluted with 50% water. This way the paint soaks into the fabric. This works very well because it makes the fabric into a stiffer/tougher canvas-like material. And then paint your letters onto the banner with black latex paint diluted 50%. An easy and very fast way to do the letters is use a 3' wide paint roller. Be warned that you should have some sort of barrier under the fabric because the paint will soak through and get on the floor beneath it.

I can't stress enough to people who are making signs to not get fancy with colors and decorations or elaborate slogans! Some of the banners I see on youtube videos are most likely not even noticed by folks in their cars because they are too small or they don't have enough contrast between the color of the letters and the background. My preference is at least 2' black letters on white background for an overpass banner for cars going 65+ mph. I know it sounds like overkill but the truth is that people don't care what your sign says so you have to make it so they have no choice but to read it whether they try to or not. If nothing else is, "Ron Paul" should be readable from a long distance. And keep it simple as possible.

As we learned, legally your local ordnances likely require you to be holding the banner and forbid you from affixing it to the bridge and just standing by it. I recommend using a bridge where you will have a good sidewalk to be standing on and you will be behind a chain link fence so there is no chance of you dropping the banner or anything else onto the highway below you. Connect each end of your banner to poles or posts tall enough that the banner will not be blocked by the side wall/railing of the bridge. If there will just be 2 of you holding the banner then try not to make the banner too long because it will be hard for just two people to control the banner if it is windy. Or if you have more people you can space out 3 or 4 poles throughout your banner. It also helps to cut some half-circle slits throughout the fabric to help reduce the winds impact (see the "Ron Paul 4 Prez banner between the pink gorillas in the video above).

Tyvek of course is great stuff too but you usually have to buy it in such large quantities that it is not cost effective. For smaller banners to be used just along the road for slower moving traffic I have been actually just using shower curtains cut to size. They work very well and are very inexpensive and even come with eyelets to hang them by.

If you want to really get ambitious you could make 5 different banners that say 5 different things and use a different one for rush hour for each day of the work week. This way you would be repeatedly working on many of the same people 5 days in a row. And after about the third day of going under your various Ron Paul banners they might feel motivated to go to their computers when they get home and Google "Ron Paul" to see what all the fuss is about.

[ksuguy]

Just be sure that you hang onto it and it doesn't fall into the road.