Dan Sawatzky’s house is the best advertisement for his business, Imagination Corporation in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The house looks almost like a hobbit hole, with a large round window in front and the pillars holding up the roof looking like old tree trunks. What looks like a half wall of river stones surrounds the house. But the trees and the wall were all carved using a CNC router.
丹·萨瓦基的房子成为他的同行中最有吸引力的广告，这主要归功于位于加拿大奇利瓦克的想象力标识公司，他们的产品都独一无二，在行业中独树一帜。丹·萨瓦基的房子看起来就像一个霍比特人的洞，店铺正面有扇大的圆形窗户，支撑屋顶的柱子看起来就像老树干。房子周围看起来像河里的石头筑成的半堵墙，但其实老树干和石墙都是用CNC雕刻的。
Imagination Corporation considers itself a sign shop but it operates under a different business model than its competitors.
想象力标识公司是一家创造标识的商铺，但其经营模式与竞争对手不同。
“We turn away nine out of 10 people who come to our door. The only ones we are interested in are the ones that have the best projects, the most crazy projects,” says Sawatzky, owner and founder of Imagination Corporation.
想象力标识公司创始人Sawatzky说：“我们拒绝了90%到我们门前的人。我们唯一感兴趣的是那些最有创意的项目，最疯狂的项目。
He and his team ask five questions before taking on any project: Will it be fun? Does the customer trust us? Do we have enough time? Will it bring us closer to work we want to do in the future? Is there enough money?
在参与任何项目之前，他和他的团队会提出五个问题：这会很有趣吗?客户信任我们吗?我们有足够的时间吗?它会让我们更接近未来想做的工作吗?有足够的预算吗?
“We only want to be known for work we want to do,” he says. He appreciates the clients who give him free rein to be creative and have a decent budget for the project so he doesn’t have to limit his imagination.
他说：“我们只是想让客户清楚，我们只喜欢做一些有趣而又大胆的工作，我很感谢那些可以让我们随意发挥创造力的客户，既给了我们充足的预算，又不必限制自己的想象力。”
He uses 30-lb. Precision Board or higher for all of the company’s projects, which is much denser than the industry standard of 15- to 20-lb. board. The big reason is that it is stronger than the lighter weight high-density urethane.
行业标准的精密板是15-20磅，而他们所有公司项目使用的精密板是30磅。最大的原因是它比重量更轻的高密度聚氨酯更坚固。
The company puts a tremendous amount of work into its pieces. Sawatzky says lighter weight HDU is so fragile, it would crumble under the amount of detail that he and his team put into each piece.
这家公司把工作分配到各个部门。Sawatzky说重量较轻的HDU非常容易损坏，对他们来说，每个细节都具有非常大的挑战性。
Most of the company’s cutting is done on a 3-axis MultiCam router, which “allows us to work quickly and with higher precision, and that’s important,” he says.
该公司的大部分切割是在一个三轴的数控机床上完成的，他说：“这让我们能够快速，高精度地工作，这很重要。”
Most of his competitors use the machine and hand work to make a project look like it was done by machine. Sawatzky wants his work that comes off the router to look like it was done by hand.
其他的标识公司一般用机器和手工协作完成工作，所以标识成品看起来就是实打实是机械制品，而Sawatzky的初衷就是让每一件出自想象力标识公司的作品都像是纯手工打造。
“We purposely add texture so it looks hand done. That adds tremendous value in today’s world. I work very quickly, but the router will do it five times faster. It will do all of the grunt work so it allows us to put in the hand work afterwards,” he says.
他说：“我们特意添加了纹理，让它看起来像是手工制作的。”这给当今世界带来了巨大的价值。机器的速度是人工速度的五倍，所以它将完成所有繁重的工作，这样我们就可以把手工工作放在最后。”
Imagination Corporation paints all projects by hand and also does sculpting with sculpting epoxy when necessary.It uses its CNC plasma to incorporate brackets into its designs.
想象力标识公司手工绘制所有项目，并在必要时使用环氧树脂进行雕刻。它使用CNC等离子技术将支架结合到设计中 。
“Everything tells the story, from the brackets all in. We are storytellers. Everything we do we put a story to it and tell that story visually,” he says.
创造一个标识就是在讲述一个故事，只是讲故事的方式是通过视觉感受罢了。
For the pictured Copper Crown, the sign company showed how well the metal pieces were integrated into the carved signs. The leafy bracket was plasma cut steel and the structure of it goes into the actual sign as well as the mounting plates on the wall.
对于图中的铜冠，标识公司展示了金属件如何才能很好地融入到雕刻的标识中。用等离子切割钢的叶形托架作为标识以及墙上的安装板的结构。
The signs the company did for a themed inn incorporate plasma-cut steel as well. In the Northstar sign, you see a black line behind the compass rose. That structure goes through the sign. Some of it is exposed and some is not, he says. The Under Hill sign also has a steel structure that goes through it. Elements of the key were cut with the plasma cutter. The leafy bracket and big lock are also steel.
该公司为一家主题酒店设计的标识也采用了等离子切割钢材。在标识“北极星”上，你可以看到罗盘玫瑰后面有一条黑线。那个结构穿过了标识。“Under Hill” 标识也有一个贯穿它的钢结构，用等离子切割器切割出关键部件，叶形托架和锁也是钢制的。
“That becomes indestructible and easily mounted because there is a steel structure in it,” Sawatzky says.
Sawatzky说:“因为里面有钢结构，因此变得坚不可摧并且易于安装”
CNC routers are being used for everything from 3D sculptures and ice sculptures to set making for movie or theater production, embossing designer handbags and precision cutting for the aerospace industry, says Josh Hooley, digital marketing specialist at AXYZ International, a manufacturer of CNC routers.
CNC数控设备制造商AXYZ 国际公司的数字营销专家乔希•胡利(Josh Hooley)表示，从3D雕塑和冰雕，到电影或影院制作、压花设计师手包和航空航天行业的精密切割，CNC数控设备无所不及。
“It provides businesses with a clear competitive advantage over those who rely on more traditional/manual methods,” he says. “A CNC allows businesses to ramp up their operations, increasing productivity, cutting costs and competing for projects/contracts they wouldn’t have previously been able to.”
他表示:“与那些更依赖传统手工方法的企业相比，它为企业提供了明显的竞争优势。CNC帮助各大企业扩展了业务，提高生产率，削减成本，并开始竞争他们以前无法实现的项目。”
Roger Cox, owner and creative director of House of Signs in Frisco, Colorado, says that his work is in high demand both locally and internationally.“It has to do with the aesthetics of the designs we create and the uniqueness of the way we approach and build signs. It is not really seen with too many companies,” he says.
科罗拉多州弗里斯科的House of Signs的所有者兼创意总监Roger Cox表示，他的产品在当地和国际上都有很高的需求量。他说：“这与我们创造设计的美学观念和我们处理建造标识的独特方式有关。这在太多公司中并不常见。”
The company invested in its first CNC machine back in 2000. At that point in time, Cox was focusing on creating visually dynamic carved signs and was spending a lot of time hand-carving everything.“The end result was fantastic but the efficiency was very low,” he says.
早在2000年，该公司就投资了第一台数控机床。在那个时候，Cox专注于创造视觉上动态的雕刻标识，花了很多时间手工雕刻所有的东西。 “最终的结果非常棒，但效率很低，”他说。
The CNC router “opened up a whole new world, specifically some years later when we were integrating 3-dimensional software into our work, that essentially becomes yet another realm that again could have been achieved by hand but would have been that much more labor-intensive to create a 2.5D or 3D piece,” Cox says.
Cox说：“CNC数控开辟了一个全新的世界，特别是几年后我们将三维软件集成到我们的工作中时，这基本上成为了另一个可以手工实现的领域，但如果要制作2.5D或3D的作品，就会需要更多的人力资源。”
Most sign shops use a 3-axis router, meaning it can mill half of a cylinder or half of a full-contoured sphere because it moves front to back, side to side and up and down. The 3-axis and 4-axis machines provide the most amount of detail so that’s why most sign shops stick with these two routers.
大多数标识店使用的是三轴数控机床，三轴意味着它可以削去圆筒的一半或球体的一半，因为它可以前后移动，左右移动，上下移动。三轴和四轴的机器可以完成最多的细节，这就是为什么大多数标识店坚持使用这两种机器。
To create some of the more ambitious projects and signage, the company spends a lot of time upfront working in dimensioning software to make sure the cuts are in the right place and the different layers take shape before it is even sent to the router.“The level of detail we are asking our CNCs to do is really quite phenomenal,” he says.
为了制造一些更加骄傲的项目和标识，该公司花费大量时间在尺寸标注软件上工作，以确保切割位于正确的位置，并且在将它们发送到机器之前形成不同的层。 他说：“我们要求CNCS所做的细节是非常严格的。”
House of Signs is working on a carving with some blue jays in it currently. It is milling the birds with a 1/16 bit, “which is about as big as a sewing needle you use for canvas,” he says. “The smaller the bit the more detail you get but the longer the mill time you have also. It is not uncommon for some of our detailed pieces with a small bit to run 24 to 36 hours straight on one piece.”
标识工厂中正在雕刻一只蓝色的鸟。它用1/16钻头对它进行打磨，“它大约和你用在帆布上的缝纫针一样大。”他说， “钻头越小，细节越多，但打磨时间也越长。我们的一些细节部分可以连续24到36小时持续打磨，这种情况并不少见。”
The company still uses its original Gerber 3-axis router with single bit capability, but many of its bigger projects have moved to its new MultiCam 3-axis machine, which has a six-tool docking station.
该公司仍然使用其原始的Gerber 3轴机器，具有单比特功能，但其许多大型项目已转移到新的MultiCam 3轴机器，该机器的扩充底座就有6个。
Cox says he really pushed the limits of what the CNC router could do when it created a vintage gas pump for a sign competition.“Our goal was not only to produce a piece that would really wow the audience and judges but we wanted to really showcase the capabilities of our machine. It is truly amazing what we created out of a four-sided piece,” he says.
Cox说:“当CNC为一个标识吃力的推动运行了一台老式气泵时，他真的突破了它的极限。我们的目标不仅仅是制作出一件能够真正打动观众和评委的作品，我们还想真正展示我们机器的性能，让别人感觉到我们创造出来的作品有多么神奇。”
Because the company is located in Frisco, which is by all of Colorado’s biggest ski resorts, its work is seen by people from all over the world.
由于该公司位于科罗拉多州最大的滑雪胜地弗里斯科，因此他们生产的标识受到来自世界各地的人们的青睐。
“Our signs tell a story. They leave a lasting impression. That’s the whole point. To give our clients these unique stamps that help their business grow and set themselves apart,” he adds.
Cox说：“我们为客户创造的每一个标识都是独一无二的，它之所以能够让人们留下持久的印象，是因为每个标识都等同于一个耐人寻味的故事，他们想要追求这种新鲜感，这也是让客户业务增长的原因。”
Lindsay Neathawk, owner and designer at Neathawk Designs in Williamstown, Massachusetts, started off using a CNC router as a hobby. She bought a 2x2’ Shark CNC, which she outgrew in two months. She saved up to buy a bigger CNC a year later. She purchased a ShopBot 3-axis machine in 2011 and has been using it primarily to carve signs.
位于马萨诸塞州威廉斯敦的Neathawk 标识的老板兼设计师Lindsay Neathawk开始使用CNC数控机床作为业余爱好。她买了一台2x2的Shark CNC，她在两个月内就已经运用自如了。一年后，她攒钱买了一台更大的CNC数控机床，她在2011年购买了一台ShopBot 3轴机器，并主要用它来制作标识。
Neathawk says she is always trying to push the envelope with her designs, always “trying to take the ordinary and make it unique and extraordinary.”
Neathawk说她总是试图用自己的设计来挑战极限，总是试图把平凡的东西变得独一无二与众不同。
Along with signs, Neathawk is making a name for herself in the museum replica business. She was commissioned to make her first museum replica for the Harvard University Semitic Museum. The museum had one of a pair of the Nuzi lions, which were lion sculptures discovered in northeastern Iraq. The other one was on loan from the University of Pennsylvania.
除了标识，Neathawk还在博物馆的复制艺术品生意中出了名。她被委托为哈佛大学闪米特博物馆制作她的第一个博物馆复制品。博物馆里有一对Nuzi狮子，一个是在伊拉克东北部发现的，另一个是从宾夕法尼亚大学借来的。
“They had the original lion but it’s so heavy and it was also frail. They didn’t want to send it on display but also needed the pair to it,” she says.
Neathawk说：“他们原始的狮子艺术品太重了，也容易损坏。他们不想冒险把它们展示出来，但也需要一对来展示。”
They commissioned her to take the 3D computer models that had been done of both lions and carve two sets of exact replicas. Her second museum piece was for Yeshiva University and was a scene from the Arch of Titus. The scene was 6½’ tall and 12.5’ long and was carved from 32 sheets of 2” foam glued together like a jigsaw puzzle, with no seams. It also had to be able to stand up and travel.
他们委托她制作这两只狮子的3D电脑模型，并雕刻出两套完全一样的复制品。她的第二件博物馆藏品是为叶史瓦大学设计的建筑提多拱门。最后，Neathawk用32张2英寸泡沫塑料像拼图一样粘在一起，完全看不到接缝，实物6.5英尺高和12.5英尺长,雕刻完成之后还必须能够立起来搬运。
“There was a scan done in 2012 of the actual panel in Rome and from there, those scans were turned into CAD files by this company I worked with on this project, Learning Sites,” Neathawk says.
Neathawk说:“2012年，我在罗马对实际的面板进行了扫描，从那时起，这些扫描出来的信息就被我转换成了CAD文件。”
Since her cutting table is only 4x8, she cut the design into 4’ sections and then she used her program to slice it from there. The project took 49 days to complete.
由于她的切割台是4x8，所以她将设计切割成4个部分，然后她用她的机器一点点完成，最后该项目耗时49天完成。
“It was a lot of fun but my brain hurt. It was the most complex thing I’ve ever done. Before that I thought the Nuzi lion was the most complex thing,” she says.
“这很有趣，但我的大脑快要枯竭了，这简直是我做过的最复杂的事情。在此之前，我认为Nuzi狮子就够困难的了，结果提多拱门的困难程度完全超过了我的想象。”她说。
Neathawk says that she works backward on projects.“In marketing and stuff, you figure out what the end result will be and work backward, always. That’s how I work it usually, especially anything that’s complex. Even simple signs can be complex,” she adds.
Neathawk说：“我在项目工作速度上很落后，我的工作方式总是很拖延，特别是任何复杂的东西，即使是简单的标识对我来说也很复杂。”
Like House of Signs in Frisco, the owners of Appalachian Sign in Boone, North Carolina, take advantage of the resort area they live in to make a name for themselves in the carved signage business. Located at the tail end of the Appalachian Mountains, near Appalachian State University, Laura Shoemaker and Sarah Evans use their ShopBot to make traditional and non-traditional signage.
和旧金山的House of Signs一样，北卡罗来纳州布恩的Appalachian标识的老板也利用了他所居住的度假胜地，在制作标识生意上为自己赢得了名声。 Lala Shoemaker和Sarah Evans位于阿巴拉契亚山脉的尽头，靠近阿巴拉契亚州立大学，他们用ShopBot制作传统和非传统标识。
One of the projects they are most proud of is when they were asked to skin the façade of the Hope Pregnancy Center. The architect that commissioned them for the job wanted to create the illusion of a typical municipal building with the name of the business debossed on the front of it. Shoemaker and Evans carved the name into HDU and made it look as if it was part of the architecture of the building as opposed to a sign, Shoemaker says.
他们最引以为豪的项目之一就是当他们被要求为“生育希望中心”的外观重漆时，委托他们完成这项工作的建筑师希望创造一种典型的城市建筑的意向，其前面的机构名称已经凹陷了。 Lala Shoemaker和Sarah Evans在HDU上刻上了它的名字，并使之看起来像是建筑物的一部分，而不是一个标识。
“It makes it sort of understated, not a subliminal message, but it works on a couple of levels,” she says.The architects refaced the old masonry building with rock. Appalachian Sign did its part with HDU and much of it trimmed out in wood.The shop owners love to use their CNC on projects as opposed to sand blasting or more traditional ways of doing things because they can break someone’s logo or artwork into different elements.
她说:“标识给人的感觉非常低调和高级，它不是给人注入信息，而是让别人去发现它获得信息。” Appalachian标识公司与HDU合作，建筑师用岩石重建了旧的砖石建筑，大部分用木头作装饰。店主喜欢在项目中使用CNC而不是喷砂或其他传统的制作方法，因为这样他们可以将标识解读出不同的元素。
“There are so many tool paths you can run on any kind of lettering or logos. So many ways you can carve it in, raise it or model it. We try to look at all the individual elements and decide how is this going to be awesome and we really try. Of course you are working with customers, budgets and timelines so you have to balance everything. You can’t always go over the top. We try to go above and beyond and try to make their sign as nice and cool as it can be by taking all the different parts and doing it how we feel it should be done,” Shoemaker says.
Shoemaker说：“现在你可以用任何工具去制造一个标识，也可以在标识上加入任何一种元素，我们现在在不断尝试突破自己，制作一个标识你需要和客户、预算、时间等很多因素打交道，你必须学会平衡一切，尽量在有限的时间预算内做出最漂亮的标识，按照你的感觉去做就对了！”
Most of the company’s signs are sculptural, with different levels of shadow, texture and color.
该公司的大多数标识都会有不同层次的阴影、纹理和颜色雕刻。
“We fortunately live in a resort area where it is appreciated to have cool signage. It is valued because it is part of our identity and our community,” she says. “It is important for us to have signage that is reflective of the interesting place we live and the businesses that are here. Everybody has huge personalities. We have a tourist economy.”
“幸运的是，我们住在一个度假区，在那里可以看到很多超酷的标识。它之所以受到重视，是因为它是我们身份的象征并且是这个社区的一部分。对我们来说，拥有能够反映我们有趣生活和商业活动的标识非常重要。每个都有自己独特的个性，而这里就是一个具有独立个性的地方，我们也需要发展旅游经济。“
