How to Make and Paint Your Own Field Logos

Transcription

1 by Jim Reiner, Groundskeeper, Publisher, Editor How to Make and Paint Your Own Field Logos 1

2 About Jim Reiner and Baseball Field Maintenance My name is Jim Reiner. I'm a sports turf manager and author / publisher of many articles and handbooks on sports field maintenance. I developed the baseball field maintenance handbook, Transforming Your Baseball Field into a Winning Field, which was designed to help those who care for youth sports fields to get professional results with the least amount of time and cost. My efforts -- both in groups and one-on-one -- transform ball fields to give your athletes the opportunity to perform at their highest levels. I have completed projects from minor upgrades to major renovations for all levels of baseball and softball from T-Ball to College and everything in between. Prior to working in the corporate setting, I was a groundskeeper for the Texas Rangers AAA team. A quality baseball experience is possible. I believe in giving back to make a difference for others. Creating great ball fields is just one way I invest in our youth and to help create lifelong habits for success. With this information, you not only have the power to create a great baseball experience... you have the power to make a difference. How about using that power to make a difference? This information in the Special Report is for education purposes only. It is not professional advice and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of sports field professionals. Consult your local sports groundskeepers before beginning or making changes in your field or maintenance program, for diagnosis and treatment of diseases and problems, and for advice regarding solutions. Jim Reiner, Groundskeeper, Publisher, Editor, Author, Transforming Your Baseball Field into a Winning Field 2

3 Disclaimer: This is a copyrighted work and the Ultimate (the Guide) reserves all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without the prior consent of the Guide. You may use the work for our own personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms. The work is provided as is. The Guide makes no guarantees or warranties as the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of or results to be obtained from using the work, including any information that can be accessed through the work via hyperlink or otherwise, and expressly disclaims any warranty, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The Guide shall not be liable to you or anyone else for an inaccuracy, error, or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting there from. The Guide has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall the Guide be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result form the use of or inability to use the work. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. 3

4 In this special report I m going to show you why: 1. you too can make stencils for painting logos and designs on your baseball fields and why 2. these painting tips can help your baseball field look sharp while saving you time and money! 4

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6 Field Logos 1. Preparation designs and stencils, turf readiness, field location and size 2. Applying spray paint: aerosol & nozzles 3. Applying roller paint: mixing and rolling 4. Turf care and mowing with a logo 5. Logos on dirt: paint and conditioner 6. Tips, hints, mistakes to avoid 6

7 I m the kind of guy who Explores, Experiments, Exchanges ideas Here s the bottom line: I love doing this! And I love learning and sharing with others My backyard where I experiment with many things 7

8 Turf readiness for painting logos: this will work great however, this will not. 8

9 Making a logo made of alphabet letters Laying out a design Making the stencils Position and paint the outlines on grass Filling in the letters Adding outlines and shadows for affect 9

10 Old 8 x 4 vinyl banners work great for making stencils. You can also use tarps or sheets of plastic. This logo will go on the infield. Each of the three letters will be about 6 tall and 4 wide. Here is the letter V is drawn on the back of an old banner. The marking is done with a black permanent marker. The font is an old style. 10

11 Now the letters are cut with half circle moon shapes that will become the guides on the grass. The cutouts become markings to connect and make the letter. This is the letter C. The corners are important to get right. 11

12 And here is the letter A completed. 12

13 The three giant letters VCA will be centered behind the mound in front of second base. At this stadium most fans sit up above the dugout so they will be able to see this quite sell as in this picture. If the fans were down low, the design would be closer to them. 13

14 Using a stringer to center the three vinyl logo banners. It doesn t need to be perfect. From the stands it will still look great. 14

15 Up close on the grass. 15

16 Spray the cutouts. Remove the stencil. Connect the dots. 16

17 You can lightly spray the interior with white so the final color shows brighter. 17

18 Laid out. Dots connected and interior sprayed. 18

19 Now the final maroon color is applied over the white. 19

20 A 4 inch wide white outline is sprayed around the maroon letters. Striping paint nozzles make this easier than do round marking nozzles. 20

21 Ah, yes, the paint! 21

22 Game day and the logo has been freshened up and a thin black outline added on both sides of the white. 22

23 Close up view. This thick turf is 80% perennial rye and 20% bluegrass. Some poa annua is present as well. This is early March. The grass is mowed with a rotary mower set as low as possible. The turf is about 1 inch tall when cut. 23

24 A couple game views of the logo on the field. There was a concern that an infield logo like this might be distracting, but it proved not to be for players and umpires. 24

25 A home plate view out to the field. Note logos behind the mound. They are not as visible from an angle down low like this. 25

26 Nozzles There are several variations with nozzles on aerosol cans: wide marking, narrow marking, and several kinds for striping. Striping nozzles give the cleanest edges. Marking works good for fill in. 26

27 Preparation: Mow the field area prior to painting Lay out the area with your stencil or string Expert advice for painting logos Paint Use correct paint natural and artificial use different types Carefully handle paint so as not to have an oops Painting Techniques Use stencils or strings to layout the logo Use appropriate style for painting: aerosols, rollers, brush, airless Paint background white if possible to make colors more vivid; after it dries add colors Paint from the inside out Use cardboard as needed as a shield to prevent overspray Have water and rag to wipe up oops if it occurs 27

28 Adding a large logo to artificial and Bermuda turf 28

29 Here is a large, professionally made stencil. It is also color coded so you know what color to make each part. Once you use it, there will be overspray color on each letter also. In the following pages we ll see how this one is applied to natural and artificial turf. 29

30 Here is the finished logo on artificial turf. So, let s see how this was done step by step. 30

31 The stencil is laid out on the turf. Small cinder blocks keep it in place. Note out the actual design does not go all the way to the edges. 31

32 Once the dots are colored in, now you connect the dots and fill in the letters. Here a sprayer is used on the larger letters as an example. 32

33 And here you see how a paint brush can be used to connect the dots and fill in the letters for the logo. Brushes work well on artificial turf or natural turf that is mowed very short. 33

34 A thick plastic is used for the smaller letters at the bottom of the logo. Here a small paint brush is used to fill these in. 34

35 The walking line sprayer is used to paint the outline. The straight part of each dot is the outside of the line. So line it up and spray to the inside. 35

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37 This large machine is used to remove painted logos from artificial turf. The brushes and solution dissolve and remove the logo paint. 37

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39 This is a similar logo painted on Bermuda grass. The shorter the grass, the easier the logo will go on and the better it will look. 39

40 Here s an example of the stencils for the Seahawks pro football field. 40

41 And some of the equipment used to apply and remove their logos / lines. 41

42 This is an example of a professionally made stencil. A large machine is used to make the cuts. This logo does not actually have cut outs. Instead it has a mesh placed where the cutouts would be to hold this all together. Initial painting goes through the mesh. Then it is filled in. 42

43 Adding paint and logos to dirt The next 2 pages show you that lightly wetting down dirt before painting (and chalk) makes the color brighter and gives you better coverage. 43

44 Both chalk and paint on the dirt are readable from way up high. Damp dirt before application really helps. The turf logo is on 1 inch rye grass. 44

45 Paint: by the gallon or spray can Here are a variety of machines that can be used for applying large quantities of paint. You can either walk behind the machines for lines and gentle curves or use the attached hand sprayer for more detailed work. 45

46 Painting logos or lines for large facilities take lots of paint. 5 gallon buckets are heavy and take up room. Consider where you will store your paint. Even aerosol cans for smaller logos can be bulky to haul around with you. 46

47 Making designs with different types of grass and mowing patterns 47

48 The latest race track logos are on a two-color background. The two grass colors come from using dark perennial rye seed and lighter annual rye seed. Interesting! 48

49 Here s a view from down on the grass itself. Again the two colors are from two different grass seeds. And it is mowed the same direction so there are no mowing marks as you see on a baseball infield. 49

50 Here are classic mowing designs in the grass. Different directions with rollers on the reel mowers produce the light and dark colorings. 50

51 Other designs Selecting designs Getting the design onto the stencil Cutout Painting 51

52 The patriotic flag art work is perfect for a banner size stencil. Using a projector and a laptop the logo is beamed onto a wall where a banner has been hung. The picture is positioned and the lines are drawn with a permanent marker. 52

53 Before and after shots marking the outlines for the flag logo. 53

54 Here s another example. When you think about what you need to go on the field to work from, you can take short cuts. This ribbon logo really only needs the position of the white color on a stencil. The red and blue are simply added around it. 54

55 The ribbon logo after marking it on the 8 x 4 banner. 55

56 All that is needed for this ribbon stencil is to cut out the white line. The other colors will be added freehand. 56

57 Here is the flag logo drawn and read for cutting. 57

58 The flag stencil only needs the read ribbon cuts. White goes in between and blue above. 58

59 The flag is finished. You can also write on the stencil the colors for each part so you remember what goes where. Note I did not go all the way to the edge allowing for paint overspray. 59

60 Here a rotary mower is used to cut the grass short where the logo will go. 60

61 Another wide angle view. This turf is 80% perennial rye, 20% bluegrass, and many other grasses. No chemicals allowed here. So, mow regularly and short and it is fine for play and logos. 61

62 Flag and ribbon logo finished. Stars sprayed freehand. 62

63 Making logos on 4 baseball fields for a special event. Lots of spray paint. It can get heavy. A wheel barrow makes it easy to haul the paint and supplies from one logo area to the next. 63

64 Vinyl stencils laid out on warm cement. These vinyl banner stencils lay flat or roll up better when they are warm. 64

65 Here is the toughest one finished. It turned out nice, but it is hard work getting the letters since they are so close together. It can be done, just be aware that this is a harder example of one. 65

66 Samples from Opening Day 66

67 This one of the easiest to make and use. Just spray the initial outline and then alternate colored lines in and out as big as you want to go. 67

68 Start with a simple star shape that is about three feet wide. Spray 3-4 inch wide lines in and out alternating colors. Add star points as needed. This is probably the easiest one to do. And it is very nice on the field. 68

69 A star on the little league field between the mound and second base. Again, some decent quality turf does make logos much easier to do and nicer looking. 69

70 This is the letter S that stands for the league name. 70

71 The star and the S are painted together using the league colors. 71

72 A simple logo with the league name cut out. 72

73 This stencil really only needed the outside line. A silhouette will be made. 73

74 If you are careful cutting, you can use either part as a guide for making a logo. 74

75 Placing the batter inside a larger baseball logo. 75

76 Finished logo of baseball with a batter inside. Height is about 5 feet. 76

77 And here the hitter is used as a stencil to spray around the outside. The inside can be filled with your color of choice. After spraying the inside I went back around with a spray can of white striping paint for a sharper outline. 77

78 Hitter logo for a T-Ball field. The blue one was at the 3B dugout. They loved these! 78

79 This is actually a very hard logo to get right on the field, but it ends up looking sharp. The difficultly is that the letters are so close together. 79

80 Cut marks made and ready for use on the field. Note how many small marks there are. The grass must be quite short and clean for this one. 80

81 Color coded so you know what color to spray each dot to connect. 81

82 Here it is after spraying the color dots for the finished logo. I place the stencil right above the dots so I can tell what connects to what. 82

83 The process. Connecting dots, filling in the colors. Blue is my favorite. 83

84 The finished logo. This one is hard to put down. But once down, it is easy to freshen up as needed. 84

85 Can you tell what this one will be? See next for final field logo. 85

86 The stencil makes the inside color. The outline color is then added. 86

87 Rolling on paint vs spraying Generally can from a paint is watered down 1:1 or up to 3:1. Here it is about 1:1 for a test 87

88 Rolled with a 4 inch wide roller. Multiple passes. It covers the top well. The edges are not quite as neat as from a striping aerosol. 88

89 A couple pictures just to impress you that rolling paint also works best if the grass is cut short first. This grass here is really too long for painting a logo. 89

90 Aerosol vs rolling. Can you tell which is which? Roller on the right. Spray paint on the left. Rolled is brighter, but does not cover as deep. 90

91 So, let s see what it could look like if you use a large roller and make some larger logo letters Again, paint mixed 1:1 with water. 91

92 Here is a nice patch of short rye grass to test. On pass down on the left. Down, up, down on the right. Much better coverage. From far away it would be fine. Up close you can see that the paint is mostly on the surface, not down to the roots. 92

93 Here we made a large, four foot tall letter V Paint was rolled with the large roller back and forth three times. Decent coverage and decent edges. Next, we ll use some spray paint for some outlines to see how that would work. 93

94 I used maroon colored spray paint for the outline. As you can see above, I made a goof spraying while I took the picture by spraying too far into the white color. So, I use white spray paint to fix it. 94

95 Here s something you can do. Experiment on a patch of grass in your back yard to get the feel for color combinations and borders. If you like it, then you can use it on the real baseball field with confidence. 95

96 The importance of short, thick turf for applying paint Poor quality turf for painting a logo. Excellent turf for painting logos. 96

97 Down close to see how painting short turf is much, much easier than long turf. This rye / blue grass mix is mowed about 1 ¼ inch. 97

98 Here s that same logo on the previous page. This was a back yard test. 98

99 Since you have the paint out for logos why not brighten up the bases and home plate also? It makes the entire field look so much sharper along with your logos you paint. 99

100 Testing I use my backyard to test ideas and find out how colors hold up under watering and mowing and using different paints. 100

101 Effect of logos on natural turf along with watering and mowing After 1 day and watering turf. After five days: two waterings one mowing 101

102 After one week: 3 waterings, 2 mowings. Perennial rye / bluegrass mix. 102

103 And finally Even if you are not doing logos, you can spray, roll, or brush paint for a great looking ball field. 103

104 I hope you enjoyed making and painting logos for your baseball field. As you can see, quite a lot can go into it. In addition it can be fun and creative and really adds to the baseball experience for the players and parents. You might even have the media come out to your opening day and film your ball park logos! 104

105 The Take Away For You What can you apply from this? Consider the following: Be creative, but don t overdue it Test before final application Mow short before painting a logo Depending on logo size, there are several ways to apply the paint 105

106 For more tips and techniques managing your baseball and softball fields, visit: 106