Bucket List

At the International Sign Association (ISA) Sign Expo in May, sign franchise Signarama held its annual meeting and Sign Awards, awarding 12 of its centers in such categories as Directional Wayfinding, Vehicle Graphics, and Electric, Neon & Illuminated. (For a complete list of winners, visit https://bit.ly/3Om8tKS.)

This year’s "Best in Show" award went to Signarama Downtown Louisville (Ky.)( https://bit.ly/3niAib5) for a project that involved designing, constructing and wrapping a giant KFC bucket for Louisville-born rapper Jack Harlow (https://www.jackharlow.us). The bucket, which also served as a giant loudspeaker, was created to accompany Harlow on the local leg of his concert tour. KFC signed on as a sponsor of Harlow’s tour, and one of the Louisville shows was intended as a launch event for the sponsorship.

CAPTION: Signarama Downtown Louisville designed, constructed and wrapped a giant KFC bucket for Louisville rapper Jack Harlow’s local concert.

The project began as many of Signarama Louisville’s do, with a conversation with Louisville marketing company NIMBUS, with whom Signarama has worked for many years.

“They called us up and they usually will bounce ideas off of us, and they said they were thinking about this giant KFC bucket,” said Maggie Harlow, co-owner, with her husband Brian, of Signarama Downtown Louisville. “There are lots of different ways of doing something like that, so we had to get through the process of figuring out how long it’s going to be up and how big it’s going to be, and it crossed my mind that a lightweight aluminum structure might be the best way to go about it.”

Harlow hand-sketched the basic plans for the construction of the bucket, dividing it into four panels that could then be assembled.

Harlow then approached PVE, Inc., a metal fabrication company based in Sellersburg, Ind., that is Signarama Louisville’s go-to fabricator.

“These are some young geniuses,” she said.

The biggest challenge was the timeframe—and getting it through the budget process.

“We had maybe three weeks to get it done.”

Most of a KFC bucket is white, so to save time and avoid having to wrap the entire bucket, they went with a coated white aluminum. PVE created a sample of one of the quadrants, sent a photo to the marketing team, and got approval. As soon as the pieces were sent to Signarama Louisville, they could apply the graphics, which were printed on Signarama Louisville’s HP Latex 300 Series printer on Avery 1105 MPI adhesive vinyl and laminated with Avery 1360 gloss laminate, which is ultra-thin, ultra-conformable and optically clear.

“We also had a matching food truck wrap that went with the bucket which had to get done in that same timeframe,” Harlow said.

The food truck was selling sandwiches that had Harlow’s face on the packaging. Making the project even more personal was that Jack Harlow is Maggie’s son.

“I will tell you, as a mom, it was very weird,” Harlow said.

CAPTION: Maggie Harlow (left), Maggie’s friend Staci Rampenthal, and the bucket, live in Louisville.

The bucket was originally intended just for a one-night appearance, and then it went into storage. Some months later, when the Jack Harlow Meal was launched at an Atlanta KFC, the fabrication company retrieved the bucket and had it shipped to Georgia.

“It breaks down into those four segments, so it’s portable” Harlow said.

For Harlow, the project was a great example of how partnerships work.

“The marketing firm reaching out, taking advice and direction and gaining information before they say, ‘This is what we want,’ and then working in partnership with a fabrication company to make it happen. That’s one of my favorite ways to do business, to work in partnerships and collaborate on things. You get a much better result.”

CAPTION: “I will tell you, as a mom, it was very weird,” said Maggie Harlow.