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In our 40 years in sports flooring, we've seen major changes in custom logos, lettering, and graphics on sports courts. In our early years, computer technology did not exist as it does today. We would use large foam stencils for our lettering. These stencils would greatly limit the flexibility of style and size of the lettering we could offer. It was time-consuming; each letter would be traced out and taped by hand.
Over time, we added some advanced lettering. It included outlines and shadows. But adding these features required measuring each letter. This made the already slow process even slower. But we were proud of the advancements as we always were starving to provide our customers with the best possible designs. Center logos were often just a block letter, designed using the same process as described above.
If a customer wanted a mascot or a more detailed logo, we would use an artist. They would freehand the design or project it onto the floor using an overhead projector. Then, we would sketch the design on the floor and spend hours taping it to get it ready for paint. This method had its challenges. If the projecting machine got bumped, it could ruin the whole project. The larger the graphic, the more distorted the projection. These methods and the technology available at the time limited the possibilities of design.
The first real advancement we made as a company was to invest in computer design software. This technology let us greatly improve our design work. It opened a new world of lettering fonts and sizes. Instead of offering two or three fonts and sizes, we could now offer 50+ fonts and create any sizes. The computer could help with outlines and shadowing.
The computer technology also introduced us to using vinyl stencils, doing away with hand tracing and taping. This improved our efficiency and allowed us to do more for less cost to the customer. This computer design technology also allowed us to put the overhead projection machine away. We could now create more intricate and accurate designs of mascots and other logos.
The computer design software as a tool has not really changed, but as you know, it has continued to improve. We now have access to an infinite number of lettering fonts and can design about anything you can imagine. The real change that The Ohio Floor Company has made on this front is to create an in-house full-service design department.
We now have trained design specialists on staff, and each customer has one assigned to their project. This design specialist will work hand in hand with you to design custom logos, lettering, and other graphics for your floor.
The Ohio Floor Company dedicates itself to staying on the cutting edge of technology to always provide our customers with professional-looking custom logos, lettering, and graphics for their sports flooring.