TDH Experiential Fabricators recently designed, built and artificially weathered a vintage-style neon sign for Sai Woo, a restored restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown. A faithful recreation of the site’s iconic original sign, which depicted a rooster with flapping wings, the project was achieved based only on a few seconds of grainy film footage shot nearly 60 years ago of a Chinatown parade passing by the building.
TDH体验设计师最近为温哥华唐人街的西湖饭店设计了一种人造风化复古风格的霓虹灯标识。 这个项目的创意来源于60年前唐人街游行时，拍摄的一段几秒钟的对街道两边建筑物的模糊的电影画面的捕捉。饭店的标识将被制作成一个挥舞着翅膀的公鸡形象，该项目完工后将成为唐人街上一个地标性标识。
Restoring a restaurant
餐厅的修缮
The original Sai Woo opened at 158 East Pender Street in 1925 and operated until 1959. When restaurant owner Salli Pateman recently took over the 557-m2 (6,000-sf) space—which had hosted a series of other eateries over the years since, including New Town Bakery from 1980 to 2010—the only visual she had seen of its original appearance was a municipal archives photo from 1936. It showed a group of staff and customers standing on the curb in front of the restaurant’s façade, recognizable by the words ‘Sai Woo Chop Suey’ in the windows, but not including a main sign above them.
西湖饭店于1925年在158东派德街开张，一直运营到1959年。最近，餐厅老板沙利·佩特曼接手了一个557平方米（6000平方英尺）的店面（过去有不少餐厅都使用过这个店面进行运营，包括从1980年运营到2010年的新城面包店）。她在这个古老的店面墙面上唯一能看到的就是从1936年开始就被悬挂在上面的市档案馆的照片。照片拍摄的是一群工作人员和顾客站在餐厅外路边的合影，照片中的窗户上清晰的显示了“Sai Woo Chop Suey”的字样，但是主要的饭店标识却没能展现出来。
“That photo cemented the choice of this particular Chinatown location for me when I wanted to open my next restaurant,” she explains. “I named my new venture Sai Woo in honour of that legacy.”
佩特曼解释说：“就是这张照片让我选择在唐人街开张我的下一家餐厅，我将新的餐厅命名为‘西湖’，以纪念这张历史性的照片。”
After finding the space in January 2013, Pateman signed her lease in May and began the long process of refurbishment to bring the heritage building up to code, working with Falken Reynolds Interiors, DoMain Creative Design Services and Milltown Contracting to turn it into a clean, modern facility.
佩特曼在2013年1月找到这个地方，并于5月签署了租约，此后便开始了漫长的门店修缮工作。为了使这个历史建筑符合当时建筑安全的标准，她雇佣Falken Reynolds设计公司负责店面内部的装修，DoMain负责店面创意方面的设计，Milltown Contracting负责将店面清扫成一个干净、现代化的设施。
“That work took almost two years because the building was in such a state of disrepair,” she says. “It was a huge ordeal that involved removing layers and layers of carpeting, linoleum and even sections of the wooden floor that were no longer structurally sound. We cleared out the asbestos and raised the foundation by two inches. In total, we filled 40 industrial bins with garbage that had to be hauled away before we could open.”
她说：“由于这座建筑处于年久失修的状态，导致这项工作花了差不多两年的时间。工作量大又复杂，除了清洁楼梯和每个层楼的地毯，甚至连木质地板也要清理。我们清理了石棉之后又将地板填高了两英寸。最后我们几乎清理出了可以装满40个工业垃圾箱的垃圾，我们的饭店才得以开张。”
Fortunately, a sufficient number of the restaurant’s reclaimed Douglas fir floorboards turned out to be salvageable.
幸运的是，这家餐馆大部分的花旗松木地板是可以继续使用的。
“Now, when you walk into the restaurant, you’re actually walking on the original floor from 1925,” Pateman says.
佩特曼说：“当你走进餐厅时，你实际上是在1925年的地板上行走。”
Tracking down a design
跟进设计流程
The new Sai Woo opened in March 2015 to strong reviews for both the interior design and the menu—but without the iconic sign, as Pateman was still trying to find some hintas to what it actually looked like.
新的西湖饭店于2015年3月开张，因为缺少标志性的标识招牌，饭店收到了很多关于标识设计的反馈信息，但是佩特曼仍在思考应该制作一个什么样的标识才引人注目，并希望能够得到一些提示。
“I had been unable to find any other ../images of the restaurant, so I spoke to a friend in Calgary who’s a really good researcher,” she says. “Just a little while later, she sent me a YouTube clip of the footage of the parade—and there was the rooster. She said, ‘look, it’s your building!’ I was so excited, I knew I had to bring that sign back.”
佩特曼说：“我一直苦于找不到适合饭店的标识形象，所以我将这个苦恼告诉了住在卡尔加里的一位朋友，她精通信息查找。没过一会，她就给我发送了一段关于唐人街游行的YouTube剪辑录像，录像里就有那个公鸡标识，她对我说‘看，这是你的饭店！’。听到她这么说之后，我很兴奋，因为我知道我必须重新启用原来的公鸡标识了。”
She offered $500 to anyone who could find the lost sign, but while many responses came in with related information, it was ultimately to no avail. She gave up four months into the search.
佩特曼向大众提供了500美元，声称谁能找到丢失的公鸡标识，这500美元就归谁。消息一经发布，她就收到了很多的反馈，但最终还是无济于事。
“I was a bit bummed out about it,” she says, “but then I learned about TDH, which had been doing neon signs forever, including some in Chinatown.”
佩特曼说：“起初我有一些难过，但是后来我了解到TDH这个团体，他们一直在做霓虹灯标识，包括唐人街路边一些店面的标识也是他们做的。”
Keeping neon alive
重新焕发霓虹灯的活力
Indeed, TDH has created some of the most recognizable signs in Vancouver, including a Kit and Ace outlet’s neon letters spelling out ‘time is precious’ in Gastown, a neon sign for Chinatown’s Bao Bei Brasserie and light-emitting diode (LED) illuminated channel letters for the Vancouver Aquarium’s 2006 rebranding project.
TDH已经在温哥华制作了一些非常出名的标识，其中包括一个设计感一流的户外霓虹灯发光字，它们在煤气镇的一个房屋墙壁上拼出了“time is precious”的字样，一个为唐人街边宝贝啤酒店设计的霓虹灯发光字和为2006年温哥华水族馆品牌重塑项目所设计的一个LED发光字。
Pateman contacted the company after reading an article about Andrew Hibbs, owner and operator of Endeavour Neon and reportedly Vancouver’s youngest neon bender. In addition to handling his own small-scale projects, he often works with his brother Troy and father David, who own TDH (formerly known as TDH Signs and named for their combined initials), on new large-scale neon signs, all despite today’s wider industry adoption of LEDs.
佩特曼在阅读了关于Endeavor Neon的所有者和运营商安德鲁伯斯的文章后，联系了该公司，据报道他是温哥华最年轻的霓虹灯设计师。除了处理自己的小型项目外，他经常与他的兄弟特洛伊和父亲戴维合作，TDH就是指的他们三个人（为人熟知的TDH标识就是以他们的首字母命名的），尽管如今行业大部分的人都使用的是LED发光标识，但他们依旧沉迷于制作一个又一个的霓虹灯标识。
“Our dad is a neon glass blower who worked out of a garage during most of our childhood,” says Troy. “That’s where we learned about the craft. You might say neon is in our blood! Andrew has really developed his skills to the point where he handles anything that’s just neon, while I oversee all of our custom fabrication projects.”
特洛伊说：“我们的爸爸是一个霓虹灯管吹制师，在我们的童年时期他大部分时间里都是在一个车库里工作，我们就是从那时候开始学习这门手艺。霓虹灯对于我们的重要性就像是在我们身上流淌的血液！安德鲁在这方面表现出了十足的天赋，只要是和霓虹灯相关的事情，他都能处理好，而我则负责监督我们所有的制作项目。”
“I started pumping neon at 13, then learned how to repair and bend tubes,” says Andrew, who oversees TDH’s neon department, which has seen an increase in requests over the past three years.
安德鲁说：“我从13岁的时候就开始学习如何制作霓虹灯了，在这个过程中，我学会了如何修理和折弯灯管的工艺。”在过去的三年里，安德鲁见证了人们对霓虹灯需求量的日益增长。
Pateman reached out to the company with only the YouTube clip for reference.
佩特曼向TDH团队提供了YouTube的剪辑视频作为参考。
“We were excited about this request and our first approach was to study signs from the era, so we could apply similar techniques to make the new sign look more authentic,” says Troy. “It was a chance to bring a piece of history back to life. Most people really appreciate neon signs as they are an art form. Each unit is hand-formed and -shaped; you can’t just use a machine to make it. For a project like this, a lot of creativity is needed.”
特洛伊说：“接到这个任务时我们非常兴奋，我们首先想到的是从那个时代的工艺技术方面来理解这个标识的制作，所以我们将运用类似的技术，来使新的标识看起来充满真实的年代感。这将是一个让历史回归生活的好机会。作为一个艺术品，霓虹灯一直为大众所喜爱。霓虹灯上的每一个部分都是纯手工打造，这是机器是办不到的。对于像这样的项目，需要很多创造力。”
“It was very important to me that it look 100 per cent like the original,” says Pateman. “I could see TDH had achieved similar effects with other projects. We got along really well.”
佩特曼说：“我非常希望做出来的标识成品能和原来的标识几乎百分之百相似，TDH在其他类似项目的制作上，最终给人呈现的效果非常好。我们已经很好地沟通过了。”
Raising funds
募集资金
When Pateman found out it would cost $18,712 to recreate Sai Woo’s early sign, however, the effort did not seem feasible, especially given all of the other costs she had already incurred in restoring the restaurant itself.
为了重现西湖饭店的早期标识的样子，佩特曼已经在这个项目上花费了18,712美元，但是这几乎无济于事，并且她在重修店面的时候，就已经花费了大量的开支。
“The cost would be prohibitive,” she says.
她说：“成本是令人望而生畏的。”
Nonetheless, determined to try, she launched a 30-day Kickstarter campaign called ‘Bright Lights, Van City,’ which ran from Mar. 23 to Apr. 22, 2017. As word spread about her crusade to resurrect the rooster that once overlooked East Pender, the community around her came together to help raise most of the needed funds.
尽管如此，她还是决定放手一搏。在2017年3月23日到4月22日这个期间，佩特曼通过Kickstarter 网站发起了一个为期30天的“点亮模范城市”筹资项目。当消息得到传播后，她周围的人都聚集在了一起，帮助她筹集到了大部分的资金，来重建这个公鸡标识。
“The campaign was touch-and go,” Pateman says. “A week away from the deadline, I was $527 short. Funds were still trickling in, little by little, but on the last day, when the campaign ended at 4 p.m., I had exhausted all of the contacts I could think of.”
佩特曼说：“这个项目进行得很顺利。虽然距离截止日期的前一周，我还缺少527美元，但资金仍然在慢慢地筹集。筹资项目到最后一天的下午4点结束，我已经把所有我能联系到的人都联系了一遍。”
Fortunately, one of her neighbours on West Pender, Modernized Tailors owner Steven Wong, wanted to help out in loving memory of his late father Bill, a longtime Chinatown tailor himself, who had been fond of eating at Sai Woo.
幸运的是，她在西派德街的一个邻居史蒂芬·王，一位长期在唐人街上工作的裁缝，他非常喜欢在西湖饭店就餐，并且和佩特曼已故的老父亲比尔有很好的交情。他表示愿意帮助佩特曼。
“Steven donated the last of the money I needed for the sign,” Pateman says. “He brought it in cash to me at my home. It was a very emotional moment.”
佩特曼说：“史蒂芬填补了我缺少的最后一笔钱，他亲自把钱送到我的家里，这让我非常感动。”
Building a piece of art
艺术品的诞生
The process of recreating the sign, meanwhile, had begun in July 2016with a discovery and design phase before creating engineering drawings and getting city permits.
同时，重新制作公鸡标识的项目已于2016年7月开始，在正式描绘工程图纸和获得标识安装许可之前，他们首先进行了考察和设计工作。
“The city is very particular about what you can do with a sign in terms of its size and the use of neon, but they approved the design in principle,” says Pateman. “In Chinatown, any new signs have to go through the heritage board for approval.”
佩特曼说：“这个城市在标识招牌安装方面的把控非常严格，在规格大小和霓虹灯的使用上都有相应的规定。尤其是在唐人街，任何新标识的设立都要通过遗产委员会的批准。而我们的标识设计方案通过了批准。”
The fabrication and detailed finishing work took about six weeks. First, the upper shape of the rooster was constructed with an internal steel frame and sheeted with aluminum. Then, in TDH’s paint booth, it was sanded, filled and sprayed with a base coat and primer before the lettering and gradient graphics were hand-painted and airbrushed. Meanwhile, Andrew blew the glass to create the sign’s English and Chinese neon lettering.
制作和详细的整理工作大约花了六个星期。首先，公鸡标识的上半部分内部由钢架构成，外部覆上铝板。然后，他们会在TDH的涂漆室中，在铝板上涂上底漆，对其进行磨砂和喷涂处理，再进行刻字和渐变图形手绘喷漆操作。同时，安德鲁会对玻璃进行烧制，使其能弯曲成英文和中文的霓虹灯字样。
While the overall aim was to recreate the style of a sign built in the early 1900s, TDH also relied on modern techniques.
虽然整体目标是重塑20世纪初的标识制作风格，但TDH也会依赖现代技术的支持。
“The original Sai Woo sign would probably have been soldered, using lead as the fusible alloy,” Troy explains. “Today, given we avoid using lead because of its health-related issues, everything is welded and riveted instead to make it structurally sound. We found the internal wiring and transformer placement was a major challenge; I would be very curious to see how they did it back in the day! We had to meticulously plan out the placement of eight transformers and the spacing of the gas tube only (GTO) cabling to minimize the chance of any future failures.”
特洛伊解释说：“原来的Sai Woo标识在焊接时是将铅作为易熔合金。而如今，出于对健康的考虑，我们要远离铅制品，所有部分在焊接和用铆钉固定的同时要保持其结构的合理。内部电线的分布和变压器的摆放是一个难点，我们一直在思考如何摆放才比较合理。因此，我们仔细规划了八个变压器和天然气体管（GTO）之间布线距离，尽量减少未来任何可能出现故障的机会。”
For the artificial aging process, the entire sign was wet-sanded to flatten out the paint and rough it up. This technique helped the new paint look more like it had been exposed to sunlight over many years.
对于灯体的人造老化部分，他们用湿砂涂抹在整个标识上面，使油漆被磨平而变得粗糙。这种技术可以使新刷的油漆看起来就像是在阳光下曝晒了多年一样。
“Our team really enjoyed recreating the artistic form of a naturally aged and weathered sign,” says Troy. “For this one, we added fake neon burn marks, fake dents where it could have gotten hit by a bucket truck and fake rust where water would have pooled or dripped and collected over time. The result is very detailed and cool. It’s more of an art piece than a sign.”
特洛伊说：“我们的团队非常喜欢重现自然老化和风化标识的艺术形式。对于这个项目，我们在霓虹灯上添加了假的刻痕和压痕，使它看起来就像是被卡车撞击过一样，还制作了像是被雨水长期冲刷过所留下来的铁锈痕迹。最后做出来的成品细节非常精美。与其说它是标识，不如说它是一件艺术品。”
Home to roost
公鸡标识的落成
On July 28, 2017, the yellow, green and red rooster—measuring 2.4 m (8 ft) wide and 1.8 m (6 ft) tall—was finally delivered to the restaurant.
2017年7月28日，外观由黄色、绿色和红色组成，宽2.4米（8英尺）高1.8米（6英尺）的公鸡标识最终被送到了餐厅。
“I saw Troy drive up with it and was so overwhelmed,” says Pateman. “It was one of the happiest days of my life. Plus, it was the year of the rooster!”
佩特曼说：“当我看到特洛伊开车载着做好的标识过来时，我觉得那是我一生中最幸福的时刻之一。并且，今年也是鸡年，多么巧合啊！
The on-site structural engineers, however, soon realized the restaurant’s façade would threaten to crumble if the sign were hung from it as planned, as the walls could not sufficiently disperse or absorb its full weight. They spent hours studying the problem.
然而，现场的结构工程师很快就意识到，如果标识按照之前的计划那样挂起来，餐厅的外部的墙面就会有崩塌的危险，因为墙面不能充分地分散或承受标识的全部重量。于是，他们又花了几个小时来研究怎么解决这个问题。
“I was devastated,” says Pateman. “The unveiling was supposed to be the very next night, but it looked like that wouldn’t happen.”
佩特曼说：“我当时真的非常难过，我以为原定于第二天晚上的揭幕仪式不能进行了。”
Fortunately, by bringing in thicker cables and changing how they balanced the weight of the sign, Troy and his crew were able to find a way to complete the installation safely and securely.
幸运的是特洛伊和他的手下通过使用较粗的电缆牵引来平衡标识的重量，最终找到了一种安全可靠的安装方法。
So, as scheduled, there was a gathering at the restaurant on July 29 for the sign’s unveiling, which drew a crowd of more than 250 people.
所以，按照原定计划，7月29日佩特曼在餐厅举行了一个聚会来庆祝标识的揭幕，吸引了250多人来参加。
“We had a countdown and then turned it on for the first time,” says Pateman. “Everyone took photos and we did the chicken dance to celebrate! It was so fun.”
佩特曼说：“在倒计时后，我们一起见证了揭幕的时刻。每个人都拍了照片，我们还一起跳了庆祝舞，真的太开心了。”
“For us, it was very satisfying to be involved in a project for a client who was so happy and passionate about it,” says Troy. “She put all of her heart into this. It is rare to find a business owner who cares as much about their signage as she does, so that made the unveiling all the more special.”
特洛伊说：“对于我们来说，看到客户如此满意，参与到项目制作的我们也十分开心。她把所有的心思都放在了这个标识上，我们很难找到一个如此关心自己标识建成的客户，因此这也使得这个标识的揭幕仪式更加的有意义。”
Pateman explains the experience has given her a new appreciation for the art form of neon.“One of the installers told me his job 25 years ago was to destroy old neon signs, not put them up or restore them,” she says. “It’s a shame it has taken this long for them to come back in style. I’ve visited the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas, Nev., and there are so many beautiful pieces there.”
佩特曼解释说：“过去的一次经历让我对这次的霓虹灯成品感到十分满意。之前有一位安装人员告诉我，他25年前的工作就是摧毁旧的霓虹灯，而不是进行修复或再造。这真的很遗憾，重回原来的风格需要花费很多的时间。我参观了内华达州拉斯维加斯的霓虹灯废料场，那里有很多美丽的霓虹灯制品，可惜它们已经成为了碎片。”
Crowing for a new dawn
迎接新的黎明
Indeed, the addition of Sai Woo’s sign has helped mark the beginning of a new era for East Pender, integrating its rich history into its future. Several historic landmarks have risen from the ashes this year, including the Jade Dynasty restaurant in the restored Mah Society Building, which also features a new ‘retro’ sign based on early examples found in the area. Another iconic restaurant, the Ho-Ho, is currently under construction and will eventually feature a new version of its three-storey high neon sign, which was last seen in the 1990s.
事实上，新创建的西湖饭店的标识标志着东派德街新时代的开始，即将其丰富的历史与未来融合在一起。今年的几个有历史意义的地标已经重新恢复，包括重建的Mah Society Building的碧玉王朝餐厅的标识，这也是该地区早期的新“复古”标识。另一个标志性的餐厅Ho-Ho的标识现在正在建设之中，他们将推出一个新型的三层楼高的霓虹灯标识，与其同类型的标识最后一次见到是在1990年。
“The Ho-Ho’s owner is going through the same nightmares with construction as I did, but on a larger scale,” says Pateman. “That sign, running along the length of the building, is going to be stunning. The art of neon hasn’t really changed since the early 1900s, but now it’s coming back, just as this area is coming back from disrepair.”
佩特曼说：“Ho-Ho的老板正在因为制作新的标识而经历着我曾经经历过的事情，但是他的规模更大。这个标识的长度将会令人惊叹。霓虹灯的艺术自二十世纪初以来没有真正改变过，但现在又回来了，正如一个地区从崩塌中恢复过来那样。”
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