Enjoy Your Day signs

One of the “Enjoy your day” signs.

Why

Before the motorway route to work was just far too busy to bother with, I used to drive to work via Stourton junction. For a while, the two big “50” signs on either side of the slip road were obscured. the highways agency had covered one with tarpaulin and painted the other out in grey. I don’t recall them changing the speed limit or doing any road works and they were like that for quite a while. well that was a waste, so why not put something on them. I could have just gone with one, but that would be inauthentic and not as good as doing both. I wasn’t sure what to put on there for a while but I thought how dull it was travelling to work and how a positive message would be more pleasant and cheerful than something really random. I didn’t want it to be the cheesy American sort of “Have a Nice Day”, so “Enjoy your day” it was. Which was also shorter and more aesthetically pleasing.

When

March 2005

Where

Stourton Motorway Junction
https://what3words.com/allow.finds.tender

Enjoy Your Day signs location.

Materials / Media

Wallpaper backing paper, White gloss paint, Black glass paint, PVA glue.

Production

The typical sort of design, printing, taping, painting and  slow laborious manual scalpel cutting of letters. Rather than glue the letters in place one by one at the site, I painted paper discs 1 metre in diameter and glued the letters in place before taking the discs to the site.

24 sheets of A4 for layout and stencil. It should have been easier.
Painting, cutting and gluing using plain wallpaper.

Execution

I didn’t want to paint the sign for a few reasons, firstly, it would be time consuming and relatively damaging. It would also be very difficult to get right and reach it, even with a ladder. Instead, I prepared two 1 metre wide discs of pap I went down in a hi-vis coat and hard hat  and big step ladders so as to look like I was supposed to be there.

Looking the part during installing it.

Notes

I’m sure it must have cheered some people up, but with most of these things, I never know about any reactions people have.

Sign on both sides of the slip-road taken with a bad camera or phone.

Duration & Fate

Probably a week at best.


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