Design: Recreating the KBHR neon sign from Northern Exposure

I've always been a fan of the 1990's television series "Northern Exposure." In case you are wondering why, allow me to explain: It is the best television show that was ever created.

Okay, now that raw logic is out of the way, I'd also like to explain that I started designing t-shirts based on the show for my own use. Then realizing other people may like them as well, I started selling them online. Apparently, a good number of intelligent people out there feel the same way I do about Northern Exposure, because my shirts are worn by people all over the world. More a testament to the program than my designs, but still - confirmation nonetheless.

One of the aspects that I enjoyed about Northern Exposure was the local radio station called "K-BEAR" (call letters KBHR). It hosted a show called "Chris in the Morning" in which the DJ, Chris Stevens would play great music interspersed with poetry, philosophical meanderings and deep perspectives. Something I have regrettably NEVER heard on a real radio station. More reason to feel truly alone in the universe I guess.

KBHR is big with Northern Exposure people and I have already created one INTERNATIONALLY POPULAR, INFLUENTIAL and copied (you f@ckers!) design. With this original design, I opted to go low-tech and low design. Something that would have actually been created by the small-town fictional radio station for its fans. See below:


Lately, I have been in a Northern Exposure - KBHR kind of mood so I decided yesterday to create a new design for a variety of clothing and other products. One of the things I always liked about KBHR on TV was the late night scenes with the actors illuminated by the neon KBHR sign. So, I wanted a design like that. First I needed to find some resource info, and to the web I went. Luckily, other hugely intelligent people feel similarly about Northern Exposure and KBHR so I was able to find some decent source images from: KBHR Cicely Alaska: Philosophy, Art & Literature. See below:


That in hand, last night I began to recreate the original sign in PhotoShop:

I used the "warp function" to create a scaled and linear version of the sign from the source images so that I could path them to create some high resolution outlines. Once I had the outlines I was able to use color fills and the outer and inner glow functions to create the look of a neon sign. To unify the image as a shirt design, I added the fictional town's name in blue and bordered the whole thing with a red neon frame. A few more details that mimic an actual neon sign and then I fixed the colors and sharpness so they'd translate well to printing on fabric, ceramics, plastics and a variety of other mediums (If you want the step by steps, just write me and I'll give a descriptive outline of the process and steps).

That done I had my new design and it'll be up and available for sale on hundreds of products from Aboriginalz a day or so after this posting, and the Northern Exposure fandom will have one more design to revel in:

I also write a blog loosely based on the KBHR programming model. If you're interested you can find it here.