Lettering in a field on a hill, to be seen a mile away !!!

[Harry Cleary]

How big are the letters going to be? Have done this before using photos taken from an ideal viewing distance, having first left a marker that you know the size of. Marking out involves a lot of measuring from a known right angle. If that makes sense. I cut a template to keep all the stems the same width and didn’t get too elaborate or adventurous in the design.
You can get ‘grass friendly spray cans that are designed to spray upside down. Will try and track down the ones I used, they are similar to the road marking cans.

[HarveyShaw]

Thanks for the reply. I had thought a block font would be best, maybe grid it out with string.

Think those aerosols may work out very expensive !! Might see how much a bucket
of water soluble paint will cost, so it is not permanent and no lasting damage.

Someone also suggested using straw bales !

Harv.

[Harry Cleary]

What size Harvey?
I have also seen it done by mowing the grass very very tight, no damage to the field.
Water soluable if you have the right conditions will work short term too, but grass will take a full growing season to recover.

I have often thought grommeted sheets of cheap banner material could be pegged to the suface too, if it’s just block letters and for a quick impact.

[Brian Carey]

or spray off the grass with round up, it will go orange but grow back again in time! 🙂

[Simon Worrall]

Maybe it will get on google earth next time they pass over.

😀

[Mike Grant]

Buy some cheap white plastic dust sheets used to cover your furniture when you decorate. Easy to cut or fold to shape and pin down with tent pegs or similar.

[Denise Goodfellow]

you need a friendly football pitcher groundsman, mark it out like they do on the pitch.

[Chris Wool]

put sheep food down in the shape of the lettering, then let the sheep out.
put some lights on there backs and a moving display at night.

[Peter Geddes]

Hi Harvey,

First thing to consider is the overall size of your text needs to be. if you were looking at the text ‘front-on’, i figure the minimum height you would need would be 1cm height for every metre of vertical distance. To make the sign really noticeable at 1 mile, you would probably need about 4 times that. Therefore at 1 mile, I calculate you would need text with a vertical height of at least 6.4m (20′). I would also look at testing this by looking at a 20′ tree from 1 mile away – You may decide the text needs to be even bigger than that.

Next problem you face is that, on the side of a hill, your text needs to be much longer in order to achieve an apparent height of 20′. How much higher depends on the slope of the hill. On a hill that rises 1 metre for every 4 metres horizontal, you would have a rise of approximately 15°. In order for your text to appear 20′ high, it would actually need to be about 82′ long! On a hill that rises 1m in every 3 (approx 20°) your text would need to be about 63′ long.

You then need to carefully plan your text, ensuring vertical components are normal width, but horizontal components are much deeper. I would give consideration to planning a test at 1:4 scale (or similar) and checking how it looks through binoculars. If you don’t get the perspective right for the main job, you may have difficulty changing it.

To plan the edges of your text, I would look for a high-quality GPS (approx 1m resolution) to plot the corners of each letter. Trying to do the job the old-fashioned way with a tape measure and compass will really test your resolve.

Considering how to print your job, try to avoid anything that might blow away, or be sabotaged by revelers. The grass paint they use on football pitches is quite cost effective (I’m referring to using the wheel-along applicators, not spray cans), but although they don’t do the grass any harm, may not be so good for any sheep eating it. You will need to check with the manufacturers. The good this about the pitch paint is that Farmer Bob’s field will be back to normal in a week or so.

Hope this helps.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I saw this done once, at a Letterhead meet. I think they used cheap latex house paint but I can’t remember how they applied it.
Love….Jill

[HarveyShaw]

Thanks for all the replies, some just a touch more sensible than others.

Got till June to sort things out, but waiting to find out what kind of budget is involved
to see which is the best way forward.

Will need to budget in new wellies and sheep dung cleaning equipment !

Priced a banner 50m x 50m and it came out at £19k !!!!!! Reckon it would take some holding down.

Might be easier to paint the sheep and get them trained to stand in the right place. May be even able to get to look like a scrolling message.

Harv