Here at Seattle Makers, we’ve given a lot of thought to what we value as an organization; how we want to interact with each other, with our members, with the community, and with the world at large. Because we’re all very visually-inclined, it wasn’t just enough to have a list of our values buried in a spreadsheet (as much as we love a good spreadsheet). No, we needed a visual representation of our values that could live in the space and be easily referenced.

Yes, we could hand write it on a piece of paper and tack it to a wall. Yes, we could type it up and add some dazzling graphic design. Yes, we could laser etch it into wood and hang it up. But we’re makers, by jingo, so none of these were quite enough.  Too simple, too boring, too bland.  We needed texture!  And color!  But how?

The answer came in the form of masking.  Why masking? Great question. Really great. Keep reading.

We masked a sheet of plywood, and laser etched it on our Black Cat Labs laser cutter.  After it was etched, we pealed off the outer masking, leaving only the individual letters masked.

Now we know it’s hard to tell (because the masking is exactly the same color as the plywood), but each letter you see in the image above is covered by masking.  Out comes the spray paint.

As you can tell by the end of the video, the spray paint completely covers up the lettering.  And that, my friends, is why we mask.

Put together a scraper, some fingernails, masking tape, and ten minutes, and BAM!  Gorgeous, crisply outlined lettering.  All that was left to do was string the values together via the incredibly high-tech, time-tested method of paperclips.

The finished product is happily hanging next to our thermostat.  Come see it in person and learn how to make your own.