The Hollywood Sign

When my girlfriend (now wife) and I moved to Cambridge, she got involved in the Darwin College May Ball committee. Specifically, she and three others were in charge of decorations, based around the theme chosen for the ball: Hollywood. During a brainstorming session in the bar I suggested making a Hollywood sign which could be placed on the banks of the island directly opposite the college buildings - at the time I had something covered in small bulbs or LEDs in mind, although thankfully that was dropped for just pointing a spotlight at it. Anyway, as I had suggested it, I was duly delegated to help build it.

After deciding that the letters should be 3 feet tall, we started by cutting out sheets of hardboard to form each letter. The first few are shown drying below.

The plan was to mount the letters above the bridge which connected two of the islands - this would be inaccessible anyway during the ball, and meant we had something solid to fix them to. The first design braced the letters from behind using a couple of strips of wood. I hoped I could get away with painting this black and leaving the letters white, and with a bit of luck no-one would notice on the night.

Two of the committee members carry half the sign to trial fit


The trial fit in all its glory!

In the end I decided the strips of wood would be too obvious, given that we were planning on shining lights on it. So design #2 built up a framework below the sign, and fixed each letter to this framework vertically. The framework could be as messy as I wanted since it would be hidden below the railing of the bridge.


The completed sign, with its proud builder


The sign on the night.