Art is meant to convey a meaning.
Sometimes that meaning is metaphorical, or even in the eye of the beholder. But the meaning of the art Carol Van Sant and her team create in UGA’s Sign Shop is quite literal.
“Whether you’re making a painting or a sign, you’re conveying a message,” said Van Sant, graphics supervisor at the Sign Shop. “It is essentially visual communication.”
Van Sant began creating art as a child then continued as a student, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting and a second BFA in studio arts from the Lamar Dodd School of Art. That creative spirit has always been inside her.
“I was born to make things,” Van Sant said. “There are a lot of ways to apply an artist’s skillset.”
After some time working at the Georgia Museum of Art as an assistant preparator, Van Sant took a position doing graphic design work for a local sign shop. In 1989, she started her own sign shop with a friend, which she ran for about 24 years. Their first customer was UGA’s Sign Shop, which did not have in-house computer graphic design capabilities at the time. After years of collaboration, the person running the Sign Shop encouraged Van Sant to apply for the position upon his retirement, and she’s been part of that team since 2013.
“I thought, ‘Well, you never know what’s going to happen in life. Let’s get that resume ready,’” she said. “Although I wouldn’t have said I wanted to make signs or grow up to be a sign maker, having done it for many years because it puts my talents to use, I find it to be a really amazing challenge.”
Van Sant leads a three-person team that produces and installs a wide variety of signs for the university in Athens and at satellite campuses around the state. From building identification signs to ADA signs, traffic control signs and parking lot signage, she ensures that sign needs are met with precision and creativity.
“To me, the most important part of my work is keeping the message consistent,” she said. “Anything I put out on campus needs to look professional and well-crafted with accurate information.”
The shop follows UGA campus signage standards, which details the required consistency in color, font and design. First, it visually defines campus boundaries — people know they are on university property simply by the style of the signage. Second, it provides a coherent and consistent wayfinding system across campuses, ultimately facilitating campus navigation.
“Just by the consistent design of being brown and black and having the Aquarius font, visually defines the boundaries of campus,” she said. “Without actually being aware of it, you know that you’re on the University of Georgia campus.”
Van Sant realized early on that a desk job wouldn’t suit her need to be active. At the Sign Shop, she not only gets to coordinate the fabrication of the sign projects, but she also gets to plan the installation of the signs so that they are suitable for the topography of their intended sites.
“As an artist, you’re a planner and a maker, which is a rarely combined skillset,” she said.
Her work can be seen all across campus — from the brown and black building identification signs to the lettering around the rotunda inside the Miller Learning Center.
“It’s not just a coaster with a message on it. It can be an entire environment like an airport. When you stand back and look at the whole airport, part of the reason it either is or isn’t attractive is the signage, the visual communication. It’s also an important part of the reason the structure functions well for its purpose,” she said.
Van Sant continues to create pieces of art on her own time in her pottery studio and kiln and encourages other artists to explore the many unique ways to employ their skillset.
“I hope that an art student might see this and understand that there is more than one career path open for artists. There are a lot of different ways to use art training,” she said. “I enjoy being part of a team that works to support campus. It’s gratifying to be able to use what I learned here to support other students’ learning.”