Mike and Nancy Ford look at the world differently now. A simple walk may get the couple no farther than around the block. Zipping across state? They’ll take the back roads, thank you.
The change came over the couple when they began making artistic letters out of inanimate objects, including nature, objects and buildings.
“It’s a sickness,” he said with a laugh. “It can be fun, but we look at things completely differently now.”
Finding letters in inanimate objects — noting that light poles resemble the letter I, for example — has turned into a lucrative hobby for Ford and his wife, Nancy.
For the past 3½years, the Fords have dabbled in “photo word art” with Creative Grafix, their steadily growing business.
Photo word art is just as it sounds — words comprised of pictures of letters or objects that look like letters.
THE IDEA for Creative Grafix came in 2008, when the Fords were in Nebraska to visit former Iolans Jim and Melanie Behrens.
The Fords were in search of a house-warming gift, “but Jim and Melanie are a couple that’s hard to buy for,” Nancy said.
Knowing the Behrenses were wine connoisseurs, Mike and Nancy came up with a novel gift — A photo comprised of the letters W-I-N-E. For the letter I, the Fords used a wine bottle.
“They loved it,” Nancy recalled, as did other friends.
The Fords created signs for a few other friends, and as word spread, so did their desire to turn their photo word art into a money-maker.
They took a few pieces to the 2009 Artist Alley Festival in Chanute, and the strong demand convinced Mike they could further expand.
They did so during family vacations, frequently driving cross country, and eschewing large interstate highways when possible.
Doing so took the Fords through the heart of scores of communities from coast to coast, where they could look for letters.
The Fords looked for more than words on signs. The Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., when viewed from directly below, resembled a perfect O. The edge of a sea wall barricade in Key West, Fla., made the letter D. Praying hands can be photographed at such an angle to resemble the letter A.
The photos offer another distinction between the Fords’ work and other similar artists.
“Each of our letters has a story,” Mike said.
To illustrate, customers are eager to get the letter T after they learn it came from a cross at Arlington National Cemetery, Mike said. Or a letter painted on the side of a building in downtown Iola.
Now, the Fords’ children are getting into the act, pointing out signs with unique lettering, or finding inanimate objects that resemble letters.
“We’ll catch ourselves doing it all the time,” Nancy said.
WHILE THE concept is hardly new, the Fords have taken a methodical approach to their craft, emphasizing the art of the letters.
The Fords estimated they’ve taken thousands of pictures of signs, letters or whatever.
Mike does the bulk of the photography, although Nancy is the braver of the two with a camera.
She was shooed away by guards as she photographed a star at the gate in front of the White House in Washington — “I had to take that picture in a hurry,” she laughed — and had to lean around the edge of the Key West sea wall barricade to capture her letter D.
Nancy does the digital touch-ups, cropping and cleaning up anything to distract from the letters, then resizes each so it will fit in a 4-by-6-inch frame.
They’ve accumulated more than 700 letters in all from the thousands of pictures they snapped.
THE LETTERS are then affixed to mounted cardboard squares tacked onto pine strips.
The Fords learned early on to pre-fabricate forms for the mounting project, cutting and painting dozens of pine strips in advance. (Think of an assembly line for picture frames).
What used to take 5 minutes or more for a single picture frame could now be done in seconds.
“We would take forever measuring to make sure each letter was mounted at the right spot,” Mike said. “Now we know exactly where each letter goes by using the forms.”
The Fords travel to as many as 25 arts and crafts shows a year, primarily during the fall festival season, although they’ll appear next weekend in Oklahoma City.
They create several signs in advance, with words such as “faith” or “love” to be sold at several stores in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas and Arizona. They’ve reached agreements with 38 stores, and counting, to hawk their creations.
Mike acknowledges that as Creative Grafix grew in popularity, so has the number of potential competitors.
“So, we’re always looking for ways to get better,” he said.
That’s when the Fords turned to old barns for their next inspiration. They’ve purchased and meticulously disassembled a handful of area barns.
“Barn wood is great because it already is aged, and no two pieces are exactly alike,” he noted.
Special prints are made for the barn wood frame pieces, using a single photo of the letters instead of individual photos for each letter. And instead of black-and-white images, Nancy gives the barn wood pieces a sepia tone, giving them an aged appearance.
“It’s quite attractive,” she said.
WHILE CREATIVE Grafix has become “more than a hobby,” the Fords are not ready to retire from their regular jobs any time soon.
Mike is the community resources officer for the Iola Police Department; Nancy the public relations coordinator at Allen County Community College.
“This is something we do in our spare time,” Mike said. “When you have two girls in college, and the knowledge that you could be paying for two weddings sometime soon, finances can be a little tight.”
Mike also noted that Creative Grafix’s boom came when the rest of the country was in the midst of a recession.
He points to the affordability, and uniqueness of his creations.
Creative Grafix pieces are for sale locally at Classy Attic and Sophisticated Rose in Iola, at TLC Garden Center in LaHarpe and Gunlock and Gleue Designs in Le Roy.
Purchases also can be ordered online at www.creativegrafix.biz, via email at greative_grafix_ks@yahoo.com or by calling 228-1214. The Fords also have set up a Facebook page.
