Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Costume making, prop building and other '66 Bat-related arts and crafts.

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Ben Bentley
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Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Ben Bentley »

A bizarre title for a thread, huh? I thought so too.

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A few weeks ago whilst my girlfriend and I were making our way around a maze even more deviously designed and far more complex to navigate than Catwoman's (or "IKEA" as everyone else seems to call it), I was called over to where she was standing and pointed at an item on the floor and promptly looked at me and waited for my face "light up"...

We were looking at IKEA's "PS 2017 Floor Lamp".
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10333800/
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Now let me be the first person to point out the obvious; no it's not an exact replica of the Bat-Signal we saw in the '66 TV show and feature film, but with it's Art-Deco styling, the added charm of its sheer size and the fact it came in Navy Blue, my Bat-Customization Cogs started whirring immediately. This otherwise seemingly never ending trip to Swedish-furniture-Purgatory was infinitely improved by the fact I was now hopefully on a few simple steps away from having my very own Bat-Signal in my home-office.

After un-boxing, assembling and positioning the floor lamp where I had envisaged it living, my first step was to decipher whether or not the accompanying front panel would sufficiently allow me to somewhat project a Bat-Signal onto the sloping ceiling of my home office. A few failed hand shadow puppet performances later and I decided that the existing front panel was slightly too thick and the finish most certainly too frosted for my purposes.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6916.jpg
Living on the top floor of an apartment building and having neither the garage space nor tools to fabricate the parts for my project, I set about measuring and subsequently ordering a custom-cut replacement front panel for my lamp in 3mm clear acrylic plastic.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6948.jpg
The next step was to figure out how I was going to create a TV style Bat-Signal logo to adorn the front of the lamp. It's a reasonably well known fact that I cannot draw to save my life (heck that's why I take pictures for a living). During our initial conversations in the car en route home from IKEA we initially flirted with the idea of Jess hand-painting straight onto the panel. As we grew closer to home and put an increasingly pleasing amount of miles between ourselves the aforementioned furniture metropolis, the idea shifted towards creating a decal or vinyl of some sort instead perhaps. Having given it more additional thought over the following days than I should probably admit, it occurred to me that there were potential implications of the warmth from the lamp eventually interfering with the adhesive of a decal. I decided that the more permanent and far cooler-looking option was to have the Bat logo also cut out in acrylic plastic.

Scott kindly took to Adobe Illustrator and digitally re-created my desired Bat-Signal logo from a Blu-Ray screen capture of a Bat-Spin.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6910.jpg
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6908.jpg
From here on in it was just a case of drilling the five appropriate screw holes in relation to the original front panel and then assembling my new custom made acrylic components with some terrifyingly heavy-duty glue, that no doubt had the capacity to very well haunt you in your sleep.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6917.jpg
My finished Bat-Signal ready for display.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6987.jpg
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6935.jpg
If you'll continue to grant me some further Bat-poetic-license, I figured what better way to turn my Bat-Signal on and off than via my Shakespeare Bust.
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-7012.jpg
Bat_Signal-Project-Board_Res-6999.jpg
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Scott Sebring
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Scott Sebring »

Sweet!
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Meule
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Meule »

Now that is friggin cool for sure
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by batfan1705 »

Awesome! (I wonder if my wife would let me....)
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floatinjoe
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by floatinjoe »

That is absolutely awesome! You did a wonderful job on this. Could you post a picture of the image projected on the wall/ceiling? Have to see if this is something to pursue.

Mike
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by BATWINGED HORNET »

That is so nice! Slick conversation piece.
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Chazbat »

LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!!!! Well done Ben!
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Batman65 »

HA HA HA... I FREAKING LOVE IT!!
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Dan E Kool
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Dan E Kool »

Great job! Thanks for posting all the images, as well. The final product looks fantastic. Almost makes me want to go to IKEA... Almost.
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Batfanman »

Ben - this looks awesome! Have a couple questions - in some of the photos above (referenced here) there are 2 Bat gobos and 2 lenses. Confused about what is happening there in relation to the final product - can you elaborate and also, did you have to paint the gobo black?
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dell
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by dell »

That is cool. I may need to make one for myself
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Ben Bentley
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Ben Bentley »

Thanks for all the kind words folks! Glad you're digging it.
floatinjoe wrote: Sun Sep 24, 2017 4:11 pm That is absolutely awesome! You did a wonderful job on this. Could you post a picture of the image projected on the wall/ceiling? Have to see if this is something to pursue.

Mike
I'm afraid Mike, based on the physics of the size of the lamp/Bat logo - I don't actually have any interior walls which are far enough away from my light-source to properly project the Bat onto. When debating the practicalities of this, I decided that I preferred being able to use this a room light and enjoy the size of the Bat logo I produced as a display piece rather than a "working" signal.

That being said, IKEA do make a smaller scaled desktop version of this same lamp. So in theory you could do the same but in smaller scale yielding a lamp that might be a more realistic sized projected signal indoors.

Here's the smaller version of the same lamp: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10349617/

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Batfanman wrote: Mon Sep 25, 2017 5:26 am Ben - this looks awesome! Have a couple questions - in some of the photos above (referenced here) there are 2 Bat gobos and 2 lenses. Confused about what is happening there in relation to the final product - can you elaborate and also, did you have to paint the gobo black?
Sorry for any confusion - In the photo below we see the original frosted lens that came boxed with the lamp that I subsequently replaced. The lens to the right is in fact the clear lens you see on my finished product, except covered in a factory fitted blue protective film to prevent scratching and dust etc. Likewise the Bat logos were cut out in high-gloss black acrylic but were delivered with a protective white film that is peeled away once assembled. No painting needed!

I put together two of these and used them in different stages in the photos to illustrate the steps. Hope this helps!

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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by Batfanman »

Thanks, Ben!
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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by burkestudio »

This reminds me of how much the "1966 Batman" is engrained into our subconscious. So much so that a place like IKEA can spark the imagination with such creativity.
Fantastic execution!
Bravo Ben!!

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Re: Ben's IKEA customized Bat-Signal

Post by floatinjoe »

Ben, I might have to look into a smaller version. Still think you did an amazing job.
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