We wanted something like a shop sign for part of a service. It should be an overhead sign of conspicuous size, with a title ( in our case, "PHRENOLOGIST" ) displayed clearly. However, it should also be present for just a short segment of the service, and not entail any significant sceneshifting activity.
We devised this collapsible sign, which worked very well. The green bit is string; in fact, it's two strings, so that the sign is both supported and prevented from moving forwards or backwards. The poles were bamboo, and tidier than shown in the drawings; any thin rigid straight things will probably do.
The sign itself was painted on fairly stiff brown paper, and fastened round the poles with glue. It was sufficiently rigid not to crumple when the sign was in the "stowed" position.
( Click the picture for a separate version. )
This is how it unfolds from the stowed position :
( Click the picture for a separate version. )
We used this sign in one of our services :
2006 October