Any good alder plaque tips?

[Gregg Vaughn]

I just finished a couple of jobs that involved about 50 6 x 8 alder plaques. Both jobs had artwork (a 4-H logo and a FOP logo) as well as text. The plaques look nice without colorfill, but I wonder if there are techniques to give them that "something special." I have never played around with gray scale when burning logos on alder, just used 100% black for the text and logos. Has anyone found tricks for alder that makes the plaques really stand out?

[Joe Pelonio]

Try shadows on the letters, with a 75% black (grayscale) fill. Alder and other softer woods can also handle 3D well, if you have or can create 3D artwork.

[Dee Gallo]

If you have some veneer, it's really easy to cut out a pocket and inlay using the same outline of whatever you like. Even a simple circle or square in a contrasting darkness would stand out.

[Gregg Vaughn]

Thanks! I'll try all those ideas out.