The Letterville BullBoard: Is signwork the thing you've allways wanted to do

This is topic Is signwork the thing you've allways wanted to do in forum Letterhead/Pinstriper Talk at The Letterville BullBoard.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.letterville.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/30242.html

Posted by Jeremy Paul Taylor (Member # 4441) on :

Just wandering how a lot of you fine & talanted people got started in this trade ?

To me it was something i became interested in as an apprentise Decorator! i served my time back in 1983 & my boss at that time was a signwriter!
nearly all the shop fronts in the small town i lived in where lettered by him!..

I soon became really interesed in signwriting & while at college i learnt how to (draw first)& then paint Gill sans & trijan roman

That was basicly all i learnt on the lettering side of things at that time !
I've sinse been back to college & learnt the computer & vinyl side of the buisness & have recently bought myself a plotter
I'm still decorating but tend to mix it more now with signwork!

Jeremy T...

Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :

I wanted to be a Ballerina.

But "Art" is so much more fun!
Love...Jill

Posted by Jerry VanHorn (Member # 4704) on :

Jill, you look like you could build one heck of a girly chopper.

Posted by Kevin W. Betz (Member # 4133) on :

I didn't have a choice. When I was 13 my dad told me that it was time to stop wasting my time watching T.V. and to start learning. I wish I did not get into the Craft that way. So much pressure was emphasized on my learning Lay-out that I didn't really appreciate the finer points. I was not allowed to use the computer until I could prove to my Dad I could Design, Lay-out and Letter a Sign to his approval. I guess that is why I love the Idea of grabbing a stabilo and doing a chicken layout and lettering a Sign. But, it was all worth it. The feeling of a pencil and Lay-out is the best feeling I have found for Freedom in Lay-out. This is what I want to provide at the Gold N' Oldies Meet. All good Ideas start with a renderation.

Posted by Jerry VanHorn (Member # 4704) on :

I only make signs to pay for my habits.

Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :

NEVER wanted to be in the sign business at all...Furthest thing from my mind as a young lad.

I wanted to be a gigilo just like Steve!!!

He didn't make it and neither did I. [Roll Eyes]

So I did a whole bunch of other things until I found out that I could actually make a living doing what came naturally to me....As little as possible for the greatest amount of money!!!!!!!!!!! [Applause]

I decided to make signs and Steve decided to develop LETTERVILLE!!!! [Applause]

We did good HUH????? [Dunno]

Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :

Was looking to be a comic book penciller or rock drummer when I was in high school...didn't work out.
Started doing signs for lack of any good paying jobs around here...part time at first.
Went full time, gave it up for a year, and got back into it more or less because people thought I was good at it.

Now I paint the comic book characters for fun, smack the drums from time to time, and get paid to do something I enjoy...slinging paint.

Wild ride, but I wouldn't change a thing.
Rapid

Posted by Harris Kohen (Member # 2139) on :

I wanted to be a Gigolo just like Steve and Dave wanted to. But I found out there wasnt enough money in it to buy dinner at McDonalds. So I took up other career paths one of them being pinstriping nad graphics.

I still dabble in the fine art of Gigolo, but the pay sucks more than the customers.

Thank God I have a real paying job to pay for my hobbies.

Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :

I've wanted to do nothing else since I saw an old man lettering a dump truck in a field when I was 11.

I got my first "job" cleaning a sign shop when I was 14.

Worked off and on in small shops from then til I was 19.

Secured a 5 year apprenticeship when I was 19 and never turned back.

I've worked in high volume production shops hand lettering everyday...all day long.Been a sign salesman (not the best)...estimator...foreman...and production manager for as many as 30 people...now it's just me and the wife and I must say it's my favorite stage of the business.

Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for... [Wink]

I never regretted it til computers came to the fore...but have learned to live with them...otherwise I have only one real complaint.

I wish the boss would learn to take more time off! [Smile]

Posted by Rovelle W. Gratz (Member # 4404) on :

Wanted to be a sign painter since I first stepped into a Sign Shop in 1962.

I told Charlie Jones I would work for nothing to learn, but he insisted I take something, so I settled for 50 cents an hour.

I worked there for about 4 1/2 years and luckily the pay got better.

Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :

Jilly,
Great picture...Always wondered what Stevo looked like before he shaved his chops...

Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

No....!
I just wanted to do art of every kind.
Being the poor soul that I happened
into, the sign painting was a way to
make real money.
Now, I do my art and run a shytehouse
little shop at a university and I'm ok
wid'it.
I'm doing tons of art after putting it
on the shelf for thirty five years and
totally stoked to the max.
Not selling any art but I don't give a
damn about that either.

CrazyJack

Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :

I began pin striping as a Trim Liner at the age of 16, and got my feet wet. I worked at other ventures to support the sign business, but, the fact of the matter is I love this business! 10 years ago, I gave up all those ventures, and stepped out onto the ice. [Dunno]

At times, it crackes beneth me, other times, the water is fully visable. But, say what you will, its a crazy, unpredictable business, and I cannot see myself doing any thing else! [Cool]

Oh, and Jill, you have too much time on your hands! [Cool]

[ July 29, 2004, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :

Nope I never thought I would end up in this kind of work.

I'm kinda of a weird breed though - part "artist" (prefer "designer") and part engineer.

I've always had an artistic and creative side, had all the art related classes that highschool and college had to offer, but geared my "real" learning towards the engineering side of things. Started off studying aerospace eng, switched to electrical engineering halfway through (a switch determined by all the lay-offs at Mc Donnel Douglas and Boeing at the time) then got a job at an architectural engineering firm so I switched yet again cause I liked that work at the time. I finished out my degree in that field (Structural).

One day I decided to lay out a paint design on my jetski and a few hours into it I was absolutely sick of cutting paint mask by hand. I thought "There HAS to be a machine that can do this monkey work"

I went online and spent a few hours searching. I didn't actually know if there were such machines and I certainly didn't know what they were called if they did exist, but I eventually found them.
I started off just cutting paint masks for my own paint projects (customizing friends cars and trucks, RC cars, etc) when a friend suggested that I sell the stuff.

So, here I am....

Posted by Jeremy Paul Taylor (Member # 4441) on :

Went off to work early this morning & thats me just logged in.

WOW all these reply's!
What can i say but thanks everbody for all your posts! I've really enjoyed reading them all.
Its a funny old life tho,i dont think that anyone really knows what they really wanted to do when leaving school..for me i was just offered an apprentiship & went into it with very little thought..if the truth where to be told..
but i suppose i have been quite lucky in the fact that i soon realized that i was enjoying what i was doing & still do to this day ..

Keep them coming folk's

Jeremy T....

Posted by Marty Happy (Member # 302) on :

My teenage plan was to go into journalism. One day my father brought home a weathered old sign board from a cattle auction he worked at and asked me to repaint the lettering. I was 14 at the time. I kinda enjoyed doing that. Before long word spread around my backwoods agricultural community and I was painting signs regularly and when I graduated it became a full time business. What 18 year old kid wouldn't love being self-employed!

I was hooked! I ended spending a little time in the advertising departments of an agricultural manufacturer and a daily newspaper for a time but I'm back in the sign biz to stay. Like a journalist I'm still informing the public, but in a different media and using few carefully chosen words.

UBB.classic™ 6.7.2