About 25 (+ -) years ago, I was fresh out of the Army, out of money, and out of ideas as for my future. I decided one day that since I was always good in art and liked to paint, that I would become a sign painter. My search for work as an apprentice sign painter led me to a company that needed a designer and not a painter, since they had just purchased a Gerber Signmaker IV and fired the (never sober) painter. Desperate for work, I took the job.
I sat at a drafting table for 8 years designing signs for a staff of 5-6 salespeople. Computers and CAD came into the picture much later after I was hired, and my employer was slow to see the light, as was I. However, I learned a tremendous amount about signs without actually ever making one.
When I moved back to Georgia 11 years ago, my lack of computer skills hurt me and I ended up taking a job as a sign fabricator since I was handy with tools and such. I missed the air conditioning and other perks of working "up front", but again, I learned a lot building custom signs. I worked that job for 5 years and watched that company go broke through mismanagement and an owner that would rather get high than come to work.
Unemployed and unwilling to go through the grind of job hunting again, I purchased a computer and a friend taught me CAD. When I felt comfortable enough with my new "magic box" to be dangerous, I built a small shop next to my house, purchased a used ShopBot, hung a shingle out and never looked back. It was tough going at first, but my knowledge of design, materials and fabrication paid off in spades when the phone finally started ringing. I'm not getting filthy rich, but I never set out to. I just wanted to be happy at doing something I understand and am pretty good at. Six years later, so far, so good.
However, I've YET to put brush to panel, and THAT was my whole intention!
That's my story. Who's next?
[ March 26, 2007, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: Mark Tucker ]
Posted by Adrienne Morgan (Member # 1046) on :
Back in the 80s I was a welfare mom, bored and needed a job...went around the corner to the local sign shop in Sacramento and asked if they ever had need of an artist... They didn't, but they did need a go-fer girl to run errands, stuff envelopes and clean the bathroom. I was able to bring my daughter to work with me too.(it was an all women sign shop) At Christmas they offered to teach me how to paint windows, I took them up on it and after reading a copy of SignCraft featuring a signpainter named Nick Barber I decided that's what I wanted to do! 20 years later I'm still doing windows and also include vinyl, handpainted pictorials and murals. A:)
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
In the summer of 1971, at the ripe old age of 19, this landscaper broke his leg playing soccer with a baseball at a driving range. It’s a long story–besides, I was winning!
A friend who had service contracts for sign maintenance offered me the job of driving around at night spotting signs with lighting problems and calling them in the next day so he could schedule his crews. After I got my foot out of the cast, he hired me on one of his service trucks.
After a year of climbing up and down a 65' Skyhook, I took a job delivering air freight since the hours and pay were better. After a couple of months, the air freight business fell apart and I was laid off. I was about to get married and decided to start my own company, Pioneer Sign Service, since the sign company I had worked for had hired a replacement for me.
I didn’t have a boom truck and had to take the jobs I could reach off an extension ladder, which generally limited me to working with ma and pa operations who didn’t want to spend money on sign repair. Occasionally, someone would stop me and ask me for a new sign. I was always artistic and fascinated with letter styles and gravitated naturally to sign design. The people I built the new signs for were grateful for what I did, rather than grumbling about having to put money into their sign like my service customers were. I decided to work for the people who were happy to see me and just started building signs, changing the name of the company to Pioneer Signs.
I sold that company in 1981 and left it in 1983, establishing A Sign of Excellence.
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
Adrienne, that's a great story. Good for you! It just goes to show, even poverty can't hold a good woman down!
David, I know someone a lot like you. He was good with electrical, and started finding lit signs in need of repair, climbing ladders all day, driving all night, etc. Folks started stopping and asking him; "Hey, can you make me a sign?"
That was 8 years ago. Today he owns and runs a successful sign company near me that employees 10 -12 people in a 4000 sq. ft. shop and has done very well for himself and his family.
Posted by Dan Sawatzky (Member # 88) on :
I've told my story before, but for those who missed it or really want to read it again...
Back in the late 60's my brother won a competition painting a window celebrating a local ski chanpion. He won $15.00 for his efforts... no small sum in those days, especially for a kid. When he showed me the check a light went on in my 14 year old brain. People would pay for this... I'd do Christmas windows!!! I'd never heard of a window splash for I lived in the boonies.
I scrounged up my mom's old Christmas cards (she saved them) and used them for inspiration to draw up a book of designs which I showed the merchants in town in late November of that year... promising to do each design only once. I did one or two windows each night after shcool, up to 4 on Saturdays. Window splash season was short but in those few weeks of business I did over 7$700 dollars that first year... more cash than I had seen in my entire lie... I was rich... and I had hitch hiked the five miles into town to do the work as I was too young to drive.
I was asked to paint signs after that and in the coming years I formed my own sign company called Big Rock Signs after the local sign guy refused to hire me. My signs were horrible but I was learning fast.
In my early twenties I switced to fine art and did well, but I longed for the bigger stuff once more. Historical murals were next on my list of duties during my late 20's and early 30's and have done more than a hundred to date pretty much all over North America. I still do them occasionally.
But flat work was getting boring and as I did my research and learned I found doing 3D work was much more exciting... and in 1992 we formed Sawatzky's Imagination Corporation and concentrated soley on that end of the business.
All in all its been exciting... and beats working for a living by a mile!
-grampa dan
Posted by Michael R. Bendel (Member # 5847) on :
Hope this isn't too mundane!
1985 - It seemed like the only real way to make a living in the "Art" business at the time & had a friend, Mark Nelson, who helped me get enroll at Detroit Lakes Tech. Sign School the next year despite the 2 year waiting list. (Thanks Mark!)
1985 - Went to a full time 2 year course at Detroit Lakes Tech. in Minnesota & learned hand lettering/layout. (Thanks Rod & Bob!).
1987 - Was selected to work in the sign department at a large sign company in Bismark ND. Cook Sign Co. (Thanks Bernie!).
1989 - Then moved to Minneapolis, Mn to do contract work. I got 35% of gross for everything I lettered with 2 sign companies. Bunked in an attic with a friend & his very understanding wife. (Thanks Nate & Tina!)
1990 - Then in early 1990 opened Bendel Sign Co., Inc. in St. Cloud, Mn. I came to town empty pocketed with 6 sheets of MDO on the roof of my van & an open $1500.00 credit card. Rented an 800 sq. ft. shop with 8' sidewalls in a decent location & hit the pavement.
1995 - BTW....All hand lettering to this point & for the next 5 years.
2007 - The rest is history. 8000 square foot shop on a busy industrial street with a 4 year old 4000 sf office warehouse added on to the original 4000 sf shop.
Posted by Michael Boone (Member # 308) on :
Brain surgery was too easy............
Posted by bruce ward (Member # 1289) on :
worked for lamar advertising designing billboards. then they let me go out and paint billboards. then they layed me off. worked for several other shops in the area. I speant too much time on projects to be efficient in commercial shops. last big company I worked for I was layed off with several other guys.....got sick of being let go so I started my own
Posted by Tony Vickio (Member # 2265) on :
Here are a couple of paragraphs from "Lap 1" of my new book.
The effect these racecars had on my brain and the fact that I turned out to be a sign artist, naturally led me to letter racecars. One day, a friend of mine, Don Romeo, told me he was going to have his new '72 Vette pinstriped. I didn't care about going with him until he said, "You might better go with me. I got some beer". "Beer? I'll go", I said. I found myself that night, sitting in this dimly light wash bay of the local Esso Gas Station, owned by Frank Smalley, a local "Hot Rodder". It was located at the end of town, by Seneca Lake. The building is still there today, but now it is a used car lot for Clifford Motors, the local Chevy dealer. We are all sitting around, drinking beer, and watching this guy (Bob Shaw from Dundee, NY) paint freehand pin stripes on Don's new '72 Vette. Between sips of my Genesee Cream Ale, I finally paid some attention to what he was doing. After watching for a minute, I couldn't believe what I was seeing! "This is so cool! This is unbelievable!” I thought.
He had this long, thin brush and he would dip it some paint and stroke the brush back and forth on a palette to get the paint to the right consistency. Then he would gently place his hand, while holding the brush between two fingers, and “pull,” a clean, straight stripe over the rear fender. I actually stopped drinking beer as I watched in total amazement. I remember thinking, “Man, I wish I could do that!” Bob and I got talking and when he was finished, he carefully cleaned his brush. Then, to my surprise, he turned to me and said, while handing me the brush, "Here, go practice". When I touched the brush, I suddenly had this strange feeling that I somehow knew how to do this! Of course I didn’t, but that is what it felt like. The brush felt right at home between my fingers! This is how I started painting. You could say Bob Shaw started me on a new road that would take me places and meet people I could have never dreamed of!
Posted by Patrick Whatley (Member # 2008) on :
Dreamed of going into advertising. Went to school for advertising. Spent countless hours drooling over great ad campaigns. Went to work for two different ad agencies. Lasted less than a month at each one. Realized that they spent most of their time being salesmen.
Had a cousin that knew a guy that was friends with a guy who ran a sign shop. Got introduced, got hired, been here 14 years.
Now I'm thinking about going back into advertising.
Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :
Right out of high school I went to work for a sign shop whose main business was painting paper window sale specials for supermarkets. He had several chain supermarkets under contract, each chain had 30 stores and each store had 10 windows to hang 4'x6'paper banners to advertise products on sale that week. Each week, every week....no let up.
That's a lot of signs....he hand painted most of them, while the crew of 3 got to cut paper, hang it on the easel, remove it from the easel and hang it to dry, package the posters together for each store and ship them.
We got to screen print the multiple orders. The stencil was made by hand painting a paper banner, then the lettering was knifed out and laid on the table and the huge screen was laid carefully over the paper letters and then the ink was put into the screen and the paper would stick to the ink on the back side of the screen. If we lost a letter, we pulled it back out of the printed paper sign and stick it back in place or make a new one.
I still can't believe that system worked...but it did. This guy was fast wit a brush. All the lettering was "cartoony" looking as there was no time to square off the bottoms of letters.
He had a spinning easel set up, so we could cut paper and hang it on one side while he was paiting on the other side. Then he would pull a cord and the spin the easel around. He made the first paper banner and left it on the easle, then put a blank paper banner over the top, so he could see the layout right through the top paper. We could not keep up with him...he would always be waiting on us to get the paper cut and hung on the easel.
He told me I would never make it as a sign painter.
That made me mad. I proved him wrong!
While he was fast at banner ads...he couldn't letter trucks or cargo vans fast, and going from the mindset of high speed paper ad painting to slowing down for a nice job on a cargo van was not his cup of tea! Didn't matter, he didn't have time to do much local work as those supermarket deadlines came first.
[ March 27, 2007, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
Posted by Lotti Prokott (Member # 2684) on :
I wanted to be a gardener, which is a trade in my home country. They took me in for a trial week and didn't ask me to come back. Good choice, to this day everything green that I touch withers and dies. So then I ended up in a sign painter's apprenticeship because my dad had the connections. He was probably just desperate to get me out of the house, but I wouldn't change it if I could! Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
Lotti,
Just stay away from #144 1Shot!
Posted by jake snow (Member # 5889) on :
Well I started out as a drying rack...
The after a couple years I got promoted...
Child cruelty I tell ya Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Well, I was too lazy to work, too afraid to steal, and the NBA turned me down so I went into the sign business.
Posted by Mark M. Kottwitz (Member # 1764) on :
Wow, Memories...
I started out waiting tables after high school, and went off to college. I studied, partied, and did what every other college student did.
After leaving, because my priorities were all fouled up, I moved back home, and started taking classes at the local community college. I was working part time as a waiter, but I started working more, and going to school less. I was really into minitrucks (lowering and customizing) and I joined a local truck club and I was hanging out at a local window tinting shop, and the owner there was getting vinyl from the local sign shop. I started getting all my vinyl for the truck club stuff there.
After I got really tired of waiting tables, I went into the local employment agency, and got a job working at a convience store from midnight to 6 am, and I quit there after 4 days.
I walked into the sign shop later that day, and the owner, Mickey, told me that he was glad I was there. He finished up with his customer, and told me that he wanted me to work for him doing all his vinyl work.
Posted by Anne McDonald (Member # 6842) on :
Mum said I couldn't leave school until I got a job, I was 17, had no idea what i wanted to do so started writing away for everthing i could find in the paper that said 'No Experience Necessary'.
I got taken on by Action Signs, as a weeding assistant. All I did was weed and applicate. The shop was full service and I loved to watch the tradesmen doing their work but I was also intrigued with the plotters and how they worked. I peered over the shoulder of Sarah who did all the cutting and took note of which keys she was hitting. I had been there 18 months when Sarah took seriously ill. I begged and pleaded with the boss for him to let me run the computers. He eventually relented and was so impressed 3 months later I was promoted to run all of the computers. Sarah was sent out to manage a second shop that he had opened.
I spent four years at Action and became jaded after being told I couldn't have an apprenticeship cos I was too valuable on the computers.
I went to work for Academy Signs where I learned how to Screenprint. This was an area that I could get an apprenticeship so that's what I did. Markit Graphics were the biggest firm in town and agreed to take me on. I completed my trade in 3 years and was awarded top apprentice every year and qualified top Tradesperson in New Zealand. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I heard of an opportunity to get back into the sign trade, the chemicals involved in Screenprinting were taking their toll so I headed off to Lets Get Graphic where I am today.
I've done a wee bit of painting through attending Letterhead meets and it is like a fire in my belly. I am on the move in a month to Wellington and will be working for a full service shop once again.
I hope to convince the boss to let me get my hands on a brush from time to time.
When you stop learning you're dead, and I am a long way from dying!!
Posted by Deri Russell (Member # 119) on :
I went to college for Graphic Design. Graduated in '81. Went to work in the big city of Toronto. Liked the work, hated the city. Moved back to small town rural Ontario where there weren't any ad agencies in the mid '80's. Went to work for the Liquor board. As my friends would say that was rather like asking a pervert to babysit your children. Although I worked for the board for 13 years I wasn't a very happy camper. Computers came into the world of graphics. My high school friend Pete Payne (thanks a lot Pete I still blame you!) was at a bar (imagine, me going to a bar, and meeting Pete there!) and I was talking with him one fine night. And he suggested computer graphics. My history was written on the wall. (No, not of the bar washroom!!!) I started Wildwood Signs in 1993. But didn't have the time nor the funds to get back to school so I am self taught and computer oriented. Well not SELF taught - I got my schooling on the Letterhead chat channel, from going to Letterhead meets and from reading SignCraft, Sign Business, Letterhead Magazine and all the rest of the fine sign mags. And from grueling hours of sitting in front of the computer teaching myself Corel at night when my babies were sleeping.
[ March 27, 2007, 03:27 PM: Message edited by: Deri Russell ]
Posted by Rene Giroux (Member # 4980) on :
My parachute didn't open...
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Started taking art classes at age 12, went on to graduate vocational school with a commercial art certificate, then spent the better part of the next ten years pulling squeegees across t-shirts.
In 1988, started doing freelance pre-press work in the are and a few airbrush projects at night.
In '91, I dropped a Harley fender in my shop and traded the repair for lettering on a race car. Before I had the hood finished, 3 other drivers wanted to hire me to letter their cars and the track owner asked for signs.
Been dubbing in the paints ever since. Rapid
Posted by Mark Matyjakowski (Member # 294) on :
Brain surgery was to hard.....
Posted by Richard Flint (Member # 6602) on :
My response is on my earlier post today - Sorry, it's late...don't feel like typing it again!
Posted by Steve Shortreed (Member # 436) on :
I was asked this same question by a sign magazine about 10 years ago. As usual, a simple task turned into an epic tale that took 2 issues to tell the story.
Someday, when I have time to kill, I really need to go and update the story.
There's been 2 additional heart attacks and a nifty pacemaker implant since then. The Letterhead Website is now called Letterville. We have a new Daughter that I never knew existed back then, and 5 grandkids.
[ March 28, 2007, 04:51 AM: Message edited by: Steve Shortreed ]
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
In 1989 as a single dad living in Hawaii, my year-on/year-off custody arrangement was at it's annual transition & it was time to fly my daughter to her mom for their time together.
With two straight-A years under my belt in the Architectural Program at the University of Hawaii, I had been working as a draftsman for a local Architectural firm. I left that place of employment to spend half the summer on the mainland with my daughter before saying our goodbyes for awhile.
Without my daily responsibility as a dad, and being between jobs... I found myself hitching into New York City with a small backpack, $100 stashed in my shoe, an open-ended return ticket back to Hawaii (good for one year), and a phone number of an NYC girl I had allowed to stay at my place briefly back home.
I had expected to stay a week or two, but I was really loving the city for a change of pace, so when the girl offered me to stay 2 months untill her lease was up, I decided to look for work. A friend of hers offered to help me create a resume using MacDraw on his Mac SE30.
I was 30 yrs. old, and had never seen a personal computer. When I watched how he moved text blocks around, aligned things, assigned bold, or italic attributes & changed fonts... it was love at first sight! When the resume was done (showing my architectural experience, extensive wood shop work & a bit of screenprinting) ...I asked if I could play around with MacDraw awhile.
I didn't stop playing around with that program untill nearly sunrise. Later that week I responded to a graphics position at an Architectural sign shop. They felt the architectural,wood shop, & screenprinting background was an excellent combination. They asked if I ever used a Mac. (of course I said YES!)
...and I've been a sign guy & a computer graphics junkie ever since!
Posted by Mark Stokes (Member # 5351) on :
I got busted by the cops doing grafitti. The cops suggested doing signwriting so it went from there.Now I'M thinking of doing graffiti again to get to use some paint.
Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :
A cousin, who knew I'd gone to art school, needed some artwork and lettering on the walls of his store. He called me, and I've been working on lettering ever since. That was 1985. I figured out the rest as I went along, discovering Letterheads thru a magazine and finding this site when Steve and Barb attended my first meet. Love....Jill
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Stokes: I got busted by the cops doing grafitti. The cops suggested doing signwriting so it went from there.Now I'M thinking of doing graffiti again to get to use some paint.
Posted by Bobbie Rochow (Member # 3341) on :
This may sound corny, & that is ok, I have told how I got here on this BB before. To put it shortly, the Lord led me here. Exactly. I can trace Him through the last 15 years of my life directing me & leading me right to where I am today. (should have been dead a long time ago)
I have never been happier, even when times are slow!
Edited to add...Jake I LOVE that picture of you painting! Cool!
[ March 28, 2007, 08:27 PM: Message edited by: Bobbie Rochow ]
Posted by Tony Baggett (Member # 6607) on :
I owned another company in the wood industry and helped a friend purchase an old 4B. He would not pay for it so I started playing with it and fell in love with making signs I could never do by hand for my company. The bug kept it's hold, I've sold my 20 yr old company I founded and now enjoy nothing but great graphics. Busy as can be with our VersaCamm, thinking about getting a second one. Run it like a business and it can be good for you.
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
The restaurant burned down.
Posted by DianeBalch (Member # 1301) on :
My goal after college was to be a ski bum. But I had these loans to pay off so I took a research job in the IC industry. Needing a hobby I started soldering together a computer kit in 1977, and kept buying new ones every year. By the early 90s the computer hobby was too expensive so I started making damascus steel knives. Needing a way to engrave my name I built a CNC router. It didn't work on steel but I made a few signs since I couldn't think of anything else to do with it. I was using Casmate for the router so I decided I might as well buy a vinyl cutter, then what the heck, get a heat press. Of course that led to screen printing equipment. Somewhere along the way Diane became the full time business woman working 7 days a week cranking out sign work. In the meantime the kids grew up went to college and we turned into grandparents. I still play with computers and think about retirement when I can do carved signs full time.
ernie
Posted by W. R. Pickett (Member # 3842) on :
...The devil made ME do it.
Posted by Mike Faig (Member # 6104) on :
Sign Business?
Being in the sign business is where I ended up. I wish I had discovered others who loved this craft a long time ago. I am happy today. A little abstract but happy.
[ March 29, 2007, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: Mike Faig ]
Posted by William DeBekker (Member # 3848) on :
Well lets start from the beginning....
A long long time ago. in a galaxey far far away.......
Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :
Clowing aside, guys, quite a few of us really like reading your stories. I check this post everytime I see a new reply and get a little let down when its just a joke reply.
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dave Draper: Clowing aside, guys, quite a few of us really like reading your stories. I check this post everytime I see a new reply and get a little let down when its just a joke reply.
Ditto...
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I've enjoyed reading others stories as well.
Diane Balch... I was beginning to get quite impressed with your industrious personality, when I finally followed a hunch halfway through & looked for Ernie's name.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Well, joking aside...
Way back in elementary school I watched our local sign painter/town drunk as he lettered a truck for the ice plant that my father managed. We lived next door to the plant and I would bug the signman while he worked on location. I was probably about 9 years old. He never answered any of my questions and just ran me off.
But I was fasinated by the way he could make the brush do whatever he wanted.
All through elementary school I started drawing letters on just about anything that would sit still. While others my age drew horses and war scenes I loved letters. It wasn't long before I was doing all the posters and signs for my classes and even the teachers in other classes.
By junior high I began to paint signs for spending money (still doing that today after 50 years). Most of the local sign guys wouldn't tell you anything and would run you out of their shops if you walked in the door. My brother Wayland (six years older) and I continued to bug anyone that would listen to try to pick up some pointers. We both were painting signs and doing artwork using small half pints of paint from the hardware store and those famous "artists" brushes that you could buy for fifty cents a dozen.
While I was in high school and Wayland was working for the post office, we happened upon Jimmy Coppin who worked at the army base (Fort Hood) near by as a sign painter in the base shop that provided all the charts and graphics for the Army there. He happened to be a member of the same church I attended. Unlike the other signmen we knew, Jim would answer all our questions and even provided us paints and brushes and where to buy them. We discovered quills and bulletin enamel and thought that we had died and gone to heaven.
Also, we found "Signs of the Times" magazine and we were off and running. During my senior year in high school, my brother and Jimmy Coppin formed a partnership and opened Belco Signs, which is still in operation today. Jim died of cancer about ten years ago.
After graduation, I was off to college with no real desire to do anything but paint signs, but I was determined to be the first in my family with a college degree. Jeanne and I married just prior to my freshman year and she worked at a local hospital in order for me to go to school.
The art department at Abilene Christian University was geared toward abstract art and I couldn't understand why nothing looked like it was supposed to, so I decided to become a teacher of science and physical education....and paint signs on the side.
In Abilene, I worked for Art Hodges, doing screen printing and later for the man that gave me the direction of my life, Ellison Edwards. Ellsion was a Christian and also the finest lettering artist that I have known. He took me under his wing and taught me just about everything I know today about layout and design and how to work a brush. He also taught me by example how to be a gentleman and how to treat people with respect.
Finally, in 1968 I received my BSEd (after five years) and began teaching school in Killeen, Texas. I taught on the junior high level and coached a gymnastic team. Even while teaching I was working weekends and summers for my brother at his shop. The teaching career lasted three years.
Finally, it dawned on me that I was spending most of my teaching days waiting for school to be out or some holiday so that I could spend more time painting signs. Even at school I was doing sketches and layouts while the students worked on projects. So, I "retired" and began working with my brother.
Wayland's business continued to grow until he had 23 employees and was fully into electric signs and the service business. My job was to design electric signs and oversee the commercial department, which had five full time sign painters. That lasted for over 20 years, during which I discovered the Letterheads and a whole group of artists that were doing just what I loved to do.
As my work with Wayland became more production oriented and not what I really wanted to do the rest of my life, I decided to open my own one-man shop and concentrate on higher end designs and dimensional signs. That was a little over 15 years ago.
Chapman Design Studio is still in the same small shop and has employeed several part time folks over the past 15 years. Four years ago, my son Mike joined me and we have enjoyed building dimensional signs as our main product ever since.
If you have survived the book....congratulations.
Posted by Arthur Vanson (Member # 2855) on :
Signwriting came free, with my Dad! Sorry Dave, but it really did. I was second coating Dad's lettering almost as soon as I could walk. I've tried other things and had exciting adventures but the leitmotif of my life has been signwriting. I'm now doing something entirely different but my new colleagues and old customers won't let me escape (not that I'd really want to)
Posted by W. R. Pickett (Member # 3842) on :
...After painting a small "No Fighting / No Cussing etc. sign for a bar, I started calling sign shops to see if they needed help. The first one that did put me on a bill board crew as a helper. After a couple years swinging stages, I went to another shop and painted lots of black helvetica copy on white backgrounds. Eventually I found a job at a GOOD sign shop, and finally (really) started to learn about sign making. Along the way I devoured every issue of SOT and eventually SIGNCRAFT that I could find. And when SOT started to have articles about the fledgling LETTERHEADS i had to go to a meet (in '83 in Kansas City) . ...Now, here I am on an internet sign site!
Posted by Tony Lucero (Member # 1470) on :
I ran a family owned carwash after serving in the Air Force for 9 years. Our sign guy painted several carwash menu signs for us over the years. I discovered different signs placed along the driveway could pre-sell extra services as customers waited in line to get their turn into the carwash conveyor. I became very involved in the layout, wording and color themes of these signs and they evolved into a sign system that made us a lot of money. Soon other carwash operators wanted my sign guy to do their signs. Problem was my sign guy was "hard to deal with" so my carwash owner friends asked me to act as a middle man. Soon I was designing and selling signs that my guy would produce. He couldn't keep up so I decided to buy an Anagraph System and a 30" Gerber Plotter. Next came a digitizing tablet and it wasn't long before I was doing part-time sign sales and production for other businesses. We opened up a retail store in Grand Rapids, Michigan sold it when we moved to metro Detroit area. Started up another sign shop in '94 (while running a carwash we purchased). Sold out of the carwash biz in '98 and then went full time into sign biz. Wife and two sons run our main location in a 3500 sq ft facility and I am at a satellite sales and design location 10 miles away. Self-taught for the most part with a lot of help from sign publications and this site. I give a lot of credit to Rick Reigler from Advantage Sign Supply who has given us outstanding guidance and support in the technology needed to grow in this business. Most of all I gotta go along with Bobbie Rochow in the belief that the Lord has put me here to earn my "daily bread"
Posted by Dave Harrell (Member # 1758) on :
Airbrushing tags is how it started for me. I wanted a faster way to produce a airbrush design on a tag, a plotter was the thing I was looking for. It allows me to mass produce line art. Apply the vinyl to the tag, airbrush the color in the lines, a design that took me 10 to 15 min now only takes 5. My first few sign jobs were nerve racking to say the least. 4 X 8 banners some cor-plast stuff and a lot of help from RT. got me through it.
Posted by William DeBekker (Member # 3848) on :
Ok, Sorry Dave.. Here is the actual Story of my journey into signs. (Truth is Stranger then fiction)
It all started right after my Separation/Divorce. I ran my first business into the ground (I owned a Model design and manufacturing Company. Ployurathane Resin Model Tanks and Figurines) as I didn't care anymore about anything. Including life.. Had a Coke, Meth and heroine Habit that I could not support. So I started counterfeiting. Payroll Checks, Government, Temporary Slave agencies and the Likes. No Individuals. Only companies I knew that Bookkeeping was a month or so behind..(Harder to get caught that way. It was amazing what information you could find in a dumpster.)
Ended up I was pretty decent at graphics/design. This went on for about 8 months was making a fair amount of money. One day got a call that one of the people I was involved in got picked up. I knew she would turn me so I dumped all the hard drives and paper. And low and behold a few hours later there was the dreaded knock on the door. (More like a knock and a crash) Spent the next 2 days at the Maricopa County Hilton waiting for Arraignment. They ended up releasing me on OR no charges filed at that time. I finally had enough of that life. Since no charges were officially filed I was free to leave the state (Or so I thought.) I got a bus ticket back to Colorado. Stayed with my parents for a few days. Then got into rehab and started getting my life back together.
Well Now model making is not a huge Marketable skill so I had to find something legal to do. Tada. Signs. (Had experience with vinyl making credit cards so know a little about it.)
Was out job hunting and I walked into a shop that just added a plotter and computer and the owner was on terminal hold tech support. I just started talking to him and he told me he couldn't the program to communicate with the plotter.. Easy fix. I rolled him away from the desk and sat down had the equipment working in less then 5 minutes. Talked a to him a few minutes. He didn't need any help. Well OK fine.. Went back everyday for 3 weeks and just watched, talked and just learned. After awhile he got sick of me started paying some cash for work. Then we decided to officially created a partnership. He was a very talented artist and I was a good at building them. Did that for about 2 years living in the basement or above the shop offices.
Then the other shoe dropped.. I get a call from my Dad. (It was a courtesy call since my Dad was the Sheriff for 12 years) The sheriff had a warrant for my arrest out of Arizona. Now the Second life turning decision I had to make.. My dad said to run as he didn't want to see me in Prison. I decided to pay my dues, so I turned myself over. We did a telephone Extradition and posted bail, promising to show up in Phoenix for my Court dates. Well 3 months later Plea bargained it all out with the DA but Jail time was to be determined by the judge. Was looking at a possible 2 to 7 years.
Sentencing day. Thank God for letters from the Police and Rehab Counselors here. The Judge flat out told me and the DA there was no sentence that would make anymore difference then what I had already did for myself. 3 Years Probation, 40 hours Public service and consult the Police on other counterfeiting cases.
Came back to Colorado and Built up Rush Signs until my associate snapped and started his own Drug Habit. This was not going to fly. Major Knock down Fight Christmas Eve 1999. Went back a week later. He sold the business from under me and stuck me for 40k.
Great NOW What do I do. The people who bought the shop called me a few weeks later and offered to pay me cash for a few weeks training on the equipment.Being Flat broke again I Swallowed my pride and whet over to MY old shop to train them.
Come to find out that this wonderful former partner of mine was telling them I was stealing from the company etc. And since my history wasn't the greatest they were very cautious of me.(Ok understandable giving the circumstances) After a few weeks of them getting to know me and them going over the books they realized that it was a load of crap. Well that few weeks ended up being a year.
Jan 8th 2001. My future Father-in-law Had a Heart attack and Passed away. We went to Valentine, Nebraska to take care of all his affairs. We decided to stay there and Started Valentine Signs and Graphics with 20k. Bought our Shopbot, Summa Plotter,Signlab and became a letterville resident. (Suckup Points) Ran it from a 400ft Garage. Stayed there for 2 years then decide to move back to Canon City to be closer to Family.
Started This Company "The 3rd Dimension Sign Company" in Sept. 2003 and as they say the rest is history.
These events span the last 16 years of my life. Someone upstairs was watching out for me and I will never forget that and I thank him on a daily basis along with Mom and Dad(May he rest in peace knowing his son pulled his head from the four point of contact) and to the Greatest Person to ever enter my life,(outside my Kids, Kati and Micheal) my Wife of 5 years now Glenda for sticking by me through all this.
I have mended my relationship with my Children and Just pull out my hair watching them grow. My daughter Graduates HS this May and My son is gonna start driving. May god help us all.
Sorry for such a long post but my travel into signs was just more then "I met a guy who taught me." It was a journey of growth and self awareness. I think that is why I love this business so much. Its who I am.
Posted by Jon Jantz (Member # 6137) on :
Bill, that is truly inspiring how you successfully turned your life around, and I think you should have a movie made of your life...
Posted by Kevin Mann (Member # 7161) on :
After my three year stint in the Army I came home and tried security, it was worse than the Army. Next was Circle K-graveyard. There I lettered all the signs in the store. The windows, walls, Beer coolers,etc. Finally the Manager complained that I wasn't stocking and cleaning. So I struck out on my own,working part-time at a local sign shop. Roger the Sign-tist--he loved design and hated lettering (perfect for me I loved lettering). For the past 25 years it has been (most of the time) my sole occupation. Painting remains my passion, it's a great life.
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
Wow! Some great, amazing and even inspiring stories! Even the simple stories are fun to read and think about. I hope everyone chimes in as everyone's story is different and says something about how we all got where we are, wherever that is!
Posted by Steve Vigeant (Member # 439) on :
Somehow John Hodgins found me off this board and asked people to tell there snapper stories for a book he was compiling. I got carried away and wrote 10 pages. It got me on on a roll of writing about my sign experiences to this day. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of my tale. In 1974, I started painting signs for my Dad's realty company. I was 14 years old. He figured that since I could copy comics well, that I must be able to paint signs. Throughout my high school years I painted 4’x4’ lot signs on provided plywood for $12 per sign. I copied out each identical sign in pencil from a small model, without realizing what a ponce pattern was! After a few years, with a dozen of these signs under my belt, I was given the honor of repainting an old "Welcome" sign on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell NJ. I was home from college over the summer of 1980 and I was volunteered by my Dad who was a Rotary member. The sign had side wings with lots of lettering, including the imposing words "Birthplace of Grover Cleveland Alexander." I was not really a sign painter at this point, I only knew how to repaint an existing sign if I could still see the letters through the new coat. While I was working on this tough but high profile sign, a man named Frank with greasy hair and a moustache pulled over to me with his old sedan. He assured me that if I could paint signs. “He'd get me so much work that my arm would fall off.” My ship seemed to have arrived. He would bring me panels and even One Shot paint, which amazed me because I didn't know that there was paint especially for painting signs. On one occasion I went in with him to deliver one of "our" signs to a local candy store. The client didn't know that “the artist himself” was in the back pretending to look at post cards. First, I overheard the client complaining about the price, a figure that was actually $5 higher than "my dealer" said we were getting. It was obvious the client hated the sign. He said, "for 40 bucks my 8 year old daughter could do a better job than this" And he threw him out. (Ironically, the sign that his daughter did is still on the building after 21 years. It's looks like each letter is in a different font, a sort of orange and green ransom note that says, "LOTTO, Quick Picks." Occasionally Frank would drive me to a location to work. I would find myself in out of the way places in ethnic Jersey that I had never seen before. I felt so grown up seeing the world through the rolled down window of his beat-up car. One day he took me to a butcher shop somewhere along old Routes 1 & 9. On the way there he made a big deal about how important this job was and how great a job I had to do. I nodded, but I still planned on drawing out the lettering with pencil when I we got there as usual, maybe a little neater? I had no idea how to plan a job in advance. I didn’t snap guidelines nor had I ever heard the word “font” at that time. I would get out my pencil and start drawing out block lettering. My goal was to get all of the letters on the sign and centered. For this job I thought some style was called for so I deployed my latest trick, which was rounding off all of the letters at the terminators, in this way I rendered them as a sort of poor man’s Helvetica Round.. I was busily laying out the sign in this way, when I looked down and saw that frank was nervous. The sign didn't look right. In fact it was so bad that the client had already called me off the job. He told me that he didn’t blame me, but that Frank was a real loser. He made a point of paying me something, and told me not to give Frank anything. It slowly dawned on me that I was being used. It wasn't long before he disappeared leaving me with a few IOU's in the process. He probably left for Florida to do "sign work", the kernel of an idea that would change my life.
Posted by Steve Vigeant (Member # 439) on :
quote:Originally posted by Steve Vigeant: Somehow John Hodgins found me off this board and asked people to tell there snapper stories for a book he was compiling. I got carried away and wrote 10 pages. It got me on on a roll of writing about my sign experiences to this day. Here is an excerpt from the beginning of my tale. In 1974, I started painting signs for my Dad's realty company. I was 14 years old. He figured that since I could copy comics well, that I must be able to paint signs. Throughout my high school years I painted 4’x4’ lot signs on provided plywood for $12 per sign. I copied out each identical sign in pencil from a small model, without realizing what a ponce pattern was! After a few years, with a dozen of these signs under my belt, I was given the honor of repainting an old "Welcome" sign on Bloomfield Avenue in Caldwell NJ. I was home from college over the summer of 1980 and I was volunteered by my Dad who was a Rotary member. The sign had side wings with lots of lettering, including the imposing words "Birthplace of Grover Cleveland Alexander." I was not really a sign painter at this point, I only knew how to repaint an existing sign if I could still see the letters through the new coat. While I was working on this tough but high profile sign, a man named Frank with greasy hair and a moustache pulled over to me with his old sedan. He assured me that if I could paint signs. “He'd get me so much work that my arm would fall off.” My ship seemed to have arrived. He was impressive. He told me that he once met a woman in a dentist office waiting room that was so taken by him, that he had to plead with her not to jump him right there in the office. When I told him I was worried about the draft, he reassured me that there were several ways around that. He said that it was easy to avoid the service if you acted really crazy. What he did, for example, was let the hammer of a gun down on an officer's finger. And when he was called in about it, he would go on bizarre tangents that proved he should never have been in the service in the first place. He said to the investigating officer, "You know Sarge, most people don't care about little pieces of paper that they see flying around in the wind. But when I see them I feel so bad for those little pieces of paper. They look so lonely, I feel just feel terrible for them." I thought I could never be brave enough to pull that off. He would bring me panels and even One Shot paint, which amazed me because I didn't know that there was paint especially for painting signs. On one occasion I went in with him to deliver one of "our" signs to a local candy store. The client didn't know that “the artist himself” was in the back pretending to look at post cards. First, I overheard the client complaining about the price, a figure that was actually $5 higher than "my dealer" said we were getting. It was obvious the client hated the sign. He said, "for 40 bucks my 8 year old daughter could do a better job than this" And he threw him out. (Ironically, the sign that his daughter did is still on the building after 21 years. It's looks like each letter is in a different font, a sort of orange and green ransom note that says, "LOTTO, Quick Picks." Occasionally Frank would drive me to a location to work. I would find myself in out of the way places in ethnic Jersey that I had never seen before. I felt so grown up seeing the world through the rolled down window of his beat-up car. One day he took me to a butcher shop somewhere along old Routes 1 & 9. On the way there he made a big deal about how important this job was and how great a job I had to do. I nodded, but I still planned on drawing out the lettering with pencil when I we got there as usual, maybe a little neater? I had no idea how to plan a job in advance. I didn’t snap guidelines nor had I ever heard the word “font” at that time. I would get out my pencil and start drawing out block lettering. My goal was to get all of the letters on the sign and centered. For this job I thought some style was called for so I deployed my latest trick, which was rounding off all of the letters at the terminators, in this way I rendered them as a sort of poor man’s Helvetica Round.. I was busily laying out the sign in this way, when I looked down and saw that frank was nervous. The sign didn't look right. In fact it was so bad that the client had already called me off the job. He told me that he didn’t blame me, but that Frank was a real loser. He made a point of paying me something, and told me not to give Frank anything. It slowly dawned on me that I was being used. It wasn't long before he disappeared leaving me with a few IOU's in the process. He probably left for Florida to do "sign work", the kernel of an idea that would change my life.
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
wow, Steve, You must be one heck of a brush slinger by the way you write!!!! as for me...it all started out in the Florida Keys when I lived with my dad in 71. I was a fine artist and interior design major taking a break from college. There, was asked to paint the huge pirate sign (4 4by 8's). I found out quickly I didn't know what in the world I was doing, and then decided one day I "would" learn. There was nothing I didn't not want to know! Later, in south Fla. I hooked up with the old timers on the walls, combining my graphic drawing and painting skills and the rest is history!!!! signed, luving it for 35 years, baybee!
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
Nettie, Sonny, Dusty, Joe Crumley, old paint, Jon Jantz, Wayne Webber, everybody,...let's hear it. Don't be shy now! :-)
Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
Wayne.......Webber?
Mark, It all began when I was about 3 years old. I drew my aunt a pretty picture on the wall of her bedroom. The rest is history.
I spent countless hours drawing things, mostly horses. Won the poster contest over the whole grammar school. SOmeone gave me a carving set when I was bout 10. I carved a horse's head on a stump. Art class in Jr. High, other kids made clay pots...I sculpted a clay horse. After kiln firing day, my art teacher informed me that my horse was destroyed by another kid's pot or something, that blew up in the kiln. But he asked if he could keep my horse as he seemed to be quite impressed with it. In high school, plane geometry class, we were to design a stylised picture, using lines and points....mine was...you guessed it...a horse. About this time, my dad got me a horse And I still have some of those horse drawings from way back.
Also in high school, when I drew a scetch of my chemistry teacher, he asked to keep it. I forgot about it until 27 years later, when my teacher came in the shop with the picture he had kept all those years. He wanted me to have it. I thought that was cool.
My future pa in law was opening a restaurant and needed a sign painted. I sketched the letters out by hand onto the plywood and painted in the lines. I had never heard of a pounce pattern, OneShot, or Helvetica....but it looked like Helvetica
Got interested in woodworking in high school shop but never had much tools at home. After I was married, some routed cedar signs were stolen from the resort where my wife worked. Of course, they needed new ones and my lovely wife, LynnDee told them "Wayne can do it". So Wayne did it. I made pencil rubbings of the letters and logos I needed from some of their other signs, took them home and transfered the patterns to my cedar blanks, glued together with recorcinol took a $25 Black and Decker router and routed out them signs. Then LynnDee painted in the ltters....which she still does now....22 years later. Made $1000 off those first two 2x3 signs, ca-ching sounds went off in my head and I set off to pursue my fortune in the sign business!! After that, I bought Patrick Spielman's book "Making Wood Signs" in a Sears and Roebuck store and in that book, learned about a magazine called "SignCraft" which in turn informed me of the existence of a phenominon called "letterheads. After making signs "on the side" for several years, I eventually got up the nerve to quit the factory and go full time. That was 7 1/2 years ago and thanks to you guys here, I have learned more than I could ever imagine. And y'all have gotten me out of jams, and kept me from making major booboos more times than I could count.
[ March 30, 2007, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
Haha, sorry about that Wayne....
Great story, a lot like mine in many ways. I always loved to draw and still do. Cartoons were always my specialty and lately I have found a lucrative market for that. "You mean you'll PAY me to do this?" Posted by Wayne Webb (Member # 1124) on :
It's Ok! I always admire someone who can draw cartoons... That is a REAL talent!
Posted by Janette Balogh (Member # 192) on :
Hi Mark,
On the Letterhead Profiles section of this site is my profile. It's current up to about 1998 I think. It's a pretty loooooong read tho! I tried to keep it interesting. hahaaa http://www.letterhead.com/profiles/nettie/index.html Soon after that profile, I changed the description of my company from "Sign Studio" to "Creative Studio", and started doing more graphic design type jobs.
Then came my website, and I started dabbling alittle bit into web design.
A couple years ago I added a digital printer in the mix, to keep things interesting. hahaaa
Never a dull moment! ~nettie
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
been doin signs since i was a kid....but did all the "jobs" crap.....woke up one day in 1986 after being fired from a pontiac dealership parts dept...by a 21 yr old kid who told me the rason i got fired is i was INCOMPETANT!!!! imagine that....i looked at the kid and siad i got more yrs WORKIN....then you got livin....and you tell me this now!!!! gee.....was then i figured i was done workin for people who was DUMBER THEN ME....and dug out my brushes, and have never had "A JOB" since!!!!!!
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
I actually got into the sign businss doing graffiti as a kid. The same stores I "tagged" as a kid ended up paying me to do the side walls of their businesses. and it went on from there.
Posted by Kent Smith (Member # 251) on :
Born in and will have to die to get out. Been doing revenue work for 52 years this June. Just recently discovered that both great and great-great grandfathers were wheel-rights also doing pinstriping and lettering on the wagons and carriages they built. Must be in the genes.
Posted by ChuckCoupland (Member # 67) on :
aguy ask me to paint some golf torni signs.. I did odd jobs whileworking 3 jobs.. I had 4 kids.. So I said I could, when I really did not have a clue..first job was 200 signs that I hand drew and painted with one shot. .. One thing lead to another.. bought a trailers worked out of that a little, then rented a 1200 sq ft hole in the wall for 5 years...learned as I went,, fast forward to now.. Own my own place 5200 sq feet 10 offices and a big wrehouse, 6 employees, gearing up to build nest door another shop. have to work from 9am till most of the time 12 midnight.. do not regret any of it.. I love my job.....I only work one job now...but I think the business now owns me..LOL
Posted by Mark Tucker (Member # 6461) on :
Bumping for more great stories! Posted by Serge (Member # 3645) on :
My ex's were responsible for me getting into the Sign Business. "Behind every sucessful man is a very surprised woman" Posted by Nancie W. Phillips (Member # 3484) on :
Someone saw me doing calligraphy in high school...
Posted by Jason Davie (Member # 2172) on :
Somebody told me-- Its so easy a caveman could do it, So I started making signs..
Posted by Kathy Lowry (Member # 7353) on :
An ad in the local paper for businesses for sale in 1991. I didn't jump into the sign business unkowningly. I had 10 years of printshop experience...everything from customer service to layout and design. It was different but not that different. I just wish when I was in college I had majored in an art curriculum. But as I tell some of my customers when they see me weeding and working on customer logos...hey! why did I need a college degree to do this, I'm utilizing my kindergarten cut and paste skills!
Posted by Jackson Smart (Member # 187) on :
Great stories....
I just sort of fell into this gig. ....of course this is the condensed version.... I was working for a retirement complex as a maintenance supervisor. We had a billboard in town that was worn out. So I brought it in to the shop and started to clean it up. About this time a friend from my past life came up here with her daughter to escape her crazy ex-husband. She had worked at a sign shop before, so I asked her to help me out on this billboard I was working on. She said sure. I watched in total amazement as she lettered the sign with these long brushes. Of course I had to try this out myself. I was hooked. It was all I could think about. About this time, the manager was fired for embezzelment and I had to work for the homeowners association. That didn't last long...they were all retired folks that didn't really have any idea about running a retirement complex. Enough for me...adios. I suggested to my friend Brenda (the sign painter) that perhaps we could open a business doing signs? She agreed and off we went. Jackson's Signs was officially born. Now...remember, I didn't know squat about signs but was more than willing to learn if she would stay and teach me. She agreed..again. We started out in my basement...me out selling and fabricating...she lettering. I started out with 500 business cards and some brochures...and hit the streets. What a learning curve that was. We moved from the basement to a garage. We stayed there for 6 months and soon grew out of that. I found a very cool place right down on the harbor...it was an old carraige house that had been upgraded. It looked right out on the water. It was built in 1896. It had some real history to it....it had it's own resident ghost! The perfect place to really start doing some signs. Well...Brenda stayed for a year. I learned as much as I could from her about lettering. When she left....I was lost. I remember standing at the easel with a brush in my hand....looking at several signs with a lot of copy...thinking to myself... how in the hell am I ever going to be able to do this...when all of a sudden it hit me..."jackson, you know you can do this"! I did it. The paint just flowed off the end of that brush like I had been doing it all my life. What a moment.
I have never looked back. I stayed at the carraige house for 6 years. One of the best things I did was to get involved in my community. It is a fact that what ever you give to your community...your community gives back tenfold to you. My wife Dianne has supported me in this venture...without her I would have given up years ago. It was several years of making just enough to survive...we still had 2 kids in school. We made it thru that time by all of us supporting each other. I remember several years of having just some pocket change...that was it.
Now we have a great place outside of town. A 1200 sq. ft. two story shop and a house on an acre of land with a mountain view that takes your breath away. Dianne came to work with me 11 years ago. We now do custom work that WE want to do and turn the rest away. We don't really work too hard...we play a lot and live a great life. Life is good. I wouldn't change anything. Success is the nature of your journey...not the end result. I have been at this gig for 22 years. I reckon I will die here....then someone else will have a turn.
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![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
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The rest is history.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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I tried to keep it interesting. hahaaa http://www.letterhead.com/profiles/nettie/index.html