Can someone explain this? I've given up trying to understand why everybody uses very faint grey type on webpages, but USAToday has THIS for a news story about Obama ordering air strikes against the ISIS:
[ September 11, 2014, 03:32 PM: Message edited by: Dennis Kiernan ]
Posted by Dale Feicke (Member # 767) on :
You see this kind of crap everyday, Dennis.....in magazines, TV ads, etc..
Don't have a clue as to who the genius was that got this phenomenon started.
Posted by Bill Lynch (Member # 3815) on :
Apparently light grey is the new black
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
I have a theory but people are watching... LOL!
Posted by Donald Miner (Member # 6472) on :
This is what happens when you hand someone a computer and tell him or her, that they are as of right now, "A Graphic Designer." I once met a cab driver, who had traded a fare for some lettering brushes, and the very next day he came to me seeking employment, as a sign painter, because he had all of the brushes. Oh Well! Sometimes I think it is enough to drive an insane person nuts.
Posted by Shirley Carron (Member # 2446) on :
Well gee, Donald... ANYONE can paint signs like a pro if they have the right brushes!
Posted by shon lenzo (Member # 1364) on :
I remember some of my first experiences with brush lettering. I went into a sign shop, with an attitude.l After all, I was an ARTIST and ILLUSTRATOR. This hand lettering stuff was nothing! I can DRAW dammit! So they handed me a brush, and said paint FOR SALE Which dies have about every shape. I quickly realized it was nothing like oil painting. Then I got the job at the state fair, and did learn to hand letter.... Yes, now everyone with a computer, thinks they are an instant artist...but it just ain't so
[ September 13, 2014, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: shon lenzo ]
Posted by Dale Feicke (Member # 767) on :
We used to have some local dude, a fireman, who would come in the shop and nose around. He was always looking for a way to make a quick buck. He came in one day, and said "One day, when I'm off, I'll stop by for an hour or two, and let you show me how to paint a sign."
Needless to say, that never happened; and he went into the screen printing business....and then the quickee sign business. That, almost anyone can do.
It just amazed me at his initial arrogance.
Posted by Tim Barker (Member # 4209) on :
Had a delivery driver come in the workshop one day when i was hand lettering truck, Ah! signwriter eh! My brother does that, all gold leaf, he paints with, aint got none of them fancy brushes though, does it all with dogs hairs lashed to a stick!. Now thats a craftsman!
Posted by shon lenzo (Member # 1364) on :
Maybe they don't WANT you to know what it says? A new sort of...unclassified classified? Saves Obama from lying as much?
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Back in the day, someone would come up while I was lettering from a pounce pattern and say, "Well, anyone can do that - you have the letters already drawn on there." I would hand them the brush. Only one person actually took it...and handed it back after trying to make one stroke.
Or the ones that came up and told me about a sign guy that never put those lines on there - just walked up and started painting.
Posted by Bob Rochon (Member # 30) on :
That's about effective as the dude in the picture.
Posted by shon lenzo (Member # 1364) on :
Raymond.... The sign painter who painted without a pattern... Really did exist (once upon a time) I learned from an old timer who could do that. He just put a single pencil stroke about where the center of each letter would go, usually at a slight angle.... Then just went right down the line , Painting it all in perfectly. Could be fifty feet long, he would always get it right. You don't see that much these days. I told him I was very impressed... He said to me.....'bah!' "After you have been doing this for forty years, You will be able to letter without a pattern too!!"
Posted by Dale Feicke (Member # 767) on :
Trouble is.....we had a guy like that, up in Cincinnati, years ago. He worked for Barq's Soda Pop company, and went out and put store names on Barq's Root Beer signs....like Coke and Pepsi did.
He'd just put on a line or two,and start painting. But toward the end of the line, the letters would get tighter and more condensed; and then really squished at the right end.
And I kid you not, we had a small family grocery in our little suburb, where he actually ran one and a half letters up on to the wooden border/frame of the sign. It was like that for years, until the store closed.
Posted by shon lenzo (Member # 1364) on :
That was the amazing thing about the state fair guy. Because he put little slash marks where each letter was later to be painted, he always got the spacing right. It was very impressive. He could go fifty feet down a banner this way, It was always spaced well. Due to the pencil slashes. I have never seen another person like him since then.
