When I came up in the sign biz, there were wall dogs. I worked with one on weekends, Ray Matheson. Lettering walls was all he did. He knew how to rig all kinds of stages on ladders and swinging. There were stucco and brick and corrugated (vertical and horizontal)walls. There were certain letters for different types of walls.
My problem is that when I see folks doing a sign on MDO or another substrate and then affixing it to a wall and referring to it as "Walldog". I think it's just painting a sign. Walldogs did lettering on walls. Sometimes there was a pictorial incorporated in it. It was different than a mural. It advertised a product or service like a sign, but the person doing it knew how to work big from a place where he couldn't step back to look at it.
Please help me gain some perspective. Pun intended.
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
WALLDOG........was the guy who painted all the barns across eastern pa/ohio CHEW MAIL POUCH!!! and those who did this same type painting are WALLDOGS. hangin a MDO SIGN on a wall, covering a wall with vinyl D O E S N O T make you a walldog)))) over on 101, people over there call laying some text in a box........A LOGO))))) they also call stickin vinyl to a wall a MURAL)))
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Hey Joe, I read someone asking "how do you know when it's fall in Florida?" and the answer was "when the colors begin to change...on the license plates."
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
we had a bit of fall the week the hurricane hit texas. was so nice here . days 75-80 nites 60-65.
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
In my opinion your perspective is dead on the money. I did a lot of walls in the seventies and early eighties, the horrible deep set mortar on the bricks, and these lovely corrugated metal ones but I never used and falls or rigging other than ladders and a plank so I was never a true wall dog. Bolting a plywood sign to a wall is not wall dog work, it's installation.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
I saw a job recently where there are three to four foot tall letters high near the top of a second story wall with horizontal v-groove siding and vinyl letters. The rigging to do this certainly would be wall work. I'm glad there was no wind for whoever did it. It looks great from down below.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Rick ...
I doubt that any Walldog rigging was required!
A Scissors lift, or a zoom boom would have made short work of it!
Lol! Nothing like being on one 60 feet up in an 80 footer because you have to reach over another smaller building!
Sure gets jiggly like the end of a fishing pole
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Si, there is no such equipment around here, and they would have needed to straddle another building in a very awkward way. Most of it would have been from ladders on a lower roof.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
The only time I am comfortable being 50' in the air is when I am sitting in an airliner waiting for take-off!
Which we will be doing at 6:30am on Monday...heading to Mexico for the 21st time!! (another 7 months of living in paradise!)
Still available by phone and e-mail.
Viva Mexico!
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Dave, I hope you two enjoy your winter. Do you still have any contact with Monte?
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Unfortunately, we haven't been in touch with Monte or Pat for several years.
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
Maybe the person who paints sign substrate with a mural painted on it should be refered to as a SignDawg?
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Seems like there should be clear definition describing differences between wall signs, murals, and street art.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Seems like there should be clear definition describing differences between wall signs, murals, and street art.
Posted by Brad Ferguson (Member # 33) on :
Rick,
I first heard the term 'wall dog' in the early 70s when I was coming up. The person using the term applied it to sign painters who did mostly big work–—walls, wall-mounted bulletins and highway bulletins, and who used cutters and fitches more than lettering quills, and who were often not good enough to do small work. When he called someone a 'wall dog' it was usually not complimentary, like the term 'knock out,' as in, "he's just a knock-out."
For example, "So-and-so was a wall dog for years, but he finally became a good sign painter." Or, "You can tell he's just a wall dog. He uses a two-inch cutter for practically everything and it's not pretty."
I got the impression from him that many guys got their start as wall dogs as it did not require a lot of brush-finesse.
I never knew whether this understanding of the word was the general consensus or just his viewpoint.
.........
And, of course, word meanings evolve. Language is dynamic rather than static. What is correct now may change later. A dictionary is not so much an arbiter of what is correct as it is a guide to current standard usage.
I remember explaining to people that a 'billboard' is made of posters but a painted display is a 'bulletin.' Now, if you say 'bulletin board' most do not know what it means.
And then there are terms like 'wall wrap' to go with 'truck wrap' and 'van wrap.' I've even heard 'floor wrap' and 'window wrap.'
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Brad, I knew wall men that could also do finely gilded windows. Some days they wore coveralls and some a suit and necktie. I only knew a few like that though. Wall guys knew rigging. They knew how to set a stage or a combination of ladders. They often made a grid drawing on site and worked where there were no projectors and it might be too windy for patterns. Their trucks were usually a mess and their concept of organization baffled me, yet they usually knew where everything was and got the job done before they left. It always seemed to amaze me how they knew what it would look like to the passer by far below and far away and they couldn't go down to look at it as they worked. Layouts happened in sections and got painted and then the stage was moved. In the end it all fit together.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Lol Rick!
That described me when I was still working!
[ October 12, 2017, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: Si Allen ]
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
This topic brings back a memory of Tim Barrow. Several years ago Shirl and I drove down to Jimmy Chatham's meet in Commerce GA. We picked up Timmy at his house in Winston-Salem on the way down.
Timmy liked to talk and he told us stories of his earlier days as a billboard painter. (Lot's of interesting anecdotes about working on billboards out in the wilds of the south, including snakes and hornets and prickly plants and other nasties)
He was proud of the days he did that work. BUT Timmy was also one of the many very talented sign painters I was ever priveliged to know.
RIP Timmy Barrow.
Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :
Timi spent a week working on a detailed painting in our shop that was about 5"x8".
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The only time I am comfortable being 50' in the air is when I am sitting in an airliner waiting for take-off!