UBB.classic™ 6.7.2
------------------
PKing is
Pat King of
King Sign Design in
McCalla,Alabama
The Professor of
SIGNOLOGY
For you, and your sign biz, the ideas you've expressed are o.kk and work well. I'm sort of like you, the sign painter/ artist that does what he can to get the job done.
But there are others among us that generate income by designing, and their work needs protected and respected.
The standards that apply to one person have to apply to all.
We have people in this area, and I'm sure you do in your area, that are designers only. They don't make signs, they don't paint walls or trucks or use vinyl. Many make their living doing newspaper ad work
ups. They are also very good artists and copy layout designers. They don't work up a layout first to see if the customer likes it.
They don't give their work to the customer so he can take it down the road to the next designer and get a quote or do the job.
My point is that if these artists can get paid and their work is respected and protected, then the same should hold true for sign people who come up with the cleaver, artsy phartsy layouts slapped on a a truck or business sign.
The design people know they don't have to produce a great looking layout first to sell a job.
Sign makers, on the other hand, seem to make the layout first to sell the job, and then have it ripped off!
So, the proper procedure is to sell a job based on your past good work. Quote the job first, and if accepted and you get some money up front, then produce the artsy phartsy layout, refine it with the customer and, do the job. The price of the job includes the design time, and since the job is created for the client, he has the rights to use it where he wishes.
The ones who get their layouts ripped off and cry about it always seem to be the ones who to have to prove to the world they are a great sign/design artist. They feel they just can't sell a job unless they can see the customer's eyes light up and a smile on their face. It's like they crave that "pat on the back" to boost their ego. So they spend hours trying to design something out of this world with no idea if the customer will actually buy it! These guys are just feeding their ego, and not feeding their family! It's just so hard to make a living these days and operate a business that way!
------------------
Go Get 'Em..... :)
AKA Raptorman on #Letterheads mIRC Chat
Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA
Proud 2-yr. $upporter of this Web Site (May 1999-May 2001)
One night at the races I noticed a large inclosed sprint car trailer all lettered up in vinyl. The name of the owner and the word racing underneath it BIG, at least ten feet long. The word "racing" was unmistakably MY SCRIPT just as I had lettered it. Somebody had lifted it of something I had lettered or a t shirt and scanned it then cut it in vinyl. Flattered,.......... wish I could say that was the feeling I felt. Violated was more like it. I don't remember giving anyone permission and although this car owner was a former customer I had never lettered the word racing on any of his stuff. Took me years to get over that one, about as long as it took to develop the script 
I imagine it took the "artist" who did the trailer all of ten minutes to "develop" the script. Sour grapes on my part.........perhaps. At the time it just didn't seem fair to be ripped off in that way. Years before I used to see some of my letter styles showing up on cars out of Little Rock, the sign guys over there were copying some of what I did. THAT I took as flattery as I realized there was EFFORT going into what they were doing. They were incorporating my styles into their own layouts with their personal touches, not a rubber stamp method.------------------
George Perkins
Millington,TN.
goatwell@ionictech.com
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
------------------
PKing is
Pat King of
King Sign Design in
McCalla,Alabama
The Professor of
SIGNOLOGY