you know you are a letterhead when your name is...
Richard Bustamante
just wanted to say i enjoy your posts.
your painting technique is too cool. ("too cool" is a terminology we used back in the early 70's for "thinking" beyond the box, it still stands.)
thanks richard for showing us your "stuff"
mark
sorry for the post edit, i forgot to add parentheses to the word "thinking"
[ September 30, 2002, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Mark Fair Signs ]
Posted by Mark Neurohr (Member # 2470) on :
How bout, when....
You've been to your first meet. Learned lots of new stuff, and have sooo many vinyl jobs already lined up, that ya can't practice what ya just learned (%$#^&*#@$^)!!
Signed: Frustrated
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
...ya can't tell by looking which is your coffee and which is the paint thinner. ...and when ya taste them, ya still can't.
...A guy wants to swap his Mercedes for your truck, and you won't.
...Friday night, Saturday night you're happy painting signs.
...All your furniture consists of milk crates.
...You blow half the rent money on an Atkinson book.
...You take your vacation on the weekend instead of between weekends - in order to attend a meet.
...You repaint your truck with One Shot.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Those are GREAT you guys!
Reminds me of when I was growing up and my father's studio was in the back of our house. I remember people coming over, taking a sniff of the paint smell and saying - how do you live with that smell? All I could think was - what smell? Probably explains a lot!
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
You might be a letterhead if... you,ve always secretly wanted to put a flame job on your lawnmower..... you go camping for a week, and decide to take some brushes along "just in case"..... your wife wants to know how her good dish towel got in your paint rag bin.... you ever wondered what kind of paint they use in Singapore.....
Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :
You always 'eyeball' all your measurments first just to see how 'good' you are.
You never take the time to change out of your new jeans when painting~ (thinking you won't spill) therefore you never have any jeans without paint on them.
When your sandals get paint splattered on them you just spray paint them black to try to make them look good again.
You check out the lettering on the vehicle before you check out the dude who is driving. (this is soooooo bad!)
Posted by JoAnna Nouis (Member # 2838) on :
You know you are a Letterheads wife...
When there is paint on your dog!
When you automatically check the seat for wet paint before you sit down in a car!
When you are not suprised by razor blades in your dryer!
When you have more than one paint can opener in your kitchen utensil drawers!
When you have paint already mixed to match your carpet, to cover the paint that gets spilled or tracked in!
When you have painted your nails with One shot!
Posted by Richard Bustamante (Member # 370) on :
You know you're a Letterhead when: you use vinyl screening ink to paint a new vinyl top on you car.
You know you're a Letterhead when: you can mix paint better than the guy at Home Depot.
You know you're a Letterhead when: you notice the "A" needs to be kerned into the "R".
You know you're a Letterhead when: you find the silkscreen elmulsion in the refrigerator.
You've maight have guessed this post is along the theme of Jeff Foxworthy's "You know your a redneck when..." I find by your responses that the overwelming similarities is what keeps us coming to this site. Family; so to say.
Mike>>> Thank you. I would very much like to see "Mark Fair's "Sign of the Month"" again. I always looked foward to them. To see what others have created is welcomed, and feeds the imagination.
Kimberly>>> The snipits of family life with Dad is refreshing. Thank you for sharing.
Richard
Posted by PKing (Member # 337) on :
a Letterhead when..... You desire to teach others
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
...when you offer helpful hints to your competition.
Posted by Linda Silver Eagle (Member # 274) on :
You know you're a Letterhead when you have this dialogue with your children:
Child - "Mom, that's a PULL sign on that door not a PUSH sign!"
Me - "Honey, I don't read them, I just make them!"
Also, if you have a "stay in your room after 9pm" rule, so you can get banners done that night, in the hallway.
Posted by ScooterX (Member # 2023) on :
... while your house is burning down you're checking the edges of the flames to see if they really ARE purple...
... you grill the guy at the paint store about the MEK content of their spraipaint...
... you plan your summer around opportunities to travel to out of the way towns in economically depressed areas just so you can paint signs at a Meet...
... you try to rub out the bubbles on a badly applied graphic, on a truck you're walking past...
... you shoot some bullet holes in your door panel just so you can try to match them with the airbrush...
... you're proud that you have friends who are pinheads...
... your refrigerator has more stripes and flames than a dragster...
... you take the kids to the doctor and ask to keep the tongue depressors...
... you can see the difference between 1-Shot Bulletin black and Chromatic black...
... you can tell the difference between Fire Red and Vermillion... by taste...
... you only clear the dishes from the sink when you have brushes to wash out, and you only vacuum the floors when you have a banner to lay out.
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
Most of your conversations start with "you know what's wrong with that sign?"
When someone mentions a different state, town, country from yours you immediately think of which letterhead lives there.
All of the clothes you own fall into 1 of 2 categories. Painted and Not-yet-painted.
In any given month, you spend more in the tools aisle at Lowes than you do on groceries and utilities combined.
You haven't seen a newspaper in weeks, but a new sign magazine comes in the mail and stand at the mailbox reading it.
You yell at your husband for driving too fast.. cause you want to study the signs.
You can't find a pen to take a phone message but there are 7 stabilos in your dining room.
You don't know the name of the restaurant you had supper in during vacation, but you know it's the one "with the nice carved and gilded sign that needed a little more burgundy to tie it to the building better".
This website is your homepage. Posted by timi NC (Member # 576) on :
You go into the bank to cash a clients check and find you have every color under the rainbow of pencil/crayon/stabilo in your pocket but no pen to endorse the check,...I just tellem they let me use my crayons today,but won't allow me to use pens,....
Posted by Scot Reedy (Member # 3297) on :
When you park at the very end of the parking lot next to a custom car just to see who done the work.
When you park at the end of the lot so every on on the road can read your logo on the van
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
...Your phone messages are writen with a quill.
...Every time you put your glasses on you knock a pencil off your ear. Or two.
...You back into the street to take a picture of a sign and cause a traffic problem.
...You get a ransom note in the mail, and correct the spelling.
...You back up to admire your work and fall off the catwalk.
...At your 40 year high school reunion you meet a guy that you don't remember 'til he says "I had a lowered car with 'Miassam Dragon' painted on the side." Then you go "Oh, sure! Richard - Condensed Roman on the green '53 Merc! Hi."
these are good. And so true! - you guys are killin' me with laughter, Richard, what took you so long to think this one up? ha ha ha
[ October 02, 2002, 06:26 PM: Message edited by: Mike Languein ]
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
My whole childhood, my father drove me NUTS when we were on vacation because all he wanted to do was take pictures of signs. I thought my mother and I were going to kill him when we went to DisneyWorld.
Well...this summer, my husband and my daughter and I went to this old ghosttown up in the Sierra's here in CA and what am I doing? Walking around taking pictures of all the old signs to post here and show you guys. I looked at my husband and said "Oh ****! I've turned into my father!"
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
The "Letterville" Letterhead Member Rating System ....
You check out the Bull Board every day!
2x You check out the Bull Board every day AND log onto the Letterville Chat Channel via Mirc!
3x You do both before and after work!
4x You even sneak in at lunchtimes!
5x The only time you are not in either place is when you are on the road to a Letterhead Meet!
hahahahha I had to do the 2x thing cause the post wouldn't let me put that many smiles on it!
But we are all smiles here anyway
Posted by Laura Butler (Member # 1830) on :
You know you are a Letterhead when
...the rust hole in your truck is covered with matching vinyl.
...the only p-king duck you know of is covered in spots and has a gray pony tail.
...attend a meeting of a national organization and take a board rather then be....bored.
...you belong to a world-wide organization that has no officers.
...the only way to get your husband to do what what you want is to hire him.
...you tell your family that you can sandblast your own headstone before you die.
...you roll up scrap weeded vinyl and make life-size animals for Christmans presents.
...you don't have to shop for that shirt that says that special something...you just make it.
...you wardrobe shop in the S&S Sportswear or Sanmar catalogs.
..you remember which toothbrush is yours because its got the pink and purple flames.
[ October 02, 2002, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: Laura Butler ]
Posted by Robert Thomas (Member # 1356) on :
You spend 30 minutes re-kerning all of the copy on an 18"x24" quickie sign.
You like the smell of turpentine.
Hanging out here is more important than quality time with your mate.
Letterhead meets ARE your vacation.
All of your freinds are letterheads, you can't relate to anyone else.
Gold leaf dust is all over your arms and you show it off.
You are up at 12:45am on the BB when you should be in bed.
[ October 03, 2002, 12:45 AM: Message edited by: Robert Thomas ]
Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :
You know you're a letterhead when you simply can't get bored with what you do.
When every person who walks in and wants to be remembered just has to mention what the job was and then the memory is instantaneous, no matter how many years ago it was.
When you are aware that your shop eats exacto knives and they could be lurking anywhere, so you never reach into anything in the dark.
You know you're a letterhead when you can truthfully say - yes! - to just about everything you're reading here, identify, and not find it in the least astonishing, while you take a slug of coffee that has an oily ring in it, again.
You know you're a letterhead when this thread in a "sweet and sour way" provides guffaws, belly laughs, shaking of the head and almost tears, and you know you are understood and not alone.
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
Your friends don't tell you "You have gold in your hair..." they just smile when they see it. They know.
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
Bulls Eye, Myra !! In the 10 ring.
Posted by Scot Reedy (Member # 3297) on :
When you stir your coffee with any old brush handle, pencile ,pen on your desk.
( I just realized it when I had done it this morning)
Posted by John Deaton III (Member # 925) on :
....when you fart, it sounds like vowel sounds. aaaaaaeeeeeeiiiiiioooouuuuu...... Posted by Chris Lovelady (Member # 2540) on :
when you use the oil from the side of your nose to clean a smudge from the sign your working on.....with your shirt tail.
chris
Posted by Stephen Faulkner (Member # 2511) on :
When you "Pallet" your french fries in the ketchup
Posted by Wilson Ardmore (Member # 3230) on :
You know your a Sign geezer, when your last grenade has the name of two or three nasty looking underdeveloped A-Boards (from a car lot, furniture store and a spa outlet ) and you've lettered the grenade in a distasteful Old English just for spite.
You remember those buttheads who wanted their signs done in "Old English" don't you?
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
Palletting the French Fries == reminds me of the Bob Parsons cartoon where the guy is eating breakfast with his Mahl stick.. ha ha
...how about when you ask the counter man if he has some #104 for those fries?
Posted by Jackson Smart (Member # 187) on :
Hahaha
You know you are a letterhead when the rear window of the canopy on your truck says "When signs are outlawed...only outlaws will have signs"
you know you are a letterhead when your wife doesn't understand why you can talk all day aout signs...and not be able to carry on a simple conversation with her.
you know you are a letterhead when you have more paint on you than the sign.
Posted by david drane (Member # 507) on :
When you smash your car into another car while looking at someone elses sign!!
Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
You really know that you are a "LetterHead" When the Paint (DRIPS) from the heel of the Brush, into the next area of LETTERING!!!!!!!!
Man! that "Takes PRACTICE" Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
...when you drop into a signshop and "wonder if anything needs lettering...(please!!!)" I've got my brushes right here"
John Lennig
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
You know you're a Letterhead when "Getting Lucky" means a gold job.
Posted by FranCisco Vargas (Member # 145) on :
When people come over your place and see soup, tomato sauce, or coffee cans in your dish washing drying rack.
when you cut off the top and add some sand of your empty 24 oz can of Bud for storing brushes.
when anyone new comes over and sees Jalapenos painted on your fridge and thinks this guy is crazy to paint a new fridge like that, till you show them it was painted on magnetic material and cut out.
Or when you run around over 1,400 miles in Northern California with a guy name Richard Bustamante painting signs for a storage co and find out in one of them you have to spend the nights in an RV with phone access after 10 pm to connect to mIRC with Letterheads and talk about the latest gossip, or working on a building roof in San Francisco, with the roof unleveled so you have to pull parts of left over roofing material to make the ladders level, to work on ladder jacks.
My favorite Letterhead Classic was working with P-King in Birmingham, AL. 100 feet in the air on a boom lift. The project was painting four sides of a huge tower, it was almost done when the boom starts to break apart and you realize you have "no safety harness on" Yikes!
Or meeting a chick like Cheryl and find out she's just as crazy as I am. But cool as a motor pool. She's a Dynamite lady in my books. Among the others like Nettie, Jackie B, the Moon, Kelli. Damn, I feel bad because I don't want to forget all the fellows also, you all know who you are. You are also great dudes weather I was on the road or in the air. If I went to your place then I'm talking about you!
But for the latest of "when you know your a Letterhead" in my case, check out this...
you know when your a Letterhead when you rather read the BB then watch TV. Thanks Steve and Barb, you too Richard for your post.
Posted by Rich Stebbing (Member # 368) on :
When the teller at the bank compliments you on your colorful fingernails.....
When you have "thinner-rash" on your leg....
When you own a bar of Bon-Ami....
When you go to a Trade Show and snag a couple of those 4' yardsticks.....
When your washer/dryer has "overpaint" from mags...
When you have a "skin bucket" on your paint table...
When you shop Garage Sales for bread pans, butter knifes, TV trays, and other goodies...
When you "bad mouth" vinyl, but hey, it pays the rent...
Posted by AdrienneMorgan (Member # 1046) on :
Posted by Stephen Faulkner (Member # 2511) on :
When you fantasize about the ultimate sign shop every time you pass by garages, old body shops, barns in the country.... or sniff sniff.... wicked cool old fire houses with ya know...... one of those brass poles in the back corner..... a ladder truck converted to a sign instalation rapid response unit #one..... and a dalmation named One Shot!..... a kitchen and sleeping quarters.... perfectly smooth epoxy coated floors just waiting for paint splatters..... oooohhhh...... maannnn!
Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :
Ha too funny.....
Your steering wheel always has some color paint on it.
You carry a bottle of baby oil in your truck to remove paint from your hands, and to soak your paint brushes til you can properly clean them.
Your 'tools' are your pride and joy. And eventhough I am a 'chick' thanks Cisco! I have just as many tools as the guys. so there.
How about when the contractor who is making your carport into a garage runs out of 1/2" plywood and you run around to the back and whip out lots of MDO sign scraps. He insists this won't look right...you think it will be COOL having old coldwell commercial signs for your shop wall.
[ October 04, 2002, 09:28 AM: Message edited by: cheryl nordby ]
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
sounds familiar, I'm working on mine, but got bumped both times,
Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :
...you use turpentine for room deodorizer. And when Company's coming you might open a can of Ditzler.
...you get all choked up looking at Von Dutch's stuff.
[ October 06, 2002, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: Mike Languein ]
Posted by Myra Grozinger (Member # 327) on :
You know you're a letterhead when you have a first Sunday afternoon in a long time with nothing that absolutely MUST get done, and you spend your afternoon "decorating" your vehicle.
I am blatantly posting this mostly to test the last step of how to properly insert a photo according to Barb. The edge prints on my truck door are a composite of art deco murals I photographed in a pitchblack room at night where I had no permission to be on the Queen Mary, docked in the harbor in Long Beach, Ca.
Posted by John Lennig (Member # 2455) on :
Myra, people in Winston-Salem must think you've got a whole FLEET of trucks!... they keep seeing new art!
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