This is going to sound ridiculous I'm sure but before I dump two large boxes full of a couple humdred sheets of Letraset - anyone want them?
I know this is like asking if anyone needs a typwriter ribbon but everytime I dump something like this someone gives me a hard time. :-)
Maybe for the Sign Museum? LOL
I shudder to think of the money this stuff cost.
Posted by Terry Whynott (Member # 1622) on :
If shipping isn't too outrageous, my Dad like's it to put numbers on clocks he makes. (Just numbers)
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Terry, I'm sure I could cut the number part off of them and get them into an envelope.
Posted by Jillbeans (Member # 1912) on :
Hi Kimberly... Boy, does that bring back memories of art school. That stuff was expensive! Perhaps a local school's art room could be of benefit? Or maybe a church or daycare program? Too good to pitch. Love- JILL I think I have a few bits of a sheet of Bernhard Antique Condensed...23 years old...I thought that it was so cool. And remember getting fonts out of the catalog? I used to draw them for hours with my rapidograph.
Posted by Darrell Giese (Member # 768) on :
I was so cheap back in the Day I shot PMT's of the catalog waxed it and did pasteups.
(Guess that's kinda incriminatin', ain't it?)
[ October 24, 2003, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: Darrell Giese ]
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
HI Jill, Yes, talk about memories. I remember sitting in my father's studio when I was a little girl and he would let me play with the extra, leftover letters. It was a big treat. The stuff was like $10 a sheet back then and that was quite a while ago.
I've had this stuff for the last few years and everytime I've gone to throw it away, I stop and put it back on the shelf.
I've cut all the numbers off for Terry, maybe I'll let my daughter play with the rest. She lives to do art stuff.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Ah....the good old days. Those things never had enough "C"s and after awhile they became brittle and hard to transfer. I've got boxes and boxes that I just can't bring myself to throw away.
I've mentioned Dry Transfer Lettering in some of my workshops and I just get a wierd look from everyone.
Chester Cunningham told me about that stuff and how to project my layouts with an overhead projector. I really though I was in the big time.
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Thanks for the smile Ray...glad to know I'm not the only one who hasn't been able to throw the stuff away.
I remember my dad using razor blades and splicing them together to make the letters that he needed. You couldn't tell the difference.
Like I said, I've cut the numbers off for Terry, set aside a pile for my daughter to play with and the rest is in the garbage now.
There comes a time when you just have to let go...
Posted by J & N Signs (Member # 901) on :
I'm sure elementary schools and child care centres would take them.
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
I have a couple of drawers of the stuff I haven't been able to throw away. I’ve done the razor blade trick to turn an “O” into a “C”, etc. The Letraset catalogue was the primo typeface source back then. I sometimes copied, pasted up and projected directly from their catalogue.
I also have my Rapidograph book that shows me the fonts available engraved into those Aluminum bars. I got to where I could just about make that Rapidograph smoke as I worked.
Do having all those sundries in my office qualify me for geezerhood? If not, the fact that I’ll be a first time grandpa in the next week or so should do it.
Posted by Mark Smith (Member # 298) on :
Kimberly,
If you can pull 'em out of the garbage I'd be THRILLED to pay for shipping and let my son Ivan's school have them for Art class.
Posted by Greg McRoberts (Member # 3501) on :
Hi Kim,
I've still got a copy-paper box FULL of the stuff and I can't seem to throw it out either. Maybe this post will get me off my duff and give it the heave-ho.
Man, that really does bring back a lot of memories of late-night keylines and the such.
Posted by Mark Smith (Member # 298) on :
Greg,
Same thing! Please let me know if you'll part with it. Thanks -
Posted by Kimberly Zanetti (Member # 2546) on :
Mark, It's not out in the garbage yet...I'll put some in an envelope for you.
Address please...
Posted by Mark Smith (Member # 298) on :
Thanks Kim!
Mark Smith EstiMate Software Corp. 20 Battery Park Ave Suite 605 Asheville, NC 28801
Posted by Randy Campbell (Member # 2675) on :
Kim; when I first started sign work a friend gave me 30 cases of lettresets.I donated all to the High school I also worked in.
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
Yup, I was right! hehehe
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
Hey Joey...whatcha right about THIS time?
Kimberly, ya made me wonder if Letraset ever went into the font biz?
Posted by Fred Weiss (Member # 3662) on :
Don they sure did.
They developed an outrageously good library of mostly headline and display faces which they called the Fontek library. A few of their better known faces are:
Cabaret Crillee Italic Dynamo LCD Revue Romic Slipstream University Roman Van Dyke
to name a few.
They were also Gerber's exclusive distributor for many years in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Along the way they were acquired by Esselte who also acquired International Typeface Corporation. Letraset Fontek fonts are available today through the ITC Fonts Website. Posted by AdrienneMorgan (Member # 1046) on :
Wow, back in the early 70s my Dad would let me play with some of his too! He used them to mark his landscape plans....
Then in '75 I got my first real job, working at an art store, we sold letraset...I still remember that stuff....costs it's weight in gold!
Cooper Black...that's the font I remember most, lol!
A:)
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Kimberly,
Just seeing the word letraset brought a smile to my face. Back in high school, I was always rubbing that stuff down on something.
I'm not too certain, so correct me if I'm wrong. I think Charette Corporation did a ton of the stuff for years. I remember having red cardboard file cabinets full of the "Chartpak" stuff in the storage room in high school.
I had a box of that stuff I picked up for 5 bucks at a local corner store 20 years ago and finally gave it the heave-ho in '98. There were a few sheets of their "vinyl letters" in it and I used most of them up as masks for my signature on race cars for a couple of years. Stick 'em on, airbrush over them and remove..."glowing letters".
Thanks for some great memories of a part of my youth I had almost forgotten. Rapid
[ October 25, 2003, 02:47 AM: Message edited by: Ray Rheaume ]
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I almost got a job spending all day applying letraset copy.
I came to the sign trade kind of late for my age, but in 1989 I had never used a computer. I was lookin to stay in NY a little longer & needed to get some work, so a friend let me type up a resume on his old Mac (a little SE or something?) I showed up at this architectural sign company & they had come up with a patent for applying letraset characters to something I think they called nina paper that would allow them to be re-transfered (with heat I think)in reverse to thin clear architectural face plates that were later laminated into high end architectural plaques.
fortunately they said I was overqualified & gave me much more interesting work.
I think I probably still have a stack of letraset some other guy was trying to get rid of... not sure if I finally tossed it or not?
Posted by Miles Cullinane (Member # 980) on :
the guy i started with all of 19 years ago came up with an interesting way to use letterset. he transferred 3 or 4 letters onto a slide and so on for the whole alphabet and then we would project up the size we wanted. then i discovered that you could photocopy onto clear acetate and that made my life easier. i left him 14 years ago and he still seems to use the same method.
them were the days Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :
Forcing them was limited to kerning ...I suspect thats where we got all the tight and overlapping letter looks during the 70's.
Ya gotta laugh when you think about it being the "state of the art" way of lettering smaller than a brush was practical.
We used a lot of it for pattern making in projections where you could angle the projector to force the letters...even italisize them.
gotta love it!
Posted by Roy Frisby (Member # 736) on :
I used to use the rub-on type for making screen positives. Big John Brassell from Natchez showed me how to project the letters on to "contact paper" then cut the letters out. The forerunner to Gerber, I guess. The contact paper didn't hold up out in the weather very long but it was available at the local 5 and dime store for next to nothing. Oh, the memories!
Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
They are more than likely dried out to much after being in storage. Touch up with a Sharpie,.. if your going to project.
I really like the Idea of donation to a School or Kids.
But thats only me Kimberly.
[ October 25, 2003, 03:45 PM: Message edited by: Stephen Deveau ]
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
I still have my original cataloge in my book case that showed all the font sheets along with some of the graphics pages too.
I would order mine from Pearl Paints on Long Island and use them to make small page layouts. The book even had layout suggestions and ideas for layouts. That was back even before SignCraft magazine came out. I think I had the first copy of that too.
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
I guess I am clueless on this one. What is everyone using to make their layouts and proofs with now? I have used letrasets for over 20 years and would gladly change to anything that would make my job easier.
Is there an improved transferable typeface package that all of you are using? Let me know. I suppose someday we will all be using some sort of machine to do this, but now?
Posted by david drane (Member # 507) on :
Ahhh, the nostalgia. I used to clip the text from out of the catalogs and then epidiascope them up to size moving the text a letter at a time. I was such a tightwad that i can't even throw the old books out!! One of the old books has the following written on the back: "The following artists work appear in this edition: Kenneth F. Dewey, Nicholas Gaetano, Philip Slagter, Nancy Stahl, Joe Suplina, Dan Dridy, Bob Walker Jim Deigan, Steve Malinchoc" Do any of the old boys here know any of these artiosts?
[ October 26, 2003, 05:20 PM: Message edited by: david drane ]
Posted by Michael Boone (Member # 308) on :
David Wright needs help I have a used slide rule.. Im gonna donate it to him he can use it to"figure" things out Im looking for a beloptican machine too
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
Hot damn Michael! I'll take it. Now I can do some serious figuring along with my advanced layout equipment.
Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :
Gee whiz.... Letraset, Amos and Andy, The Lone Ranger, Sky King... and my faithful Letragraphix 1000 typesetter. Still has about ten sheets of letraset in it. Haven't been able to throw it away either...I knew I saved it for some reason...so I could have something to say in a letterville post, twenty years after I used the darn thing...
Posted by Michael Clanton (Member # 2419) on :
We used the rub on letters a lot in college, but I guess we were tight too. We had a machine the size of a washing machine, can't remember the name of it, that would enlarge or reduce the image onto the glass face. then we would redraw the letters to whatever size and ink them with a rapidograph. I would also use the rub-on letters, use an airbrush marker to color around them, then use scotch tape to remove the letters leaving a cutout of the letter.
Ah, the good ole days of searching for and rubbing those tiny letters, only to find out that you misspelled a word!
Posted by John DiLauro (Member # 3990) on :
I believe it was called a "lacy lucy" or something very similar.
Posted by John DiLauro (Member # 3990) on :
it said I can't post, than it did....oh well
[ October 27, 2003, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: John DiLauro ]
Posted by John DiLauro (Member # 3990) on :
yea sure, that worked
[ October 27, 2003, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: John DiLauro ]
Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :
This post made me go dig thru one of my storage boxes...I actually found a couple of Lettraset burnishing tools(you can see one in the picture Dave Drane posted here).
I had best lable it...cause in a few years no one will even know what the heck it is.
Posted by Roy Frisby (Member # 736) on :
Anyone interested in another dinosaur...I have a Kenro camera that shoots a 16x20 film positive. Sure would like to get it out of the way, but can't seem to get up the nerve to just toss it. It weighs about 300-400 pounds.Any takers?
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Hey Bob Stephens!
I used to work for Mr. Pearlmutter! He was the owner of Pearl's. Did you know that they had a very small steep staircase going up each floor in the store in L. Island? It was a hike! Anyway the store in S. Fla was way cool. I miss the aisles of goodies, all, art related. And then, speaking of rub off letters! My dad was a collector and when he lived in the Fla Keys for 30 years he had a lot of stuff. He even obtained a set of rub on gold leaf letters with a black outline! They were sandwiched between wax paper or something, about 5 to each letter of the alphabet, about a 5 inch letter and they were so old, the gold dissolved when I tried to pull them apart. They came in a very nice wooden box and felt like gold leaf. What do you think they were?
[ October 28, 2003, 03:06 AM: Message edited by: Deb Fowler ]
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