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Just curious - how did most of you get into the sign business? Is it something you set out to learn? I came into the business because of my dad - he has a mobile shop and came to visit for a few months with his vehicle - it started a small customer base that kept coming back after he left! So I figured I'd do it on the side - now it's my full time gig!!!
-------------------- signs Posts: 535 | From: pa | Registered: Dec 1998
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My first sign was painted for a hip night club back in 78, in trade for tickets. Rignt after that I got a job (as a helper) painting bill boards. Then, on to several shop gigs, where I really learned the biz (from the mistakes of others!). Been workin' for myself (more or less) since 84.
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I was a tool maker for RCA home Instruments in the engineering model shop. I just got tired of measuring stuff in the millionths of an inch. So when I stopped doon that I became a real boy and I could fly and had a lot of favorite colors to use and got a brush. Became an appretice really and got my journeyman card.
It was a good tradeoff.
CrazyJack
-------------------- Jack Wills Studio Design Works 1465 E.Hidalgo Circle Nye Beach / Newport, OR Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Kinda grew up in the screen printing business. Folks had a need to have shelf talkers lettered so I tried that with red sables & Rich Art tempra colors at about 14 or 15 yrs old, moved up to "little boy" status under Crazy Jack back in 79? Self employed fer about five years in the eighties. Workin' in an electric sign shop since.
Tells us about some of those cool tools ya made Jack.
-------------------- Dave Parr Sign Painter USA Posts: 709 | From: USA | Registered: May 2003
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In 1963, tried to get into a commercial art class at city college...it was full, signed (?) up for the Showcard & Sign Painting class...5 days later...hooked for life!
John Lennig / SignRider
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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The best signpainter in town worked out of his garage (this is 1976). I walked in and asked if he would teach me. He asked if I was willing to work for him for 2 years, for free, and he would teach me everything I needed. That afternoon I was painting banners and I worked there happy as a lark for 2 years. Stepped right into my own business and I've been busy ever since. Smartest thing I ever did was accept that offer with the great Ernie Giordano.
Somehow I can't imagine a young kid today walking into my shop and be willing to work for free for 2 years. Too bad, I could teach him a set of skills to carry him for life and it wouldn't cost him a cent!
-------------------- Mark Casey Casey Sign Co., Inc. Berkley, MI Posts: 76 | From: Berkley, MI, USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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I tried for several years to get on with The Forestry Dept., to no avail. Among several lousy factory jobs other things I also tried to go to L.A. Trade-Tech, and got on a waiting list. One day I got two acceptance letters in the mail - one for each - I flipped a coin and made the wrong decision. Like Yogi Berra said = I saw a fork in the road and I took it.
Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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when i was an accountant at a tower construction company i used to stop by to visit my friend who worked for a sign biz....i was just in awe...you've got the coolest job! i'd say...she would just look at me like i had 3 heads. i was always an art lover/artist, so i then decided i would open my own shop out of my basement and keep doing the accounting for real income....that was 11 years ago...now i just do signs....it's a crazy life style for sure but i must like it because i'm still doin it!
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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Camille... I knew from Kindergarten that I was an artist. From Grade School on, I won art awards & even free Saturday morning art classes in Pittsburgh. By High School, I was the pariah, dressed as a Goth (in 1979)and spending all my time in the Art Room. By then, I was painting windows at Christmas for local businesses and the occasional odd sign for the Church or Fire Department. I went to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh but quit after 2 quarters. I learned basic layout & letterforms there but I hated it. I got married, had a couple kids, and I still did local stuff like face painting at festivals, etc. My cousin George called one day in 1985. He was remodeling his auto parts store and wanted me to draw cars on his walls (which I hate) Under each car which I had gridded and hand-painted, I lettered the name of the vehicle. Then I re-did his shop truck. I discovered 1-Shot thru trial & error, he referred me to friends, and it grew from there. I have painted murals, preganant, in the blistering sun. I'd paint, go puke, then paint some more. My kids are always with me and that is one of the perks of being self-employed. I bought commercial property for a song in 1989 & started my business out of my home in 1991. I can pay my bills and buy food but I'm still pretty much a small-time sign gal. In 1993 I met Mike Meyer. He told me about the Letterheads and about Mike Steven's Mastering Layout. In 1994 I atteneded my first live meet. Since then I have been to 3 Internationals, a few regionals, hosted an International, and I crossed the pond last August to attend the Cork meet. I bought a plotter in 1998. I hate vinyl with a passion but I love to design on the computer. I moved to Letterville in 2001 and it is a great place to be. I have found a family and friends among the Letterheads. Love-JILL
-------------------- That is like a Mr. Potato Head with all the pieces in the wrong place. -Russ McMullin Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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When I was 13 my older brother won a contest painting a small mural on a store window. The prize was a whopping $15 and a light went on in my head. In the late 60's that was a lot of money (especially to a kid) and I knew I could do the work!
Come Christmas I had a book of designs ready and I hit the streets the last week of November. I had to hitchhike the ten miles into town as I was too young to drive. In two short weeks I made lot more money than I had in a lifetime of mowing lawns and shoveling driveways. And it was easier physically too!
I was in the sign business!
Seven years later Janis & I travelled to Disneyland for our first anniversary. The magic we saw there looked to be even more fun and creative than simple signwriting. It took us fifteen years of trying and learning, but for the last 15 years we have made an exclusive living making just such creative environments.
And it has proven to be just as much fun as visiting Disneyland!
-dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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How did I start in this "business"? You mean....THIS IS A "BUSINESS".......and I thought it was a hobby or craft or something. THAT'S where I went wrong!hehheheheheheh http://www.letterhead.com/profiles/bob_burns/index.html
[ January 21, 2004, 11:21 AM: Message edited by: Bob Burns ]
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like Jill, I also seemed to get feedback encouraging my art skills back in kiddiegarden, had teachers taking my work to show off to other classes in elementary school, won awards, had other kids parents buy my work from the school fair... then took as many art classes as allowed in high school. I dropped out of the fine arts program as a college freshman & moved to the west coast to play pioneer & raise a family. A job designing & building therapeutic furniture for the U of O crippled childrens division was my first involvement with scale drawings & plans. When I had enough pioneering & decided to go back to college, I realized my aptitude for math along with my drawing & designing interests would make architecture a good choice. After aceing 2 years of trade school drafting I found myself looking for work in NYC. I got hired by an architectural sign company doing blueprints of installation & construction details, presentation drawings, floor plans for fire escape maps & a variety of typesetting & graphics work. I knew almost immediately that I had found my new career.
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My Mom was a very accomplished artist(created the "Arizona Highways" magazine), to keep from having to become a serious paperboy(just part-time at that point, hated it), I would have her draw the lettering out and I would take her sewing pounce wheel, make a pattern and transfer, in paint, to buddies cars for more money and less time than any ol paper route. Was already pinstriping , so the added talent, sealed my future. It was at this point also, that my Dad had me painting, striping and lettering his race-boats(very dedicated boat-racer),started running w/roth, dutch and that crowd, when on coast boat-racing w/pops, went into Navy after school, which interrupted my paint for a while. After coming out of the Navy, too mean to ever work for some-one else ever again, I opened my first shop and persued the lettering part with a vengance. It's always tripped my trigger, I enjoy it and the challenges it brings. I now letter, stripe, design with ease. my 2c
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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I grew up in the Carnival business. On the midway there are some un-believeable sign painters. So as I grew up on the midway my family became more & more interested in the sign-biz, 10 years ago we retired from the midway and do this full time. We still do work for many midways here in New England, and in Florida. There are alot of retired carnies that are now in the sign-biz, and many carnivals that now have sign shops that travel with them.
-------------------- Devin Fahie Sebago Signworks Rt. 302, Raymond, Maine 207-655-6622 devin@sebagosignworks.com Posts: 96 | From: Raymond, Maine | Registered: Jun 2003
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My printing background led me to teach desktop publishing inside a maximum facility prison. They bought a 4b and set it on the table in our "design" room. It collected dust for 4 months and one day I had an inmate who had some free time on his hands.
I had him crank it up and went over once in a while to see what it did. I was not impressed. 3 years later the salesman who sold us the machine came in to see me. Said things have changed. You can design on screen now with graphics advantage 3.1.
He gave me free tickets to the Atlantic City show, free room and meals, so I went. The minute I stepped through the convention center door I was hooked. Neon Lights, Hot rods being pinstripped in the bullpen, airbrush artists doing thier thing....
I bought the demo unit right off the floor after the show. Came home, orderd some business cards, a pager, and hit the streets after my prison gig.
3 months later I went full time.
-------------------- Mike Duncan Lettercraft Signs Posts: 1328 | From: Centreville, VA | Registered: Oct 2000
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From the time I could wrap my fingers around a crayon, I was constantly drawing things. At about age nine I won the "azalea bazaar" poster contest at my elementary school. (Still don't know what an azalea bazaar is.) But probably 90% of what I drew up until about 9th grade was horses. I was obsessed with horses. Sometime around 4th or 5th grade, someone gave me a used set of carving tools. With them, I carved a horse's head on a tree stump in the front yard. My Dad finally bought me a horse. (Thanks Dad!)
As a kid, I remember fiddling around with my grandad's tools in his shed makin stuff and havin a ball doin it. I recall saying, when I was about eleven, that if I had the tools I could make anything. haha In 9th grade shop, I built a gunrack out of douglas fir. Designed it all myself from the gracefully curved gunrests to the fancy headboard to the cabinet at the bottom. Then the other kids were wanting my design to make their own. It was then and there that I fell in love with woodworking and to this day I still love the aroma of freshly worked douglas fir...and western cedar, and pine in a workshop. But redwood doesn't smell that great to me.
Well, you know what they say; behind every great man is a great woman (or something to that effect). After doing woodworking as a hobby for several years making everything from rocking horses to cabinets(including a few freebee signs)I got married. BTW, my wife happens to be a "horse person": After the wedding, I had to buy a place to keep her four horses. My wife LynnDee comes home one day and says that her company needs some new signs. The boss told her that someone had stolen two of the routed cedar signs and they needed exact replacements. So she says: "Wayne can do it".....
"You told them WHAT?"
Anyway, here I am.
[ January 21, 2004, 02:35 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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I too started as a mobile installer for Trim Line Design. Today, we have a store front, a full Gerber system, and a full time artist/designer along with myself. I am not an accomplished artist, but, I know what looks good, and I can sell. I take good care of people, and I love my work, and I love this community! Like many others, I started part time, which turned into a full itme gig.
[ January 20, 2004, 05:30 PM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3484 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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Devin, the whole carnie-signpainter thing really put some images in my head.
Like Wayne I grew up in my dad's woodshop. Took drafting in high school which led to a co-op job while in high school for a place that did industrial training, I was "technical illustrator". Remember the cheers episode where they give Woody a title instead of a raise? Same concept. Basically I was given nasty picts, sketches or actual components and drew them on computer for our courses. This was '91, way before scanners. Went to college, decided I didn't like drafting much anymore and quit.
Did some accounting work for a friend of mine, set-up, printed and laminated some notices for his shop and he asked me to paint him a sign. I still have picts of that first sign (although I refuse to show them to anyone). I was hooked. I still buy him a beer whenever I run into him out of appreciation.
Then..I did an internet search for something & one of the hits was this website. I lurked around & decided it was really cool. I've lived here ever since.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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The restaurant I was waitressing at burnt down. So, while I was still in my waitress uniform I went to my local truck stop and made an appointmnet with trucking company to do some trailer lettering. I was in my second semester at Los Angeles Trade Tech. That was in 85".
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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My earlist memories of drawing, was at the age of 5 my dad at one time was goin to be a preacher for a small church, and all the hymn books had my drawings in them on the back blank pages. Grew up with all the comments "you're son is full of talent"....and it went all on walls behind the neighborhood business's as a teenager.
At the age of 19, I got my act together, and traded a areosol can for a airbrush. I learned just the basic of vinyl signs for working for a family friend.
At the age of 24 started my own business and as Wayne Webb said, "behind every great man is a greater women".....my wife being a business major, help started mine,(our) business.
Now at the age of 28 I still am a amateur, inspiring, up-n-coming sign guy
Posts: 36 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Painted a scene and lettering from "Charlottes Web" (SP?) on the window of my second grade classroom, as part of an assignment. It was well recieved, maybe won a contest, too long ago.
Found my mom's old speedball pens in highscool, and loved caligraphy.
Went to trade school in high school, learned about drafting tables, plate making, and how to run 4 different offset presses.
Got a job as a concrete laborer. It was begining to feel like working sun up to sun down in the 105 degree California sun was going to kill me, seriously, so I figured "Hey sign painting looks easy". (Youthful idiot)
Found a copy of SC magazine with a picture of a root beer brown race car, and some cool lettering, and was hooked.
Youthful idiot didn't stop to think that sign people sometimes need to work high off the ground, that has taken some adjustment. But you take your quotes where you can get 'em, from a hokey sci-fi movie I got this one: (as the scientist-turned swamp creature was dying, he said:) "sometimes the only way out of a situation is through it." And so it is with overcoming a fear of hieghts. You people can keep your Socrates and Plato, I've got the swamp creature!!!
-------------------- James Donahue Donahue Sign Arts 1851 E. Union Valley Rd. Seymour TN. (865) 577-3365 brushman@nxs.net
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for lunch, Benjamin Franklin Posts: 2057 | From: 1033 W. Union Valley Rd. | Registered: Feb 2003
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How did I fall into the sign biz. I was always an artist, late elementry school was spent drawing choppers & hot rods. Did some paintings and a ton of sketches as a teen. I really did not know how I would use my talents. Then I met Jim Wills in Phoenix in '77, He was a house painter & a snapper (no licence, no formal training) and we did trucks, walls, billboards, repainted a bunch of the old neon signs in Phoenix, neon repairs. Then I moved back to Florida in '80 and got a job as a "sign painters assistant" that is how the ad read! I told the owner I had lettering experiance, but didn't really know layout as Jim had always done it. So I apprenticed there for three years, snapping up a few signs on the side until I got money fever from the side work. Hell, make $200-$400 a day sometimes, so I quit and have been mostly on my own off & on since. I have had a few well paying jobs in shops through the years, but here they don't want to pay big money for the graphic artist, as they are called now.
Bob Burns, I really want to hear your story!
-------------------- Rob Thomas 3410 Ketcham Ct Beautiful Springs FL 34134 Posts: 965 | From: Bonita Springs, Florida USA | Registered: Feb 2000
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I had been supporting my full time ministry by doing landscaping. In my late teens, I broke my leg playing soccer with a baseball at a driving range (yes–it’s a long story, besides that I was winning!) and was not able to mow lawns or plant shrubs for a while.
A friend, Jim Sanders, who owned a sign service company, hired me to drive around at night spotting signs that had portions of the lighting not working properly. When my leg healed, he put me on a repair truck where I learned electrical service and crane operation, also gaining valuable experience in sign fabrication and installation.
When I married Sophie, Jim did not have enough work to support us so I started working on my own. It seemed kind of natural in some ways that I ended up in the sign trade since I have had, from an early age, a fascination with typefaces. In high school, I would write notes that looked like they came from a typewriter. I could duplicate any of the fonts that were commonly used at the time for typing.
When I was in school, I always enjoyed math and science classes more than anything. One of my all time favorite courses was high school chemistry. I thought I had found my secular calling. Imagine my laughter when an aptitude test said I would make a great bricklayer but a lousy chemist. Fast forward three decades plus and sometimes, after hauling brick and stone samples around all day, I feel I could scratch my ankles without bending over.
Our company builds a fair amount of brick and stone monument signs, mostly for the apartment industry. Monument signs are my favorite medium because there are so many choices of material, shape and application.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My story is a lot different from the rest of yours so far.
We were in the gasline construction and directional boring business and due to my husband's health he decided to shut her down. I had been running things for years and quite frankly I was sick and tired of it. So I finally agreed.
Prior to my marriage I was in Occupational Therapy. There were only 6 O.T.R.'s in the state so I was working w/o a degree. I decided I would go back to school. I was 54 yrs. old, which is too old to start a new carreer that involves that much lifting. So I set out to see what I wanted to do. We have a university here and I couldn't find anything that I felt a passion for.
A fellow contractor suggested signs. He said, " You are artistic (or perhaps he said autistic) we need someone who can give us something with a little class. So I got on line and started researching the sign biz and plotters. After all I had computers, all I needed was a plotter and I am a sign maker... right?
To make a long story short, I bought a plotter, some vinyl & a few tools and came home, hooked it up and started playing. I closed in my 26'x26' carport and opened Oct. 31, 2000. All this without ever having seen the inside of a sign shop. I learned what little I knew on the internet. Real pro huh?
Just before I opened I found Letterville. The foolish "quickie stickie" has become a signmaker because of all of you and Steve & Barb's Letterville Dream.
Instead of only the pre-cut sign blanks I intended to work with, I am fabricating my own from M.D.O., P.V.C., alumalite, and etc. Fortunately we had a 40'X60' metal bldg. that I have used for fabrication.
My favorite is MDO because I love the cutting and sanding and I like the dimension it allows. The PVC is another favorite because you can heat and bend it and layer it. And the old Gal's back doesn't hurt like it does with the MDO.
This is the life! I no longer have 20 to 25 employees to deal with and I love the work. THANKS LETTERVILLE
-------------------- Kathy Joiner River Road Graphics 41628 River Road Ponchatoula, La.70454
Old enough to know better...Too young to resist. Posts: 1891 | From: Ponchatoula, LA | Registered: Nov 2000
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I was born a poor black child in the deep south. I had to walk to school 8 miles in snow up to my navel. The trip was up-hill, both ways.
From there the rest is history.....
Seriously(ya didn't think the above was true did ya...) I did my first sign way back when I sold real estate for another agent. I also did airbrush stuff by word of mouth. Then several years ago I was driving a truck over the road. I would airbrush t-shirts and licence plates at night in the truck stops. Anyway, I got injured and after many months of rehab and 3 surgeries I was told I couldn't drive a truck anymore.
I was looking for work and went with a friend to see his father-in-law who worked in a sign shop. I also knew Nick from working for him when he was in the bar-b-que business. I got to talking to Nick, who introduced me to his boss, the shop owner, and that is the real story...
I went to work for Jack Lindengerger, along side Nick and learned a tremendous amount from both. Later I started my own shop, probably sooner than I should have, but at the time it was that or find other work. Not that Jack was firing me or anything, but I had to have TKR and Jack needed some who could be on thier feet on a concrete floor all day. I think they would have worked with me, but I didn't think that was fair to them, and too, I thought I was ready to be own my own. Looking back, I could have really learned a lot more before striking out on my own.
There it is...the rest of the story...
-------------------- Troy "Metalleg" Haas 626 Kingswood Dr Evansville,In 47715 Posts: 1100 | From: Evansville,Indiana, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Spilled a quart of black One Shot on my new cowboy shirt in kindergarden and went home smelling like terp. Started carving when I was nine (Boy Scout kerchief slides) At 14 I got hired to teach wood carving, basketry and leatherworking at Boy Scout camp. Made some real money selling my carvings there. I routed some signs for the campsites with a dull "V" bit ......you should have seen the smoke Graduated college with a degree in "Technology Education" (Industrial Arts/Shop Teacher) BC......computers basically hit me in the ass as I left school. After nine years of teaching woodworking and grafics, with a masters degree and a wife and two kids I was eligible for food stamps. (They were going to pay me $16,000 in my 10th year) In '77 I started doing craft shows with my photography and carved (as I always did) to pass the time at the shows. There seemed to be some interest in my carvings and I started selling both. My first relief carving was a 30", 9 wood, 300 piece Great Seal of the US. Sold it to a lawyer....sold the second one to a janitor. I designed a fancy booth for the shows, dropped the photography and quit teaching in '79. At first, I did a lot of signs (everthing from stern boards to monument signs) along with my decoritive relief carvings. The relief carvings sold so well that I pushed the sign part of my biz to part time status. No more heavy lifting... I went to my first Letterhead meet in '95...."Megabites and Mahlsticks" that was sponsored by the "Real" sign shop here in town. I met some of the notables in the biz (of course I didn't know who they were)and became quick friends. What a joy it was to hang with so many talented folks. My wife bought this putter 2 years ago and I learned email and search. Came right to Letterville and I stop in just about every day. I guess you know the rest.
Thanks Barb and Steve!!!
Joe, Makin Chips and Havin Fun!
-------------------- Joe Cieslowski Connecticut Woodcarvers Gallery P.O.Box 368 East Canaan CT 06024 jcieslowski@snet.net 860-824-0883 Posts: 2345 | From: East Canaan CT 06024 | Registered: Nov 2001
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I got into it by accident. I was always going to do something in art. My whole family was into it, so it was encouraged. I got a worthless degree called a Bachelor of Fine Arts, which enabled me to do absolutely nothing, but I lied my way into a drafting job and did that until I decided to get another worthless degree called a Master of Fine Arts. I got paid to get that worthless degree in exchange for teaching beginning drawing and painting. That degree is required to teach art in college which is its soul purpose, but there are literally 96.5 gazillion others with art aspirations who also have that degree. Most of them are doing non-art related work. (Look for them to flood the sign market once they know what I know.)
After graduation I started a house painting business in Pennsylvania to make ends meet and provide for my first wife and my oldest son. I decided to move back to Illinois to the Chicago area where there was more familiar ground and surely more art related jobs.
While I was waiting for an interview for the college art teaching position which never materialized, I got a job drawing schematics for model airplanes and doing exploded view drawings of machinery. I grew tired of riding the crowded commuter train into Chicago with my nose in somebody's armpit and moved back to the small town where I grew up and worked piece work in a chair factory to earn enough money to get out of my folk's house. I was divorced at the time and needed to be on my own. At the factory I had to endure all the "overeducated idiot" remarks which were absolutely true. I did learn humility along the way and a great deal of respect for my fellow man, some of whom didn't graduate from high school.
Then I ran into an acquaintance who was a home builder who agreed to let me design houses and let me do his painting and wallpapering which were skills I developed along the way. I left him to start my own business and I was resigned to be a house painter and a paperhangin' son-of-a-gun for the rest of my life, when the sign painter that lived in our town decided to close shop and moved down to sunny and warm Arizona. If that hadn't happened I wouldn't be in the sign business. People were desperate to have their signs painted and trucks lettered and came to me, because after all I was an overeducated idiot and must know how to do something as simple as letter a sign. They were dead wrong, but I wasn't interested in being homeless, so I took it up and learned everything I knew about it through trial and error until Signcraft and my first letterhead meet brought me in touch with others. I'm sure this kind of forum would have helped me eliminate alot of the flub ups along the way.
I started with nothing and still have nothing ( financially anyway), but I've got a great wife who likes me no matter what, and have had great luck with my kids and customers along the way. So in the grand scheme, I've been extremely wealthy in those things that really matter, and lucky that I was in the right place at the right time to get into this biz.
-------------------- Bill Diaz Diaz Sign Art Pontiac IL www.diazsignart.com Posts: 2107 | From: Pontiac, IL | Registered: Dec 2001
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I got interested in Neon as an early teen - went out and got some old tubes and transformers and figured out this was cool stuff after I zapped myself enough. Met a few sign guys in all areas of the sign busiess and did the occasional repair on signs by sending out the tubes to a local bender for repair.
Then I worked at a local gas station and that guy had a fleet of about 65 mobile signs made by S&S Signs that were out on rentals so I enventually went out doing installs and service. Even made some decent money selling the signs on a lease plan he offered 20% commission on a $1600 sign was great money seeing as I was 16 or 17y/o at the time.
I kept working a bit in the sign repair biz while holding down a few other jobs, including casual hours pumping tubes in a neon shop, and then in 1997 I bought a Gerber 4B to do simple magnetics and coroplast stuff out of my bachelor apartment. My weeding/assembly table was a folding bingo table that was stored under my bed. At the time I was driving school buses so I got lots of work supplying RTA lettering for repainted buses. Eventually got rid of the $B and upgraded to a used Sprint with a total of 36 fonts plus a few graphic cards.
Moved the business into a small storefront and was there for 2 years till I sold everything and took a break from running my own shop and kept working p/t at the neon shop.
In the last year I've slowly gotten back into the business since making the move to Halifax - selling a few neon window signs, the occasional window sign transformer replacements, self-inking stamps, business cards and pretty much any other service requested by a potential customer. I'm not even operating any equipment of my own except for the fax machine and computer - 95% of my stuff gets farmed out - and I make enough to pay the rent and keep food in the fridge.
Eventually I'll buy a plotter and move into a bigger residence but I doubt I'll ever do the storefront setup again. I burned myself out and at 33 I can't afford that mistake again.
posted
Getting into the art field has been a life long goal, but getting into the sign biz was a complete fluke.
It breaks down like this...
1973...private art classes 1974-79...Commercial art classes in high school 1979-1987...Tshirt printer/assistant shop manager with occasional forays into th camera and art departments. 1987...Moved to New Hampshire 1988...Started Brushwood Studios as a freelance artist, mostly doing prepress work and illustration. 1990...Dropped a Harley-Davidson fender, dented it, and traded a race car lettering job for the repairs. Some people who needed signs noticed it...
The rest has been falling into place ever since.
It keeps me outta trouble... Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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I've always had art in school and the "bug". Influenced by my mom. I used to fake being sick on the days she had her "art classes". Ceramics, painting, pastels, etc...It was fun hanging with the golden girls drawing still lifes of Ball mason jars and different landscapes. LOL
Then the real world, graduated high school and worked for my pop's excavating business all the while partying like a rock star. Ever get to see Jerry Garcia melt? LOL
There was this guy Bucky who used to paint all of my dads trucks and signs. I used to watch and ask questions, he even let me try out his brushes on my pop's doors a couple of times. The love of art was back!
Between him and my friends coming home from college with all of these cool art classes and projects, I found my self practically drooling and decided installing septic systems and driving a tandem wasn't for me. Thankfully my dad supported my decision.
Went to community college part time trying to clean up my act, found out what a computer was. 6 years later I earned a Bachelors in 3D animation from Ringling. I can still here my dad, "All that money and you're drawing cartoons?!", he yelled sometimes to keep me honest but was always there for me.
After a year of working on video games I got laid off and came back home.
I went to Bucky for a tattoo and came back with 2 issues of SignCraft, a street sign with my name on it and an application to the Atlantic City show('96) and the tattoo. The SC issues were the 100th magazine and 15th year issues, I think. Some guy Mike Meyer was in one of them.
Went to AC, bought a plotter and software. Became a vinyl head for a few years and knew I needed more something, just wasn't sure what it was.
Then I found Letterville. Ahhhhh an oasis in the desert!
Went to Jill's for my first meet, met some very cool and talented people. Bought a few lettering quills from the Mack guys.
Then this guy named Bill Reidel comes by and says with a big smile "You know son, you're doing that all wrong. Would you like me to show you?"
The rest is history. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
-------------------- Alan Ackerson LetterWorks Design and Graphics alan@ack2.com Posts: 776 | From: Oak Ridge, NJ | Registered: Aug 2002
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Well, I've got TWO brain cells left and they argue a lot. I was actually lettering a truck for a neighbor before I ever thought about people probably make a living at this. A guy named Freddy Smith, who was visiting his parents across the street asked me if I wanted a job as a helper at the sign company he worked at. I thought I must be pretty good! Turned out he saw that I did have an interest and a desire to learn, not actual ability. My first day on the job I spent cleaning pigeon manure out of neon cans, not what I had in mind, but I stuck it out till they let me do some actual work on signs.
-------------------- Chuck Peterson Designs San Diego, CA Posts: 1050 | From: San Diego, CA USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I grew up in a sign shop owned by my grandfather, who passed it on to my dad, who closed it in 1967 when I was 22 and fresh out of the navy. This was in Trenton, NJ.
I moved to Hoboken NJ with some musician friends, and worked freelance in the general area. From there I moved to NH where I lived in the woods in an old plank home, and tried the homestead lifestyle. I painted signs and made dimensional signs using cut out letters, under the name the Artisan Mission. Once each year I went to Hoboken and painted floats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, which was a lot of fun, and the paycheck got us through the long winters.
From there in 1972 I moved to Fla. and have been here ever since.I had several shops, most notably one called Street Graphics, but poor business management/partners doomed the effort. Then I hooked up with a fire truck factory and gold leafed fire apparatus for about 5 years. I really thought I had it made, but the new wore off before long, and it became just a factory job, so I left. I have worked for neon/electric sign shops in the Gainesville area for many years, gaining experience in all phases of design, manufacture and installation, as well as service.
But painting is really my forte so to speak, so I started my own shop again in 1998, with no partners this time, and have been happy ever since, and wish I had been more serious about it when I was younger. I do mostly painted and sandblasted signs, and have about 1800 sq.ft. of workspace in my back yard.I do OK, but sometimes miss the larger shop scene, with other employees to relate to. I may try to add a parttime person to help out this year...I'm sorta wanting someone interested enough to learn the business and take it over one day. I guess that's asking too much, as most people seem more interested in how much they are going to make as opposed to what can they learn here? But That's my dream...to hook up with a young person wanting to learn the trade.
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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In 9th grade shop, I built a gunrack out of douglas fir. Designed it all myself from the gracefully curved gunrests to the fancy headboard to the cabinet at the bottom. Then the other kids were wanting my design to make their own. It was then and there that I fell in love with woodworking and to this day I still love the aroma of freshly worked douglas fir...and western cedar, and pine in a workshop. But redwood doesn't smell that great to me. ![[Dunno]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
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My wife LynnDee comes home one day and says that her company needs some new signs. The boss told her that someone had stolen two of the routed cedar signs and they needed exact replacements. So she says: "Wayne can do it".....
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