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My earliest facination with signage is watching the sign painting clown on Seasame Street. I though he was nearly MAGIC the way he would go to a wall or a floor or the street and paint those numbers!!
I thought it was outta site! That was, I think the start for me.
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Barry, thanks for sharing that with us... but I think that's more than we needed to know. And how do you feel about the Count? You could have been a mathematician instead.
Okay, you made me think about it! Remember the Three Stooges and how they were always busting through the office door glass, and the sign guy was always relettering, and they'd bust it again and... well maybe it was that, I'm just guessing of course, you've made me go places I haven't gone for quite some time, and maybe I shouldn't visit for another long time, but...
Edited for time and space alotted, and to allow some new stuff for my analyst to go over with... (sing with me) na na - na na na na na na - na na na na - na na na na!
[ September 09, 2004, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: Gene Golden ]
-------------------- Gene Golden Gettysburg Signs Gettysburg PA 17325 717-334-0200 genegolden@gettysburgsigns.com
"Art is knowing when to stop." Posts: 1578 | From: Gettysburg, PA | Registered: Jun 2003
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My earliest fascination with signs was the neon sign on "Harry's Pizza - 10c a slice" in downtown Greensburg, PA somewheres around 1964'ish.
My second grade teacher sent a note home because I drew a big ass "Arby's" sign on my desktop.
I remember the "7-UP" billboard with a scuba diver on it that was near my Grandmother Hice's house off of Rt. 119... and how disappointed I was when it was repainted.
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Anybody remember the sign over by Oakland with the Town Talk Bread slices falling off the loaf? Or the one with the coffee pouring? I think it was by the Bloomfield Bridge. Or the smoke-ring-blowing guy? What about all those old wall signs on the way into Pittsburgh somewhere like by the 31st Street Bridge? I think they were old whiskey ads. They were near the old Dutch Boy Paint factory that had the mural of the dutch boy on a scaffold on the wall. It had to be about 1965. Maybe 1964. And my dad had a neon Stoney's beer sign, and a Coca-Cola machine in his JP office in our basement. At Christmas we got a Santa cut-out from the Coke guy. (I still have it) After Daddy's office got moved down town, I remember admiring the hand-painted door lettering in the Jones Law Building and the Allegheny County courthouse. I always noticed signs. I liked the painter on Sesame Street too. I think that came out the year after I got paddled in front of the whole class at St. Catherine's for boldly going up and writing my name on the blackboard when the teacher left the room. In cursive. In first grade. 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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I was kinda young, but Ed Roth's Bug, and I don't know who it was, but some crazy painter had a Honda 600 (that tiny little car) all lettered up, and the lettering on cars at Lyons dragstrip.
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1538 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Saw a van with a Frank Frazetta mural on it...couldn't keep me away from an airbrush after that. First sign? The scoreboard on the "Green Monster", along with the Citgo and Jimmy Fund signs at Fenway Park.
Next batter? Rapid
[ September 10, 2004, 12:22 AM: Message edited by: Ray Rheaume ]
-------------------- 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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. . . . OK this is might be a lil' weird . . . .
but my very first fascination with letters and words was when I was about 12 . . . .
I used to cut out individual letters, punctuation marks, words and short sentence lines, from magazines choosing as many different fonts, colours and sizes as possible.
They were carefully cut-out, even the tiniest character(s) leaving only a slight margin around the peice for contrast and colour.
Then I would meticulously glue them at all kinds of angles, all over bottles or boxes, whatever, until every little spot was covered...
When completed, the collage of various colourful characters made you think of a certain theme or concept, as you moved the peice around and read all the characters, although they were all different types, sizes, colours, etc.
It drove my Mom mad since she did not view this as an art form but a mess. I still recall her complaining about all the "jiblets" of paper from my cutting frenzy, and complaining about all the magazines in the house being mutilated, LOL
But I thought this was preferable to making anonymous ransom notes . . . .LOL
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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REDRUM! Gene, you will quickly learn not to say that word around Jill or I. Much like you will learn not to say (or have) chocolate around Karyn.
Sheila, I did that too.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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I don't think that movie was around then,. . .for a list of the weird stuff that may have been influencing me, see the "favorite shows of the 60's & 70's" post, LOL
but I've never seen "The Shining" as I am NOT a Stephen King fan.
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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Good question! ...made me think and it was a good memory! The earliest I can remember was my Cousin Una. In the summer, my Grandma and I used to go and stay with her sister for two weeks. Grandma and Aunt Lydia would crochet, quilt & visit and I LOVED it because I got to be in TOWN! I was raised on a farm and it was a great treat to be able to walk up town every day to the five & dime store with my dollar and buy some trinket. WOO HOO! I would also get to go to my Cousin Una & John's house, just down the road. Una was a retired school teacher and John was a barber. They never had any children and I was treated like royalty at their house. Una bought me a speedball calligraphy book. At first, I didn't have the pens, so I would just draw the outlines of the letters with a pencil or pen and fill them in. The next summer, when I came she had gotten me the pens and inks. I just remember spending HOURS writing and practicing my calligraphy. It was quite a chore at first with the pens because I am left handed and they are set up for righties, but I figure out if you turned the paper a quarter turn clockwise, and wrote from the top to the bottom I could do it. I still love calligraphy. Other than that, marrying a sign guy probably had something to do with it!
[ September 10, 2004, 12:40 PM: Message edited by: Jane Diaz ]
-------------------- Jane Diaz Diaz Sign Art 628 W. Lincoln Ave. Pontiac, Il. 61764 815-844-7024 www.diazsignart.com Posts: 4102 | From: Pontiac, IL USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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I think it was a subconcious way to get back at my second grade teacher. She gave me ONE gold star for penmanship the entire school year, and I think that was out of pity....
My handwriting still stinks!
But I've been fascinated with signs ever since I could read.. Always remembered the one signmaker where I grew up who seemed to be the only one letering any sign.. He used the same font for Every single sign, and it drove me nuts!
I still have the first signs I made for a repair shop I worked at in 1981. At least they were legible...
Some day I will learn to hand letter, and it will be a wonderful day! Until then, there's vinyl, masks, and tracing paper...
Yes, I'm not worthy....You guys blow me away with the work you turn out. Bill F.
-------------------- Bill Foshay Stephentown, NY ------------------------ "That's not a junkyard, It's my museum!" Posts: 40 | From: Stephentown, NY | Registered: Mar 2004
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Winky Dink and You, a TV program from the early days of television. You had to send in some box tops from some kind of cereal and you would recieve a clear plastic sheet which would statically cling to the TV screen, then daily you would draw things that would appear on the program. The other shows that were my favorites was Jon Gnagy laern to draw, then came Julia Child. I wanted to learn to cook so I could support my habit of painting when things got slow.
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Watching a signwriter paint rows of little Norman soldiers on a shop front for " Conquest kitchens" and a tv ad for the RAC (writer lettering a Breakdown patrol van)( I was about 6 or 7)- As time goes by I realise how ancient some influences are ( reminders of book jacket lettering and packaging from my childhood etc)
""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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saw someabsolutely beautiful split blended shading & scrolls & lines on anold milk cart, and decided that if someone else could do that, well then so could I.
It took many years of struggle & absolute hatred of the slowness of layout & letter execution, before suddenly the penny dropped and it became easier.
My first 'official' job was a chiselled woodenslabwith 'Boundary Riders' Hut' put on it.It took me four days to do on the dining room table, on a towel. It is still used today, 23years later!
edit- my space bar needs clobbering- it won't alwayswork on this laptop.....sorry!
[ September 11, 2004, 08:52 AM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Joey, I used my mothers lipstick to draw those little bridges for Winky Dink. I remember seeing the Marx Brothers on Playhouse 90 for their last performance together. They made a police car copy and Harpo was the painter. painted a perfect circle usin a sausage tied at the ends for a template. Everything was goin ok till a real cop car pulled up. the emblem was supposed to be black on white, not white on black. Been lookin for those sausages ever since.
-------------------- Ron Costa Sign and Design 28 Ingerson Road Jefferson, NH 0358 Posts: 620 | From: New Hampshire | Registered: Oct 2002
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As a 7 year old, I striped my metalflake blue, open faced helmet for my minibike. I used all of the cool stuff Dad copped from work, like fluroescent orange and metallic green. Around age 13, I hacked out my first Moto-X Fox logo for my '78 CR250 Husqvarna dirt bike airbox lid from a big piece of stripe tape. I was the coolest kid on the block then. After the bike blew up big time, that airbox lid ended up sitting on display at a local Husky dealership till last year. When I went there to attempt to buy it, I found it had recently been sold to a Husky collector in California. I actually contacted the guy to try and get it back. Figured that would answer the zillion "what got you started in decals" questions. No dice so far, the guy won't return my calls... I really want that lid...
-------------------- Pete Sharkins MotoArts Decals and Signs New Kensington, PA motoarts@yahoo.com * All vinyl, all the time * Posts: 138 | From: New Kensington, PA | Registered: Mar 2004
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I guess paintn' numbers on Dad's race boats was my first encounter, our neighbor was "Anchor" Holmes, a very talented Harvey House road artist, watched him do signs in his shop in back of his house, first time I ever seen a mahl-stick. Then doing names on local hot rods instead of a paper route. Dad used to literally kick my butt when I'd flame stripe Mom's icebox. this was in '52-54.
Doing Dad's boats got me trips w/him to races on west coast, which led to meeting Roth and all the others over time. I owe a lot to my Dad.
-------------------- 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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this was in '52-54.
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