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Well, I've been posting here for awhile but I'm really not sure if I've really introduced myself, so I figure now Is as good of a time as any.
I'm Ryan, as you can see, and I'm 25 years old. I grew up in small-town Indiana and ended up going to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and majoring in architecture. It's a really tough 5 year program, and I emerged with my B. Arch and a real love of all kinds of design. I always felt a little guilty that after all the elevations, floor plans, renderings, etc., designing the presentation boards was always my favorite part
After college I spent a year in Chicago at a retail graphics firm running very high-end flatbed UV printers. Here's what I used to work with every night: They ran almost a million bucks, but man, could they crank out some awesome stuff. It would print directly to the substrate: foam core, styrene, coroplast, etc...and print whole 4x8 sheets in a matter of a few minutes, with the ink being dry as soon as it came out of the printer. To impress people at tradeshows we printed on acoustical ceiling tile, carpet, even bubble wrap! Click here if you wanna read more on that.
Spent about a year working up there -- the technology was amazing but I had no creative input whatsoever. Once in a blue moon I would get to design something for in-house use, but mostly I was a worker bee. Somehow ended up in grad school at Purdue in interior design. I was a graduate teaching assistant, which was REALLY fun and rewarding, but the graduate program there was a real joke and I ended up leaving after 2 semesters.
Toward the end of the spring semester, I was checking out the want ads -- my teaching assistantship was about to end and I needed something pretty soon. Saw an ad for a graphic designer at a sign shop...and everything fell into place.
I've been at Magic Light since May, and I've never had so much fun at a job or found a job so rewarding. Sitting at a computer all day cranking out CAD drawings has nothing on this. We specialize in custom neon, but we do all sorts of signage. We have a 3-axis CNC router in the basement, and while they have done several routed signs in the past, I recently got the opportunity to do MY first one.
The customer had her own logo (flower + text) and wanted to keep it simple and readable, so I didn't get a chance to really go crazy on this, but I really enjoyed the chance to see something go from a flat sketch to 3 dimensions. I primed, sanded, and painted the sign background before rolling up my sleeves and hand-painting all the raised letters, borders, etc.
All in all I LOVE working with HDU and can't wait to get into some more of it. When things are slow I really wanna pitch the idea of doing a full-scale guitar (maybe Lennon's Rickenbacker and McCartney's Hofner violin bass!) to use as a showroom piece and really show people what we are capable of.
On a side note, our neon bender, who is one of the best guys in the business, tried to show me how to splice tubes and made some simple bends today...wow, talk about something being harder than it looks! This will take some time!
-------------------- Ryan Long Magic Light Neon Sign Co. Crawfordsville, IN Posts: 132 | From: Crawfordsville, IN | Registered: Jul 2005
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Nice job Ryan! ...as you said, not really the go-crazy level of a showpiece you can hope for down the road, but still a nice start to break into more HDU work. I've only got about 5 under my belt & the 6th one is just about to get masked next week.
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Having just recently bought a router I can attest to the wonder of seeing a design I first imagined, then built on a computer screen come to life on a machine. Its absolutely magic!
And of all the substrates we worked with so far HDU is my favorite by far.
Then the magic continues as the raw piece is primed and then base coated, followed by the creative painting.
I KNOW exactly how you feel!
I hope you get that satisfaction often in your future!
-grampa 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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