posted
Back in the 50's, one of the sign painters who would stand still long enough for me to ask hundreds of questions about lettering was Jimmy Coppin, who lived in the same small town in which I grew up. He was a civilian who worked as a graphic artist at a nearby military base. He would answer questions, give me brushes and show me how to mix and palette paint.
Later, he and my brother formed a partnership and opened their sign shop in February, 1963. After college I worked for both of them.
Sometime later Jim left the partnership and opened his own sign business.
Several weeks ago, his son, Danny (who now owns his own sign shop) asked me to reletter a glass door that Jimmy had done over 30 years ago. The owner was moving her business into a new building and had the glass door removed from the old site and installed in the new location. She didn't want anything changed - just made to look new. Since Danny doesn't hand letter, I agreed to do the job.
This morning I left early to get the job done before the 100 plus Texas temperatures baked my brain. It was in the shade, very quiet, and a cooling breeze picked up just as I arrived. Memories were everywhere. What a joy it was to be hand lettering again, and especially doing a job that was originally done by my mentor in 1971. There was nothing special to the job, just go over what was there with One Shot.
It was good to know that someone appreciated Jim's work enough to go to the trouble to move the glass and then to have me spruce it up.
You will see from the photo that Jim's work did not display museum quality, but it was what he turned out everyday, and very quickly I might add. It was typical of the 70's. He probably spent less than an hour on the whole project, and that included the time he would have spent flirting with the owner.
Jim died some time ago from a brain tumor. A lot of folks around here still remember him, and one at least wants to preserve some of this work.
[ July 21, 2003, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Raymond, I can understand your feelings. As things change, we sometimes forget that there was a time without lettering tape, much less vinyl. You would just go and layout the job on site with a stabilo. No sketches, color samples, quotes, permits, etc. And you walked away with cash. Life was simpler.
What I don't understand is: a female owner of a barber shop?
posted
Thanks for the post. It's nice to remember when the sign business was a lot simpler. I used to paint for hours while listening to the radio and daydreaming. There was nothing better than going down to the marina on a nice day, listen to the waves slapping against the hull while you mixed up your paint color to match the boat stripes.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1295 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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That's pretty cool, Raymond. I wonder how many people who see that sign will really appreciate it like we do. I see a few old signs around here done by Bill Boley back in the mid 80s when he was working at Bay Signs in San Diego near the end of his career. There was one on a church, a small wood sign that had his distinctive script. It was getting pretty weathered awhile back and I was tempted to offer them a new one if I could keep the old one. The last time I went by it was gone, replaced with a new one. Darn. Then there was Tom Jones, maybe the first sign painter I ever met. The last time I saw him, around '86, he was 92 years old, still painting occasionally. I don't know of any of his work still in existence. He did a lot of glass gilding. Not museum quality stuff, but he encouraged me. He would answer my questions, when a lot of the old timers wouldn't.
posted
Aw geeze...ya sure know how to tear a guy up.
I went to see my mentor (Grady Gordon)while I was in Denver 2 weeks back and he reached in his kit and pulled out a handful of brushes...when I asked "whats this" he said "Oh I've been saving these til I saw you next" ..."these are out of Gene Niblos kit...and I knew you'd like to have them" (I apprenticed under Gene for 5 of the most wonderful years of my life). They were old and used and full of magic...Ya gotta love the "Old guys" I hope someone will think of me someday...the way I choose to think of my cronies.
Thanks Ray...you got me to thinkin too, aint it grand?
[ July 21, 2003, 11:54 PM: Message edited by: Monte Jumper ]
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
Thanks Raymond, took me back to when my sign shop was a couple of brushes, a bit of stick and a few bean tins of paint on the back of my motorbike. I'm sitting here wondering what happened, I had a lot more time then even though I think I was a lot busier actually making more signs than I probably do now. Is there an 'outside'to this office?
-------------------- Rik Russell, RIK THE SIGNWRITER Innisfail, NQ. Australia rikthesignwriter@msn.com Posts: 28 | From: Innisfail, NQ. Australia | Registered: Jun 2003
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Great post. I guess I'm lucky to still be doing it the way Jim did to this day. Sometimes a china marker and a couple of brushes are all I need to get thru the day, and occasionally, I get paid in cash.
Old shool is still my favorite way to work. It has an appeal and charm that will never be lost and is still very alive where I live.
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 had to do a double-take there for a second. To see a man standing there in his jeans and t-shirt, mahl stick in hand, brush in the other, lettering a window. You look like my dad standing there. Thanks for the smile my friend.
-------------------- Kimberly Zanetti Purcell www.amethystProductivity.com Folsom, CA email: Kimberly@AmethystProductivity.com
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” AA Milne Posts: 3723 | From: Folsom, CA | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Those moments are deeper than sentimental. They often bring us to a place of experiencing GRATITUDE. Holding up and expressing appreciation for those that taught us is some of what holds a society together.
Other than the emotional side of this post, I'm amazed that lettering will hold up on the outside of the glass for so long there. It seemed to work when I was in southern California, but up here it might make it for a year. Also, many sign ordinances consider lettering on the inside of the glass exempt from needing a permit, while on the outside it's considered wall lettering.
Thanks Ray
-------------------- The SignShop Mendocino, California
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. — Charles Mingus Posts: 6843 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I hope you guys are all saving a few vinyl scraps to pass along to the next generation of awe-struck kids as they watch you tape & peel on a window... I can hear them now... "Wow! How do you DO that?" Posts: 1859 | From: / | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hello Raymond, That was the reason I got into this wonderful business in the beginning. I just love it. I can remember taking my kit everywhere with me. I remember watching a guy at the Kansas City Letterhead Meeting take a brush and a maul stick and pull the longest smooth curved stroke I had ever seen. I was in total awe, I took about 3 steps back. This quiet gentleman was Raymond Chapman.
-------------------- John Arnott El Cajon CA 619 596-9989 signgraphics1@aol.com http://www.signgraphics1.com Posts: 1443 | From: El Cajon CA usa | Registered: Dec 1998
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A short while ago I had a request by an elder member of a local fire department to repaint a wall on the old firehouse. It seems the building is no longer in use, but is being restored as a museum in this particular town.
The sign was directly over the 2 front doors on a block wall, about4x24 feet, and said "Melrose Volunteer Fire Department", in white letters with a black outline and shade, on a red background. Inside the letters was an imit. gold "bottom" with a couple of stripoes that faded into the white tops. The whole thing had a double border, black and white."Fire Department was the larger letters, and the top line of the copy was on an inverted curve.
I guessed that it was done in the 50's by a signman named Jim Giaborti who is now deceased. The older folks confirmed that. I could tell by the style, even though I never met the man. He was well liked in the area.
I know how it must have been for you, because I had similar feelings as I brought this painting back to life. This was in a small town, and I could envision those old days as I was painting. Things like how small the town was then, who was around that is still there now, thinking of the simpler lifestyle, etc.. I also thought of how old I was then, what I was doing ,and it carried me back to my childhood. Heck, I could have been one of the young boys who rode upon his bike and stared as he painted that wall. I wondered what his life was like...what other things did he like to do. I made a mental note to go ask 2 of the old timer sign people I know to tell me all they knew about Jim. If I don't do it now, who knows when they will pass away too, and all will be forgotten.
There was definitely a mixed feeling of pride ( for being asked to paint it), and melancholy (for those days gone by). I count myself extremely fortunate to have my own place in history, however minor it may be. And it makes me more aware of the younger generation today...waiting for that little person to come up and ask me what I'm doing. Who knows ? there might be another sign painter standing there...........
-------------------- 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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posted
Thanks for the nice responses. I'm sure that some of the younger crowd that frequent this BB are asking, "What are all those old geezers talking about?".
Someone mentioned having that youngster stand and ask questions. Several years ago I did an article for SignCraft that was about doing some handlettering on a merchant's glass. Very similar to this, only the glass had been broken and I was just replacing the lettering for the insurance company. While working, a young boy of about 10 came up to watch and asked all the same old questions that we have heard for years. It made me think back over 40 years (at the time this took place) ago when I was that little boy asking the same questions...and being told to "get lost".
With that early impression still on my brain, I answer every question anyone has while I am out lettering (or installing, or anything). You just never know when that youngster might be a young Gary Anderson, Noel Weber, Dan Sawatsky, Mike Jackson.....
Us old types can get rather sentimental at times, but you young'uns are just going to have to live with it.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Thanks for the Memories Raymond, My dad and My uncle(dad's twin brother) were my mentors. They fussed and fought like junkyard dogs over how to do things. My Dad was the more educated by schooling, and my uncle by life. They had Biggs Twins Sign and Display in Jonesboro, Arkansas from 1924 to 1950, My uncle became an alcoholic and then a preacher, so dad packed up and moved to Texas. He helped open a sign shop at Dow, but quickly got his own clientelle and left dow after a couple of years. That quality of work was about what they turned out, It raised my dads family of 5 kids and some of his signs are still around, but not many. I still do hand lettering, and try to keep my practice up, but I have to work to sell paint over vinyl these days. Bill
-------------------- Bill & Barbara Biggs Art's Sign Service, Inc. Clute, Texas, USA Home of The Great Texas Mosquito Festival Proud 10 year Supporter of the Letterheads Website www.artssigns.com "MrBill-" on the chat page MailTo:biggsbb@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1020 | From: Lake Jackson,Tx | Registered: Nov 1998
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