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What type of work don't you like? With me it's the windshield "stickers". Don't know why, but I hate doing em. Usually people come when I am really busy, and God forbid you tell them to come back later. Once I told a guy I don't do them anymore, and he said, Well what do you do? This while standing in my front office where my displays are. I upped my price considerably, so I will still do em, but maybe not as much. So what's yours?.......
------------------ John Deaton III Deaton Design 109 N. Cumberland Ave.,Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-573-9101
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Well... I dont like anything that remotely resembles work...
Luckily I havent ran across anything like that yet.
Today I went to a seminar on screenprinting.. learned something new that I can take to my business and have some fun with!
There really isnt anything I dont like doing as I find most of it to be fun in some way as long as there's some creativity involved.. I guess for me it's more of a "WHO" I dont like dealing with.. which is anyone that comes up and wants me to drop everything and do their crap just because they're there and they need it today.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Good post...I guess what I hate the most is doing vinyl graphics.You see... I learned the trade as a sign painter, doing everything with a brush... it was the trade I chose and will forever be in love with. Now don't get me wrong, I'm smart enough to recognize the fact that there is money in vinyl and I love the computer for design work, layouts and pattern making. In fact my main reason for getting involved in computers was to speed up the mundane tasks and use it as a tool for "painting" signs...well as time went on I fell further into the box. Now honestly I have no regrets,I still turn out what I consider to be good work in a timely manner...it's just not the work I set out to do so many years ago (1963 actually).So to counteract this dilema, I go in early and find little make work jobs that involve the brushes...you know small signs for friends or something to hang in the shop and another way to stave off the frustration I hand shade and or outline a lot of my vinyl jobs. The most enjoyable times I have are with a brush in my hand...I'll never leave the trade but I am truly envious of those that have found the right markets to continue the craft the way they learned as "brushmen and women".
The bottom line is no matter how you go about it allways give it your best..."There is no us and them" just different ways of achieving the task!
Oh how I love those "Brush days" and I have one tomorrow... (I'll be outlining a vinyl job).
------------------ Monte Jumper SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla.
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Hi John...good topic. What I hate with a passion, is getting a call from someone insisting that I've gotta go fix up a job that someone else screwed up...especially if it was a job that I quoted on and lost, because they chose to go with the cheapest price. I'll do it, but if they balk when I give them the estimated cost of fixing up the disaster, I tend to give them my viewpoint that it might have been somewhat less expensive to have had it done right the first time.
What amazes me is that they seldom call back the guy responsible to make good, but will attempt to make you somehow feel an obligation to help them out of the mess they're stuck with.
I know that they're essentially giving you a "second chance", but sometimes the knowledge that they chose to go the "cheap" route initially, tends to dampen my enthusiasm for working with them. I wonder if others feel this way in such situations?
------------------ Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail kjmlhenry@home.
Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.
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I hate doing a job twice. Meaning, I find it ok to letter and stripe one side of a truck. But to do it again on the other side? I'm yawning as soon as I walk over there.
We really should start desiging two different things on two sides to alleviate boredom in our proffession.
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i agree with mikey....not so much what but the who iam doin it for.......and monty...my sentiments exactly....windshild banners are gold to me now.. with the mobile shop...sold 4 last sat at the mud bog races....$20 a pop, intermediate vinyl 4-5" tallx 28-36" long, cut weed and tape hand it to customer and get my $20.....dont like installin em..specially on the 2 story 4x4's.
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Ken is so on the money.... In a small town,add a dash of friendship and the "everyone knows everyone".....still they hose ya! And its always the ones with some bucks..... Huh?
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Obstacles!!!!! like bushes, mud, planter boxes, uneven sidewalks!!! I decided long ago the price doubles if there are annoying obstacles to deal with !! A
------------------ Adrienne Morgan Splash Signs www.splashsigns.com "Rainkatt'on chat
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I'm with Kathy..I hate the bookwork...So I don't do it!.....I just pull stuff out of envelopes and take it to the bookeeper.
Unlike Donna...I don't mind doing the second side of a vehicle or boat. It usually goes about 3 times as fast because I have the "method" and "measurements" down pat.
As for doing anything over and over..like 100 trailers in a row. Well, it IS boring, but the paychecks sure are sweet and I get a lot of time to daydream while doing them.
Like Mike and Joe...people are probably the worst part...Especially the one's who can't make up their mind on exactly what they want until the day before their precious sailboat is being dumped into the water!
------------------ Dave Grundy AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@quadro.net www.quadro.net/~shirley
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RACECARS! I hate em! Owners always want a deal, then addin sponsors to yer list. Those things are never ending.
------------------ Steve Barba is the proud owner, president, & sole employee of Sturgis Sign Works. "B0LT" on the chat room thing. 209 Oak Drive Sturgis SD 57785 sbarba2616@dtgnet.com 605-720-7667
Posts: 768 | From: Sturgis South Dakota | Registered: Nov 1998
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I really hate customers who design their own signs with brush script cardinal red then put a black drop shadow behind it and then ask me what I think.....Cause I tell them. It SUCKS!
And then I hate myself becasue the last time it happened, It was for a fleet of 5 vans and 2 box trailers.....and I did the job because the money was good.
Now everytime I see those vans I have to look away.
When a sign artist can do top notch work and can only get crap jobs it just makes my blood boil!
I also hate those cheap ass customers that put up a $500,000 building, and will only spend $300.00 on a sign, or have the gall to tell me that SIGN-A-RIPOFF will letter their truck for $35.00 and if I want the job I better lower my price.
There is more, but this BB don't have enough band width to hold it.
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA My Next Article In The April Issue of Sign Builder Illustrated covers step by steps on "digital airbrushing" YOU CAN DO! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I don't like doing signs with little teensie weensie letters. (I am impatient!)
Or I don't like making signs designed by a 'graphic artist' (who got paid 400.00 for a crap design that looks like it took 2 minutes to design)
And of course I don't like playing the "I can get it at cheap-ass sign co. for such and such" game. I usually tell them to GO then. (I have a bad attitude)
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Friends and Family That think it will only take you a minute or two. Never to say thanks! or ask or offer anything for your time out! Don't get me wrong as I love to help out in ways but when it becomes a habit on thier part to assume....
------------------ Raven/2001 Airbrushed by Raven Lower Sackville N.S. deveausdiscovery@sprint.ca
Posts: 4327 | From: Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Jan 2000
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1. Laminating redwood panels. I hate messing with glue of any kind. After the epoxy sets up, though, the worst is over and it's all fun from then on.
2. Paperwork
------------------ "autograph your work with excellence"
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1) Itty Bitty Teeny Weenie letters. 2) Lettring vehicles when they want stuff so big that it goes over doors, windows, handles, mouldings, humps and bumps etc... I can never seem to get them on wrinkle free!
------------------ Greg Gulliford aka MetroDude Metro Signs and Banners 1403 N. Greene St. #1 Spokane, WA 99202 509-536-9452
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Certainly paperwork, Except, of course invoices I used to hate doing things like directory strips and removing vinyl but after I started charging more for these type of jobs I feel much better about it!
------------------ Brian Stoddard Expressions Signs A few puddles east of Seattle
Posts: 790 | From: Monroe, WA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Well like today. Installation in the snow and cold. Can't wear gloves. Aluminum is cold. It is slippery and my partner (who doesn't climb) is freezing. (I will wear this one tonight) Two days in a row now and one more tomorrow. But the good point is it was a good paying job.
A bright and sunny (almost a hunnert degrees with all the glare you can stand and then some) kinda day
One (customer owned/abused) Rickety 6 ft ladder
Fear of impact
14 ft high truck
Steep grade parking lot with strategically placed potholes (apparently by Murphy, himself...hahaha!)
6ft by 10ft logo on vinyl (Horizontal/landscape format)
Melted roll of masking tape to hold (hahaha) the transfer tape to the vehicle (which is falling off the backing paper...thanks Mr Gravity!...not laughin now)
A Sqeegee 3 inches by 5 inches (yeah right!)
yer favorite exacto (with the last good blade in it...thanks to somebody "borrowin one" and fergettin to leave the rest of them in your kit)
And the guys who are supposed to write that big check when you're done,...watchin you fishin that exacto out of the grate it rolled into, because you stopped and thought better about one of them cuttin themselves grabbing it for you as it rolled across the parking lot at a high speed knowing your insurance doesn't cover stupid people.
Oh yeah...after all that havin one air bubble over a rivet that screws up...at the top, after you've packed everything back up, and you can't see where you're going from glare you've been staring at for the past hour...but they refuse to write the check till you go back out there and fix it.
The bubble was spotted by the bosses wife who lets you know, she's in a hurry to take him to lunch. Then, waiting on him to finally chase down the "girl" with the check for him to sign, listening to him mutter that he wished you'd had more bubbles to contend with so he wouldn't have to join her for lunch.)
(I don't even have to go into the concept of hot vinyl spreadin like peanut butter in this heat do I?)
Yeay! Summer is here! Woo-hoo!
The other thing I'm not passionate about going through again is the price gougers. I keep a mahl stick by the door of my office...leaning in the corner. If they come in spoutin insulting requests about how I might price my work, I gesture to the mahl stick and I ask them to have a seat until I get through with the payin jobs...if it's not a deal for me...it won't be for them...hahaha!
------------------ DrQuill - Mural Woman PEACE SIGNS logodesign2@icqmail.com Georgia, USA
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I've gotta agree with Chuck...quotes are a pain for me. And gluing up wood sign blanks isn't one of the most enjoyable things I've done either.....
But I'm really surprised that this post has gone this far without anybody mentioning working at heights. For me, there's nothing like climbing up onto an 80 foot high catwalk to work on a billboard to make one think twice about what kinda career they've chosen.
------------------ Don Coplen aka "SaintPete" Coplen Designs St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com
[This message has been edited by Don Coplen (edited April 13, 2001).]
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No one mentioned how when a job was finished the customer was satisfied and paid, but then he called later to say his wife or brother-in-law found fault with it. Then there is the bright lite that tells you that all the letters are not spaced exactly one hale inch apart.
------------------ Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. Little Ferry, NJ billsr@riedelsignco.com
Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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In all the years I have lettered, I have come up with these once or more: 1. Bushes in front of my work. 2. Bookkeeping when I don't have time. 3. People looking for an estimate when they are just really wanting to see if they can get a better price than their competitor, and then badmouthing their competitor after you have given them your time. (then telling me I am too expensive.) 4.Bright hot sun on a horse trailor when applying vinyl 5.Quills that lose their hair(brand new) on a smoothly painted surface 6. being out of supplies, or being rushed for any reason 7. customers that break appointments or are very late without calling (rare) 8. lettering water towers ( I don't ) 9. and all of the dislikes you mentioned above too.
------------------ Deb Creative Signs
Posts: 5373 | From: Loves Park, Illinois | Registered: Aug 1999
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The only things I don't like to do,are not sign related,unless you consider mechanical work on the shop vehicle sign related.That would be all I could think of.EVERYTHING thing else,is just a Challenge to be accomplished.Even the Tire kicker,non-paying,whinning customers.Are a Personal Challenge to me to see if I will let them control my emotions!!All in all,No complaints here. Hope this helps
------------------ PKing is Pat King of King Sign Design in McCalla,Alabama The Professor of SIGNOLOGY
Posts: 3113 | From: Pompano Beach, FL. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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