The subject has come up before on this site .... I thought I had heard them all!
Finishing a window splash yesterday morning with a quick outline/drop shadow, obviously with the speed and skill of many years of practice ... I am asked ...
"Do you do this for a living?"
hahahahhahahaa Sometimes I wonder!
So does my mother She asked once "When are you going to get a REAL job?"
------------------ Bushie aka Jon Butterworth Jonsigns old signwriters never retire ... they just fade into the background! Toowoomba,Queensland Australia.
Posts: 4014 | From: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
jon, the one that really blows my hair back is when I'm doing ....like this week i'm doing a job on a 40 ft coach and a customer comes in and says "this yours?" ahhhhh. happened last week with a harley i was doing and a few weeks back a ocean fishing boat i did a mural down both sides.... geeeez, i'm working on em in the middle of the day, like i got time to do stuff for my self let elong afford these toys,
waiting for my next dumb ass comment gotta love em. Cheers!!
posted
Most common one i get as a paint supplier is when youre mixing the color..."I dont want any runs in there ok? make sure you take em b4 i get it "
yeah..ok einstein
------------------ Gavin Chachere aka Zeeman Miller Supply Co./Ozone Signs & Grafix New Orleans La. www.millersupply.net www.ozonegrafix.com
Posts: 1223 | From: new orleans.la. | Registered: Mar 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Tell ya what cracks me up. When I am out doing a window for a new business, and someone comes up and asks me,"When are you all gonna be opening?" Happens everytime too. Guess they figure since I am doing the sign, I own the business too. Dang if I don't own alot of businesses!
------------------ John Deaton III Deaton Design 109 N. Cumberland Ave.,Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-573-9101
posted
Ha! John reminded me of the one that happened almost every time during the time I traveled each weekend to a different location of an Oil Co. Travel Plaza. I would be up on a ladder, lettering over the Cooler and the walls. Hand-painting outlines and shadows, wearing my “ears” to drown out commentary, or to discourage it. Focused. “Sorry to bother you, lady, but where is the toilet paper”---/tomato paste/whatever. I was the most versatile store clerk you ever saw, at minimum wage.
Or: Guy comes to shop door. Hi, is your husband in. No. – How can I help you? I need to get a price on a sign. I can tell you the price; I’m the one who makes the signs. Quizzically now, smirking: I never saw a lady sign painter before. Why not, I do them with my hands.
Two weeks ago a new acquaintance, a lawyer, asked me to dinner when she heard I am in Graphic Arts. Her question was: How can you help me help a good friend of mine who has no marketing skills sell her paintings on the internet. I don’t have to go into details to all you pros about my questions in return, but suffice it to say I told her at the end of them that I make a decent living making signs. Well, she said, that ought to settle it. I’ll tell her to just start making signs, if that’s where the money is.
By the way: I haven't yet figured out how to put my location information on my posts. I'll get there. I did not know it was considered disrespectful. Sorry.
------------------
Posts: 1244 | From: Winston-Salem, NC USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
John, one of my first jobs was with a guy who only did paper market banners, you know "Avocados 69 cents", etc. So one day we're bangin' 'em out, got these things drying all over the easels and floor and in walks a little old lady, about 100 years old, she looks around a minute then says real loud "So where the Hell are all the Goddamned vegetables!?"
I've also been told "You oughta do that for a living. You could really make a lot of money." and "You have a million dollar talent there, Buddy - would ya paint my mailbox for $10?" -- the days are just filled!
------------------ "If it isn't fun, why do it?" Signmike@aol.com Mike Languein Doctor of Letters BS, MS, PhD ___________________
You know what BS is, MS is More of the Same, and it's Piled Higher and Deeper here
I did some 'stickers' for a friend's truck. (works at racetrack on weekends). I'm installing them one morning at their garage when 1 of their friends comes in. (I really don't care for this guy to begin with and usually find a reason to leave when he shows up, but when I'm up to my butt in vinyl, I can't leave.) Everyone is "ooohhhing" and "aaawwwing" and saying how they really like this, that looks great as I grab new pieces. He makes the comment
"well, the computer does everything, right?"
By this point, I've had it with this guy. I turn to him and, in not so friendly a tone, I ask him "What, do you think I just sit there and talk at the monitor and just tell it to make me a sticker, it decides what size, font, colors to use and spits it out looking like this?" (I hold up a weeded, 2 color assembled, application taped ready-to-apply 'sticker') At this point, my friend chimes in and tells him, she still has to design or draw it, and assemble it. The computer just cuts it.
Another one, I'm doing a race car for a client at another client's garage. Wife/girlfriend of one of his employees walks in, watches for a minute and asks me how long we've been dating.
------------------ Chris King Paper Works & Graphix Indiana, PA
Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Fifteen years ago my wife (now x wife) laughed at me wanting to give up a job which paid $60,000 a year as Service Manager for a Toyota dealership to be self employeed.Well now I average $250,000 a year, not all mine of course you know net, gross??? But point she doesn't laugh anymore. Yes, sometimes everything works out great. Doesn't the last laugh feel wonderful?
------------------ Alan Ladd Atlanta,Ga
[This message has been edited by Aladd (edited June 10, 2001).]
She asked once "When are you going to get a REAL job?"
Printer-friendly view of this topic