My name is Mark Fuller and I live in Ontario, Canada. I am a graduate of George Brown sign design from 1989 ( 2 years )
I am one of those "lurkers" that you people said you wanted to see more of but wondered if you were frightening us away from responding or introducing ourselfs.( you were)
I am saying "hello" cause you people have helped me in ways that cannot go unnoticed. I will always remember what I have learned from this board, ( and not just sign related )and hope to continue my education here for a long time!
BACKGROUND
Opened my own shop in 1990 and by '98 was swimming with 3 employees (all sign people). My first Sign Craft copy was Feb.90 (I think), It had on the cover "Signmakers from around the world"....lo and behold...there were two Canadians on the cover!, one was this man from Montreal who could paint Roman marble on paper, and his work was outstanding but out of my league. The other was this couple from Fergus, Ontario who did some really excellent awnings...the Shortreeds!. My father and I actually drove out there 'cause I wanted to see the awnings up close. The fish and chips one was fantastic and if I learn how to post pictures, you will see how good their work is!
I had dropped out of University of Toronto without telling my parents and enroled at George Brown to take the course. My father caught me hand painting a truck 2 blocks down the street and asked why U of T was making me do this....ooooops!
Burned out, sold out and got a corporate job and after 3 years, been replaced by 2 $12.00 people
To make a long story short,I am now back to "doing signs" in an rural tourist area and have all of you to thank. I didn't want to get back in the game because, well it is harsh at times and I thought it was a weakness of mine, but you people made me understand it wasn't me....IT IS THE BUSINESS!. I am older and wiser but once bitten, twice shy.
The love of the business and why we do it was what you people reminded me of. I just did my first job in my new town and made 3 weeks corporate pay in one week!
I could go on and on but....Thankyou for re-inspireing(?)me in my craft and giving me the encouragement to "just do it", THANKS!
Tankyou Dave Grundy for helping me with my Roland problems (9 e-mails in one day and a long distance phone call, his dime)also to Don....I am an Adobe boy and I can understand you slant...Corel can be "chunky"
You guys and gals have taught me that I am not alone and if I choose to spend 1 hour going through 10 differant shades of blue to find the right colour...I am not wasting my time!
I owe you people more than I can re-pay
Mark
------------------ Mark Fuller Fuller Signs Keswick, Ontario
I'll take a check. Just kidding! Welcome and congrats for "coming out of the closet!" ...eeeek that didn't sound so good.
um, well, you get the idea!
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Please allow myself to introduce myself? Welcome Mark, don't be a stranger. Yeh, we been talking about you lurkers ( I like that ) Hey Lurkers....! Stop lurking. Anyway don't mind me I have no manners or a brain either. Glad to know that you have started opening the door for other LURKERS! Damn, I did it again. Somebody stop me..........CrazyJack
------------------ Jack Wills Studio Design Works 6255 Brookside Circle Rocklin, CA 95677 writer@quiknet.com
Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Hey, great to meet you Mark! I think my first issue of Sign Craft was that very same one too...and it was a thrill for me to pull that one out and ask that Fergus guy to sign the cover when they were guests in my home a while back...wow....gives me chills just thinking about it! A
------------------ Adrienne Morgan Splash Signs www.splashsigns.com "Rainkatt'on chat
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Welcome Home! Don't be shy to become a Lettervillian! That's too close to Lettervillain....gotta find a better word...heheh...Depends how you weed it....
------------------ Mario G. Lafreniere aka Fergie.
jnsigns@onlink.net Chapleau, Ontario home of "The World's Largest Game Preserve" Spring is upon us,in Shania Twain Country. Farewell snow,here comes the mosquito!
"I cut it twice and it's still too short!"
[This message has been edited by J & N Signs (edited June 15, 2001).]
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Welcome!! Did the Shortreeds remember to tell you it's customary to send me and Si Allen $10 each?
heh..............worth a try.
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
Good to see a fellow George Brown graduate. There's a few of 'em kicking around here. I think I finished in '95.
Anyway, not to get too "in your face", but the best way to show the Shortreeds that you appreciate what they've built and maintain is to send in your "taxes" to help pay the bills.
That goes for everyone. All right, sermon over. Carry on...
------------------ Bob Darnell London, Ontario, Canada
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Welcome Mark..And thank you for the kind words.
ANYONE who e-mails me for info on things that I know something about always get an answer..as long as I figure I know the "answer". But anyone askin me about Illustrator or mac's gets their e-mail forwarded to Donny!
------------------ 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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Welcome to the posting population. I don't think I've ever been a lurker?
A Pervert, a peeping tom, a drug addict, a thief, a loser, a big a**hole, but never a Lurker !!!
Go figure.
Welcome back from the corporate playground. You can take the sign painter out of the sign business, but you can't take the sign business out of the sign painter. Like a lost dog you will always find your way home.
------------------ Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA bob@creativesignworks.com
"Some people's kids"
[This message has been edited by Bob Rochon (edited June 15, 2001).]
Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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As I mentioned to you in our private e-mail, I have always thought that Corel was a second hand cheap imatation of Adobe and have never felt comfortable with it. Reading the search topics, I have come to understand that it is useful and really works!
I have spent years learning Adobe and I am proud of that. When I read 5 months ago that you could run a sign program off Corel with a Roland ploter, I laughed!. I thought you were a nut bar, I have spent 10 years learning Gerber and E.P.S. and as we discussed "Closed systems" in my mind was the only way to go.
Well I don't want to get to deep, but, I can now do what I used to do on Gerber with Corel. Believe it or not that little Canadian sign program,.... woooops it is not a sign program, it is a program . As much as I laughed 5 months ago when I first read your posts, I am now producing quality work with corel.
I still do my work in Adobe and "export" to Corel. I am getting better at working straight from Corel and actually am enjoying it
Mr Grundy..... I used to laugh at you guys telling me Corel was O.K. The bottom line is with out sounding to cheap, Corel does the job!
Granted there are a lot more buttons to push and a lot less options to achieve, I spent $10,000 on my first system (Gerber)and I have spent $3,000 on my next system, Corel- Adobe and have already saved a lot of money!
I am not a cheap person by anymeans, but to those who are just starting out....Corel will do the job!. I still miss my Gerber, but what I've been hearing....I am not missing out on much and saving money at the same time.
Thankyou Mark
------------------ Mark Fuller Fuller Signs Keswick, Ontario
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Welcome to Letterville Mark. You should have dropped by the shop when you passed through Fergus. I have a feeling you will be hearing from that stunning blonde Kelly Hall shortly. You knew her as Kelly Bellamy.
Kelly and Larry Kramer both own sign shops here in the Fergus area. I'm real proud of both of them!
One of these days, we all need to get together and have a small Letterhead Meet somewhere. I've been playing with the idea of a weekend campout at Elora Gorge.
I did not want to mention how cute the girl on the cover was 'cause I thought it was sexist. But she was "THE COVER". I am glad she is doing well!. You and Barb have done much for us ( oh I am just a humble O.K. talented person, trying to make my way through life.) My heartfelt thankyou was not as it sounded....you really encouraged me when I was just "a kid"....you work was something I honestly looked up to!
I have read SignCraft for ten years now and even though I wish I could be as good as those profiled, I don't know whether it would sell in my area. The work I admired for years was somthing that was "differant" than what was happening in my country. Don't get me wrong, but I can not sell "New Jersey" in Keswick! The thing that sells in my new area is "BIG RED LETTERS".
I will try to change that!, thanks to you heads. Mark
------------------ Mark Fuller Fuller Signs Keswick, Ontario
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Mark Fuller, This was the first message I openend today and it lit up my screen and my heart. Thank you for your elaborate comments. I'm gald to hwve you on the bright side.
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
Posts: 6806 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Welcome to the site Mark. From another George Brown Student. But I have to say that I graduated many moons ago (1974) Nice to see you on board and if you have a question someone can answer you know you'll get one. And hopefully you'll return the favour to us as well.
------------------ 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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sumfin i just thought of when reading your mention of corel for sign making...
being as we are 'commericial' signwriters where commercial=making enough money to 'stay' in business! i'd have to ask the question how much money do you have to turn over making signs to cover the setup cost of the 'real' sign making programs? and how much 'less' do you have to turn over to cover the cost of corel as a sign making program? ok it's a retorical question but still one that bears thinking about
we all shop for a good deal with our supplies and equipment so why should our programs be any different if you could buy rolls of the sticky stuff (in the same quality range) but a fraction of the price... we'd be mad not to do it right
anyway keep posting bro
cheers gail
ps:just the rambling thoughts of a cold mind.... jeeese its freezing here today!!!!
------------------ on chat T2
Gail & Dave NSW Australia
taurus@kooee.com.au
sumtimes ya just gota!
Posts: 794 | From: 552 O'Regans Creek Rd Toogoom Qld 4655 Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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Thanks to you and all the other wonderful people at this B.B.
In my ramblings the other night, I just said I didn't know you could cut from Corel until I found this board about 6 months ago.
I did not have a computer when I started "doing signs" just a lettraset book, photocopier and an overhead projector!
Leased a Gerber 4b for $10,000cdn. in 91(400 a month) and was worried about the extra overhead involved...second day I had it, a customer walks into the shop and wants "minni put-put hole #1" times three for each hole! Made my monthly cost in one day. The week before I hand to hand cut 200 script logos about 3 feet long, took me a week. So I was sold on computerized lettering.
Got a Gerber Advantage and a Pentium in 96.. no more x=0 y=-.7 So I really did not know of the other programs. Now I am starting all over again from scratch and did not want to afford the money for software, which is why I was so happy to find that Corel did work!!!
Believe me I am not complaining at all, and Corel works with a lot more file types as you know.
Thanks again for the warm welcome from a cold place (I live in a cold place too) P.S. best Olympics I ever saw!
Mark
------------------ Mark Fuller Fuller Signs Keswick, Ontario
posted
i know u wernt complaining bro and i also know i am speaking tot he converted.
i remember when i found out that you could cut from corel too.... and the one little thing that stoped me for over 18 mths was answered right here in letterville...
the person to blame for starting me down this road all that time ago is none other than 'old (joe) paint' i often wonder just where i would be now if not for this place.... yuk... bad thought! hehehe
cheers gail
------------------ on chat T2
Gail & Dave NSW Australia
taurus@kooee.com.au
sumtimes ya just gota!
Posts: 794 | From: 552 O'Regans Creek Rd Toogoom Qld 4655 Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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------------------ Ian Wilson Signmaker Toowoomba City Council Cnr Anzac Ave & Stephen st Toowoomba Queensland Australia may all your toubles be little ones The man that never make a mistake never makes anything
Posts: 656 | From: Toowoomba Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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------------------ Pat Neve, Jr. Sign Man, Inc. 4580 N. US 1 Melbourne, FL 32935 321-259-1703 signman@signmaninc.com Capt. Sign Letterville Constituent constituent: "One of the individual entities contributing to a whole"
Posts: 2284 | From: Melbourne, FL, USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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Just kidding!
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