posted
About 25 (+ -) years ago, I was fresh out of the Army, out of money, and out of ideas as for my future. I decided one day that since I was always good in art and liked to paint, that I would become a sign painter. My search for work as an apprentice sign painter led me to a company that needed a designer and not a painter, since they had just purchased a Gerber Signmaker IV and fired the (never sober) painter. Desperate for work, I took the job.
I sat at a drafting table for 8 years designing signs for a staff of 5-6 salespeople. Computers and CAD came into the picture much later after I was hired, and my employer was slow to see the light, as was I. However, I learned a tremendous amount about signs without actually ever making one.
When I moved back to Georgia 11 years ago, my lack of computer skills hurt me and I ended up taking a job as a sign fabricator since I was handy with tools and such. I missed the air conditioning and other perks of working "up front", but again, I learned a lot building custom signs. I worked that job for 5 years and watched that company go broke through mismanagement and an owner that would rather get high than come to work.
Unemployed and unwilling to go through the grind of job hunting again, I purchased a computer and a friend taught me CAD. When I felt comfortable enough with my new "magic box" to be dangerous, I built a small shop next to my house, purchased a used ShopBot, hung a shingle out and never looked back. It was tough going at first, but my knowledge of design, materials and fabrication paid off in spades when the phone finally started ringing. I'm not getting filthy rich, but I never set out to. I just wanted to be happy at doing something I understand and am pretty good at. Six years later, so far, so good.
However, I've YET to put brush to panel, and THAT was my whole intention!
That's my story. Who's next?
[ March 26, 2007, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: Mark Tucker ]
posted
Back in the 80s I was a welfare mom, bored and needed a job...went around the corner to the local sign shop in Sacramento and asked if they ever had need of an artist... They didn't, but they did need a go-fer girl to run errands, stuff envelopes and clean the bathroom. I was able to bring my daughter to work with me too.(it was an all women sign shop) At Christmas they offered to teach me how to paint windows, I took them up on it and after reading a copy of SignCraft featuring a signpainter named Nick Barber I decided that's what I wanted to do! 20 years later I'm still doing windows and also include vinyl, handpainted pictorials and murals. A:)
posted
In the summer of 1971, at the ripe old age of 19, this landscaper broke his leg playing soccer with a baseball at a driving range. It’s a long story–besides, I was winning!
A friend who had service contracts for sign maintenance offered me the job of driving around at night spotting signs with lighting problems and calling them in the next day so he could schedule his crews. After I got my foot out of the cast, he hired me on one of his service trucks.
After a year of climbing up and down a 65' Skyhook, I took a job delivering air freight since the hours and pay were better. After a couple of months, the air freight business fell apart and I was laid off. I was about to get married and decided to start my own company, Pioneer Sign Service, since the sign company I had worked for had hired a replacement for me.
I didn’t have a boom truck and had to take the jobs I could reach off an extension ladder, which generally limited me to working with ma and pa operations who didn’t want to spend money on sign repair. Occasionally, someone would stop me and ask me for a new sign. I was always artistic and fascinated with letter styles and gravitated naturally to sign design. The people I built the new signs for were grateful for what I did, rather than grumbling about having to put money into their sign like my service customers were. I decided to work for the people who were happy to see me and just started building signs, changing the name of the company to Pioneer Signs.
I sold that company in 1981 and left it in 1983, establishing A Sign of Excellence.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5095 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Adrienne, that's a great story. Good for you! It just goes to show, even poverty can't hold a good woman down!
David, I know someone a lot like you. He was good with electrical, and started finding lit signs in need of repair, climbing ladders all day, driving all night, etc. Folks started stopping and asking him; "Hey, can you make me a sign?"
That was 8 years ago. Today he owns and runs a successful sign company near me that employees 10 -12 people in a 4000 sq. ft. shop and has done very well for himself and his family.
posted
I've told my story before, but for those who missed it or really want to read it again...
Back in the late 60's my brother won a competition painting a window celebrating a local ski chanpion. He won $15.00 for his efforts... no small sum in those days, especially for a kid. When he showed me the check a light went on in my 14 year old brain. People would pay for this... I'd do Christmas windows!!! I'd never heard of a window splash for I lived in the boonies.
I scrounged up my mom's old Christmas cards (she saved them) and used them for inspiration to draw up a book of designs which I showed the merchants in town in late November of that year... promising to do each design only once. I did one or two windows each night after shcool, up to 4 on Saturdays. Window splash season was short but in those few weeks of business I did over 7$700 dollars that first year... more cash than I had seen in my entire lie... I was rich... and I had hitch hiked the five miles into town to do the work as I was too young to drive.
I was asked to paint signs after that and in the coming years I formed my own sign company called Big Rock Signs after the local sign guy refused to hire me. My signs were horrible but I was learning fast.
In my early twenties I switced to fine art and did well, but I longed for the bigger stuff once more. Historical murals were next on my list of duties during my late 20's and early 30's and have done more than a hundred to date pretty much all over North America. I still do them occasionally.
But flat work was getting boring and as I did my research and learned I found doing 3D work was much more exciting... and in 1992 we formed Sawatzky's Imagination Corporation and concentrated soley on that end of the business.
All in all its been exciting... and beats working for a living by a mile!
-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: 8740 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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1985 - It seemed like the only real way to make a living in the "Art" business at the time & had a friend, Mark Nelson, who helped me get enroll at Detroit Lakes Tech. Sign School the next year despite the 2 year waiting list. (Thanks Mark!)
1985 - Went to a full time 2 year course at Detroit Lakes Tech. in Minnesota & learned hand lettering/layout. (Thanks Rod & Bob!).
1987 - Was selected to work in the sign department at a large sign company in Bismark ND. Cook Sign Co. (Thanks Bernie!).
1989 - Then moved to Minneapolis, Mn to do contract work. I got 35% of gross for everything I lettered with 2 sign companies. Bunked in an attic with a friend & his very understanding wife. (Thanks Nate & Tina!)
1990 - Then in early 1990 opened Bendel Sign Co., Inc. in St. Cloud, Mn. I came to town empty pocketed with 6 sheets of MDO on the roof of my van & an open $1500.00 credit card. Rented an 800 sq. ft. shop with 8' sidewalls in a decent location & hit the pavement.
1995 - BTW....All hand lettering to this point & for the next 5 years.
2007 - The rest is history. 8000 square foot shop on a busy industrial street with a 4 year old 4000 sf office warehouse added on to the original 4000 sf shop.
-------------------- Michael R. Bendel Bendel Sign Co,. Inc. Sauk Rapids, MN Posts: 913 | From: Sauk Rapids, MN | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
worked for lamar advertising designing billboards. then they let me go out and paint billboards. then they layed me off. worked for several other shops in the area. I speant too much time on projects to be efficient in commercial shops. last big company I worked for I was layed off with several other guys.....got sick of being let go so I started my own
-------------------- You ever notice how easily accessible people are when they are requiring your services but once they get invoice you can't reach them anymore
posted
Here are a couple of paragraphs from "Lap 1" of my new book.
The effect these racecars had on my brain and the fact that I turned out to be a sign artist, naturally led me to letter racecars. One day, a friend of mine, Don Romeo, told me he was going to have his new '72 Vette pinstriped. I didn't care about going with him until he said, "You might better go with me. I got some beer". "Beer? I'll go", I said. I found myself that night, sitting in this dimly light wash bay of the local Esso Gas Station, owned by Frank Smalley, a local "Hot Rodder". It was located at the end of town, by Seneca Lake. The building is still there today, but now it is a used car lot for Clifford Motors, the local Chevy dealer. We are all sitting around, drinking beer, and watching this guy (Bob Shaw from Dundee, NY) paint freehand pin stripes on Don's new '72 Vette. Between sips of my Genesee Cream Ale, I finally paid some attention to what he was doing. After watching for a minute, I couldn't believe what I was seeing! "This is so cool! This is unbelievable!” I thought.
He had this long, thin brush and he would dip it some paint and stroke the brush back and forth on a palette to get the paint to the right consistency. Then he would gently place his hand, while holding the brush between two fingers, and “pull,” a clean, straight stripe over the rear fender. I actually stopped drinking beer as I watched in total amazement. I remember thinking, “Man, I wish I could do that!” Bob and I got talking and when he was finished, he carefully cleaned his brush. Then, to my surprise, he turned to me and said, while handing me the brush, "Here, go practice". When I touched the brush, I suddenly had this strange feeling that I somehow knew how to do this! Of course I didn’t, but that is what it felt like. The brush felt right at home between my fingers! This is how I started painting. You could say Bob Shaw started me on a new road that would take me places and meet people I could have never dreamed of!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
Dreamed of going into advertising. Went to school for advertising. Spent countless hours drooling over great ad campaigns. Went to work for two different ad agencies. Lasted less than a month at each one. Realized that they spent most of their time being salesmen.
Had a cousin that knew a guy that was friends with a guy who ran a sign shop. Got introduced, got hired, been here 14 years.
Now I'm thinking about going back into advertising.
-------------------- Pat Whatley Montgomery, AL (334) 262-7446 office (334) 324-8465 cell Posts: 1306 | From: Wetumpka, AL USA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
Right out of high school I went to work for a sign shop whose main business was painting paper window sale specials for supermarkets. He had several chain supermarkets under contract, each chain had 30 stores and each store had 10 windows to hang 4'x6'paper banners to advertise products on sale that week. Each week, every week....no let up.
That's a lot of signs....he hand painted most of them, while the crew of 3 got to cut paper, hang it on the easel, remove it from the easel and hang it to dry, package the posters together for each store and ship them.
We got to screen print the multiple orders. The stencil was made by hand painting a paper banner, then the lettering was knifed out and laid on the table and the huge screen was laid carefully over the paper letters and then the ink was put into the screen and the paper would stick to the ink on the back side of the screen. If we lost a letter, we pulled it back out of the printed paper sign and stick it back in place or make a new one.
I still can't believe that system worked...but it did. This guy was fast wit a brush. All the lettering was "cartoony" looking as there was no time to square off the bottoms of letters.
He had a spinning easel set up, so we could cut paper and hang it on one side while he was paiting on the other side. Then he would pull a cord and the spin the easel around. He made the first paper banner and left it on the easle, then put a blank paper banner over the top, so he could see the layout right through the top paper. We could not keep up with him...he would always be waiting on us to get the paper cut and hung on the easel.
He told me I would never make it as a sign painter.
That made me mad. I proved him wrong!
While he was fast at banner ads...he couldn't letter trucks or cargo vans fast, and going from the mindset of high speed paper ad painting to slowing down for a nice job on a cargo van was not his cup of tea! Didn't matter, he didn't have time to do much local work as those supermarket deadlines came first.
[ March 27, 2007, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
posted
I wanted to be a gardener, which is a trade in my home country. They took me in for a trial week and didn't ask me to come back. Good choice, to this day everything green that I touch withers and dies. So then I ended up in a sign painter's apprenticeship because my dad had the connections. He was probably just desperate to get me out of the house, but I wouldn't change it if I could!
I started out waiting tables after high school, and went off to college. I studied, partied, and did what every other college student did.
After leaving, because my priorities were all fouled up, I moved back home, and started taking classes at the local community college. I was working part time as a waiter, but I started working more, and going to school less. I was really into minitrucks (lowering and customizing) and I joined a local truck club and I was hanging out at a local window tinting shop, and the owner there was getting vinyl from the local sign shop. I started getting all my vinyl for the truck club stuff there.
After I got really tired of waiting tables, I went into the local employment agency, and got a job working at a convience store from midnight to 6 am, and I quit there after 4 days.
I walked into the sign shop later that day, and the owner, Mickey, told me that he was glad I was there. He finished up with his customer, and told me that he wanted me to work for him doing all his vinyl work.
-------------------- Mark Kottwitz Kottwitz Graphics Ridgely, MD www.SeeMySignWork.com -------------------------- Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein Posts: 749 | From: Ridgely, MD | Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
Mum said I couldn't leave school until I got a job, I was 17, had no idea what i wanted to do so started writing away for everthing i could find in the paper that said 'No Experience Necessary'.
I got taken on by Action Signs, as a weeding assistant. All I did was weed and applicate. The shop was full service and I loved to watch the tradesmen doing their work but I was also intrigued with the plotters and how they worked. I peered over the shoulder of Sarah who did all the cutting and took note of which keys she was hitting. I had been there 18 months when Sarah took seriously ill. I begged and pleaded with the boss for him to let me run the computers. He eventually relented and was so impressed 3 months later I was promoted to run all of the computers. Sarah was sent out to manage a second shop that he had opened.
I spent four years at Action and became jaded after being told I couldn't have an apprenticeship cos I was too valuable on the computers.
I went to work for Academy Signs where I learned how to Screenprint. This was an area that I could get an apprenticeship so that's what I did. Markit Graphics were the biggest firm in town and agreed to take me on. I completed my trade in 3 years and was awarded top apprentice every year and qualified top Tradesperson in New Zealand. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
I heard of an opportunity to get back into the sign trade, the chemicals involved in Screenprinting were taking their toll so I headed off to Lets Get Graphic where I am today.
I've done a wee bit of painting through attending Letterhead meets and it is like a fire in my belly. I am on the move in a month to Wellington and will be working for a full service shop once again.
I hope to convince the boss to let me get my hands on a brush from time to time.
When you stop learning you're dead, and I am a long way from dying!!
-------------------- Anne McDonald 17 Karnak Crescent Russley Christchurch 8042 New Zealand
"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure" Posts: 877 | From: Christchurch | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I went to college for Graphic Design. Graduated in '81. Went to work in the big city of Toronto. Liked the work, hated the city. Moved back to small town rural Ontario where there weren't any ad agencies in the mid '80's. Went to work for the Liquor board. As my friends would say that was rather like asking a pervert to babysit your children. Although I worked for the board for 13 years I wasn't a very happy camper. Computers came into the world of graphics. My high school friend Pete Payne (thanks a lot Pete I still blame you!) was at a bar (imagine, me going to a bar, and meeting Pete there!) and I was talking with him one fine night. And he suggested computer graphics. My history was written on the wall. (No, not of the bar washroom!!!) I started Wildwood Signs in 1993. But didn't have the time nor the funds to get back to school so I am self taught and computer oriented. Well not SELF taught - I got my schooling on the Letterhead chat channel, from going to Letterhead meets and from reading SignCraft, Sign Business, Letterhead Magazine and all the rest of the fine sign mags. And from grueling hours of sitting in front of the computer teaching myself Corel at night when my babies were sleeping.
[ March 27, 2007, 03:27 PM: Message edited by: Deri Russell ]
-------------------- Deri Russell Wildwood Signs Hanover, Ontario
You're just jealous 'cause the little voices only talk to me. Posts: 1904 | From: Hanover, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Dec 1998
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posted
Started taking art classes at age 12, went on to graduate vocational school with a commercial art certificate, then spent the better part of the next ten years pulling squeegees across t-shirts.
In 1988, started doing freelance pre-press work in the are and a few airbrush projects at night.
In '91, I dropped a Harley fender in my shop and traded the repair for lettering on a race car. Before I had the hood finished, 3 other drivers wanted to hire me to letter their cars and the track owner asked for signs.
Been dubbing in the paints ever since. 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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posted
I was asked this same question by a sign magazine about 10 years ago. As usual, a simple task turned into an epic tale that took 2 issues to tell the story.
Someday, when I have time to kill, I really need to go and update the story.
There's been 2 additional heart attacks and a nifty pacemaker implant since then. The Letterhead Website is now called Letterville. We have a new Daughter that I never knew existed back then, and 5 grandkids.
[ March 28, 2007, 04:51 AM: Message edited by: Steve Shortreed ]
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
posted
In 1989 as a single dad living in Hawaii, my year-on/year-off custody arrangement was at it's annual transition & it was time to fly my daughter to her mom for their time together.
With two straight-A years under my belt in the Architectural Program at the University of Hawaii, I had been working as a draftsman for a local Architectural firm. I left that place of employment to spend half the summer on the mainland with my daughter before saying our goodbyes for awhile.
Without my daily responsibility as a dad, and being between jobs... I found myself hitching into New York City with a small backpack, $100 stashed in my shoe, an open-ended return ticket back to Hawaii (good for one year), and a phone number of an NYC girl I had allowed to stay at my place briefly back home.
I had expected to stay a week or two, but I was really loving the city for a change of pace, so when the girl offered me to stay 2 months untill her lease was up, I decided to look for work. A friend of hers offered to help me create a resume using MacDraw on his Mac SE30.
I was 30 yrs. old, and had never seen a personal computer. When I watched how he moved text blocks around, aligned things, assigned bold, or italic attributes & changed fonts... it was love at first sight! When the resume was done (showing my architectural experience, extensive wood shop work & a bit of screenprinting) ...I asked if I could play around with MacDraw awhile.
I didn't stop playing around with that program untill nearly sunrise. Later that week I responded to a graphics position at an Architectural sign shop. They felt the architectural,wood shop, & screenprinting background was an excellent combination. They asked if I ever used a Mac. (of course I said YES!)
...and I've been a sign guy & a computer graphics junkie ever since!
posted
I got busted by the cops doing grafitti. The cops suggested doing signwriting so it went from there.Now I'M thinking of doing graffiti again to get to use some paint.
-------------------- Mark Stokes Mark Stokes Signs Mount Barker South Australia Posts: 388 | From: Mount Barker | Registered: Jan 2005
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A cousin, who knew I'd gone to art school, needed some artwork and lettering on the walls of his store. He called me, and I've been working on lettering ever since. That was 1985. I figured out the rest as I went along, discovering Letterheads thru a magazine and finding this site when Steve and Barb attended my first meet. Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Mark Stokes: I got busted by the cops doing grafitti. The cops suggested doing signwriting so it went from there.Now I'M thinking of doing graffiti again to get to use some paint.
posted
This may sound corny, & that is ok, I have told how I got here on this BB before. To put it shortly, the Lord led me here. Exactly. I can trace Him through the last 15 years of my life directing me & leading me right to where I am today. (should have been dead a long time ago)
I have never been happier, even when times are slow!
Edited to add...Jake I LOVE that picture of you painting! Cool!
posted
I owned another company in the wood industry and helped a friend purchase an old 4B. He would not pay for it so I started playing with it and fell in love with making signs I could never do by hand for my company. The bug kept it's hold, I've sold my 20 yr old company I founded and now enjoy nothing but great graphics. Busy as can be with our VersaCamm, thinking about getting a second one. Run it like a business and it can be good for you.
-------------------- Tony Baggett A Plus Sign & Digital Graphics Ozark/Branson/Springfield, Mo Posts: 7 | From: Ozark, Missouri | Registered: Jun 2006
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-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3833 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
My goal after college was to be a ski bum. But I had these loans to pay off so I took a research job in the IC industry. Needing a hobby I started soldering together a computer kit in 1977, and kept buying new ones every year. By the early 90s the computer hobby was too expensive so I started making damascus steel knives. Needing a way to engrave my name I built a CNC router. It didn't work on steel but I made a few signs since I couldn't think of anything else to do with it. I was using Casmate for the router so I decided I might as well buy a vinyl cutter, then what the heck, get a heat press. Of course that led to screen printing equipment. Somewhere along the way Diane became the full time business woman working 7 days a week cranking out sign work. In the meantime the kids grew up went to college and we turned into grandparents. I still play with computers and think about retirement when I can do carved signs full time.
ernie
-------------------- Balch Signs 1045 Raymond Rd Malta, NY 12020 518 885-9899 signs@balchsigns.com http://www.balchsigns.com Posts: 1703 | From: MaltaNY | Registered: Jan 2000
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Being in the sign business is where I ended up. I wish I had discovered others who loved this craft a long time ago. I am happy today. A little abstract but happy.
[ March 29, 2007, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: Mike Faig ]
-------------------- Mike gatlinburg Sign Crafters Posts: 1051 | From: Gatlinburg, TN | Registered: Oct 2005
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Clowing aside, guys, quite a few of us really like reading your stories. I check this post everytime I see a new reply and get a little let down when its just a joke reply.
quote:Originally posted by Dave Draper: Clowing aside, guys, quite a few of us really like reading your stories. I check this post everytime I see a new reply and get a little let down when its just a joke reply.
posted
I've enjoyed reading others stories as well.
Diane Balch... I was beginning to get quite impressed with your industrious personality, when I finally followed a hunch halfway through & looked for Ernie's name.
Way back in elementary school I watched our local sign painter/town drunk as he lettered a truck for the ice plant that my father managed. We lived next door to the plant and I would bug the signman while he worked on location. I was probably about 9 years old. He never answered any of my questions and just ran me off.
But I was fasinated by the way he could make the brush do whatever he wanted.
All through elementary school I started drawing letters on just about anything that would sit still. While others my age drew horses and war scenes I loved letters. It wasn't long before I was doing all the posters and signs for my classes and even the teachers in other classes.
By junior high I began to paint signs for spending money (still doing that today after 50 years). Most of the local sign guys wouldn't tell you anything and would run you out of their shops if you walked in the door. My brother Wayland (six years older) and I continued to bug anyone that would listen to try to pick up some pointers. We both were painting signs and doing artwork using small half pints of paint from the hardware store and those famous "artists" brushes that you could buy for fifty cents a dozen.
While I was in high school and Wayland was working for the post office, we happened upon Jimmy Coppin who worked at the army base (Fort Hood) near by as a sign painter in the base shop that provided all the charts and graphics for the Army there. He happened to be a member of the same church I attended. Unlike the other signmen we knew, Jim would answer all our questions and even provided us paints and brushes and where to buy them. We discovered quills and bulletin enamel and thought that we had died and gone to heaven.
Also, we found "Signs of the Times" magazine and we were off and running. During my senior year in high school, my brother and Jimmy Coppin formed a partnership and opened Belco Signs, which is still in operation today. Jim died of cancer about ten years ago.
After graduation, I was off to college with no real desire to do anything but paint signs, but I was determined to be the first in my family with a college degree. Jeanne and I married just prior to my freshman year and she worked at a local hospital in order for me to go to school.
The art department at Abilene Christian University was geared toward abstract art and I couldn't understand why nothing looked like it was supposed to, so I decided to become a teacher of science and physical education....and paint signs on the side.
In Abilene, I worked for Art Hodges, doing screen printing and later for the man that gave me the direction of my life, Ellison Edwards. Ellsion was a Christian and also the finest lettering artist that I have known. He took me under his wing and taught me just about everything I know today about layout and design and how to work a brush. He also taught me by example how to be a gentleman and how to treat people with respect.
Finally, in 1968 I received my BSEd (after five years) and began teaching school in Killeen, Texas. I taught on the junior high level and coached a gymnastic team. Even while teaching I was working weekends and summers for my brother at his shop. The teaching career lasted three years.
Finally, it dawned on me that I was spending most of my teaching days waiting for school to be out or some holiday so that I could spend more time painting signs. Even at school I was doing sketches and layouts while the students worked on projects. So, I "retired" and began working with my brother.
Wayland's business continued to grow until he had 23 employees and was fully into electric signs and the service business. My job was to design electric signs and oversee the commercial department, which had five full time sign painters. That lasted for over 20 years, during which I discovered the Letterheads and a whole group of artists that were doing just what I loved to do.
As my work with Wayland became more production oriented and not what I really wanted to do the rest of my life, I decided to open my own one-man shop and concentrate on higher end designs and dimensional signs. That was a little over 15 years ago.
Chapman Design Studio is still in the same small shop and has employeed several part time folks over the past 15 years. Four years ago, my son Mike joined me and we have enjoyed building dimensional signs as our main product ever since.
If you have survived the book....congratulations.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Signwriting came free, with my Dad! Sorry Dave, but it really did. I was second coating Dad's lettering almost as soon as I could walk. I've tried other things and had exciting adventures but the leitmotif of my life has been signwriting. I'm now doing something entirely different but my new colleagues and old customers won't let me escape (not that I'd really want to)
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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...After painting a small "No Fighting / No Cussing etc. sign for a bar, I started calling sign shops to see if they needed help. The first one that did put me on a bill board crew as a helper. After a couple years swinging stages, I went to another shop and painted lots of black helvetica copy on white backgrounds. Eventually I found a job at a GOOD sign shop, and finally (really) started to learn about sign making. Along the way I devoured every issue of SOT and eventually SIGNCRAFT that I could find. And when SOT started to have articles about the fledgling LETTERHEADS i had to go to a meet (in '83 in Kansas City) . ...Now, here I am on an internet sign site!
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