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I was just browsing Dan Anontelli's website admiring his retro Logo designs, among others and I got to reminincing about my early days in design and lettering and screen printing. How many on here remember the Clip Art books you could subscribe to, they were big newspaper size glossy black and white publications that carried various subject matter. Laying down letreset, boy that stuff was expensive.. if you think fonts are expensive, then letreset was gold. I used to spend a lot of my youth in a dark room, making positives using a huge 2 room process camera... I'd have the radio on listening to my favourite just released tunes of the time. Dire Straights Sultans of swing, the Steve Miller Band, and so on. Making Pounce patterns using some copy I layed out on Ilustration Board, making sure the size would fit on that small 8"x8" shelf that slid in the projector. Then projecting that onto the wall and then tracing it out using a soft pencil.... Feeling a little meloncholy here today. Just some nice memories.
-------------------- "Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st. Neil Butler Paradise, NF Posts: 6277 | From: St. John's NF Canada | Registered: Mar 1999
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We had a photo-typositor. Our fonts were on filmstrips and we exposed one letter at a time on a strip of developer wetted photo paper. Once that was fixed and dried it went to the copy board of our 14' long camera. Ours was so old the it was literally made of finger joined mahogany framework which had burn marks on it from the original carbon arc exposure lights. We shot our film positives, stuck them on the overhead projector, traced them out and hand cut the amberlith.
I miss the old days. . . .occasionally.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1356 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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My mind wanders. And that's not a good thing, 'cause it's too small to be out there alone. Posts: 3129 | From: Tooele, UT | Registered: Mar 2005
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David, were you born in a log cabin sign shop too?
-------------------- Eric Elmgren ericsignguy@comcast.net A & E Graphic Signs Park Ridge, IL "The future isn't what it used to be" -Yogi Berra Posts: 192 | From: PARK RIDGE, ILLINOIS | Registered: Aug 2009
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I still have about 30 or 40 of those giant books- my wife hates the fact that I won't throw them away, they are a bugger to store- I got them from an art director of a newspaper- they were all from the early to late 80's and have some really good lettering samples, back before everything was computer generated.
I still have all my Rapidograph pens and markers- I used to hand draw everything in pen-n-ink on frosted acetate, including lettering, reproduced from a type style book.
by the way, I ran across my antique Opaque projector- which needs a bulb replacement- boy, that thing has some miles on it...
-------------------- Michael Clanton Clanton Graphics/ Blackberry 19 Studio 1933 Blackberry Conway AR 72034 501-505-6794 clantongraphics@yahoo.com Posts: 1735 | From: Conway Arkansas | Registered: Oct 2001
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Remember the old adjustable ruling pens you dipped in ink? We exposed silk screens with the old carbon arc lamps until the suppliers couldn't get the carbon rods anymore in the early 90's.
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Yeah Neil, I remember it well. I could've funded a retirement program on what we spent on Letraset.
Our projector was so old that instead of a bulb, you built a fire inside it.
Remember how they used to distort, in both directions? And you had to keep moving it around and re-aligning everything.
And worst of all, remember (I hope) when you laid out a billboard in Letraset, and blew it up on the projector, and it wasn't big enough? So you had to blow it up twice??? Suck-O.
I sometimes used to think those old 'snappers' who used to just draw a couple lines and start lettering, had the right idea. Not really.
-------------------- Dale Feicke Grafix 714 East St. Mendenhall, MS 39114
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Posts: 2963 | From: Mendenhall, MS | Registered: Apr 1999
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Did anybone else here learn photography using the old 4 x 5 press cameras? Those thing took great photos. We had to learn to load the sheet film in the dark and read the braille notches on the edge of the film to make sure the emulsion was on the right side of the holder.
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Now I can say how lucky I was to have learned to hand letter and memorize all the basic fonts. No looking up this font or that. And to have the ability to extend, condense, slant and whatever. Bill
-------------------- Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. 15 Warren Street Little Ferry, N.J. 07643 billsr@riedelsignco.com Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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When I started, they had not invented paint, yet, so we used bison blood and carbon from the fire. They did not have plywood yet, so we had to paint on hand hewn logs with brushes made from beaver fur and cat tails. We had to use a candle and a mirror to blow up various letters from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue and faintly see them on the log cabing wall, but the pay was certainly better. Dragging a sign to the location behind my horse was always problematic and I could never seem to get all the splinters out of my hands.
Then came along Letterset! Wow! I had pages and pages of Cooper Block leftover with all the popular letters missing. I always wanted to get a sign that had alot of Js and Qs in it, but never seemd to score. Remember those little hash registration marks beneath the letters that were never exactly right? I forever cursed the separation between Ls and As as in Lawrence, Ks, where I went to art school in an old Jayhawk cave.
Then one day, I noticed in Signs of the Times a company in Arizona that did computer cut vinyl letters. It was probably 1978. I had a big project where I needed hundreds of wood types all the same size in white helvetica. They were ourageously overpriced, but were definitely a time saver and a quality notch above doing them all by hand. The client, unfortunately was hit by a tornado and I got to do a redo of the entire project. Big bucks back then.
Well, I miss the good old days, but think about it. With no internet to connect with you all and share ideas, it was just kinda boring. Many thanks to Barb and Steve for cooking up this great forum!
-------------------- Preston McCall 112 Rim Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 text: 5056607370 Posts: 1552 | From: Santa Fe, New Mexico | Registered: Nov 1998
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quote:Originally posted by bill riedel: Now I can say how lucky I was to have learned to hand letter and memorize all the basic fonts. No looking up this font or that. And to have the ability to extend, condense, slant and whatever. Bill
Amen to that Bill!!!!
I used Letraset a few times, found the whole process to be very time consuming I did use the Letraset book as a source of letterstyles though. I worked as a journeyman in a couple of commercial shops in the seventies. You HAD to be able to do a direct layout on your own and also be able to layout from a scale sketch. Patterns on a wall were almost never used.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
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early days at lamar advertising when I had to come up with billboard designs i would blow up the company logos on the copier and then hand draw them the size i needed using triangles and t squares for the straight line fonts and hand drawing curved fonts laster. I had nothing but lectraset markers and they came out with a cool attachment that would slow air over the tip of the marker to simulate airbrushing LOL
i also remember when they got me a kroy lettering machine with about 5 discs for the different fonts
I also remember letraset. I would actually place them on overhead onto a wall and make layouts I would take to customers in the early days. Needless to say the layout just about all looked the same,....man I cant imagine going thru that again.
and the thought of spending 1 week hand lettering and airbrushing a van or truck body was the norm
-------------------- 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
I still have my old stripprinter and around 100 font film strips, Ramsey, film line cutters for rubylith positives and negatives. Speedball pen nibs and book from the 50's.
I also have my opaque projector for enlarging work, elipsograph's large and small, pantograph, letraset & prestype letter pages, old 110v carbon arc lamp with several boxes of carbons which I still use today for exposing my screens.
I have many other old tools of the trade, I could open a museum. I learned the old time craft of hand lettering and striping and was able to design and execute all my own work form truck lettering, designing as well as art work for multiple color screen process, logo and font creation. for the memories!
-------------------- Len Mort Signmaker1.com 11 Juniper Drive Millbury, MA 508-865-2382 "A Good Business Sign, is A Sign of Good Business"(1957) Posts: 811 | From: Millbury, Ma | Registered: Dec 2006
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Like Len, I've got a couple of boxes of carbon rods (still in use-mind the fumes though- Thanks, Dave!), and like Bruce, I have about eight or nine Kroy font discs & a defunct machine that needs to go to a museum...(and two opaque projectors that might come in handy one day again...)
and like Bill, I still have one of those pencils in the kit that can automatically condense, extend and italicise letters as required- great inventions, they were!
(edited a typo)
[ February 01, 2010, 09:54 PM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Man how much of the amberlyth I used to cut by hand, with one of those swivel Knives.. I used to have a beautiful Knife.. it had a marble like handle and it was so smooth in my hand.... What I hated using was the water soluble stuff.. I believe that was the Amber? The ruby was the one that you used for emulsion? If you got the water solule stuff to wet it disintergrated...but it was great when you nailed it..then if it was to dry, it would peel back from the screen.
-------------------- "Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st. Neil Butler Paradise, NF Posts: 6277 | From: St. John's NF Canada | Registered: Mar 1999
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You mean the green film that adhered to the screen? I worked with an old guy who was good at getting it to stick. He used to paint paper grocery store signs as well. He would use printers ink thinned with gasoline and smoke cigarettes at the same time!
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I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who used to set type on one of those old linotype machines. This was at the newspaper where I used to go through those old clip art books. Many many years of sitting at that weird keyboard with the molten pot of lead cranking out type. They said how bad that was for the typesetters because the pot kept the lead in a liquid state 24/7. Well he's 82 now and can still kick my arse on the golf course and I end up in championship flite almost every year.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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An elderly senior couple were invited to an old friends home for dinner one evening.
She was impressed by the way her lady friend preceded every request to her husband with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love, Darling, Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc.
The couple had been married almost 70 years and, clearly, they were still very much in love.
While the husband was in the living room, her lady friend leaned over to her host to say, 'I think it's wonderful that, after all these years , you still call your husband all those loving pet names'.
The elderly lady hung her head. 'I have to tell you the truth,' she said, 'his name slipped my mind about 10 years ago, and I'm scared to death to ask the cranky old a$$hole what his name is.'
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
si.allen on Skype
siallen@dslextreme.com
"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!
Brushasaurus on Chat Posts: 8827 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Actually, I remember having the greatest joy, when getting into computers, at the fact that you could generate a perfect oval/ellipse shape, of any proportions, with no flat spots, and just print it out & project it up on what you wanted.
I think for me that was one of the most momentous occasions- about 9 years before we got a plotter...
(circles & rectangles were easy enough at any size, but a good oval took some work to get right!)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Making paint cups from a note card. Opaque projectors. Hand cuting amber and rubylith. Using 3 pins to make an oval. Ah those were the dazs. Are we old? I think we are just creating stories for all those young guys.
-------------------- Tom & Kathy Durham House Springs, MO Posts: 654 | From: House Springs, MO | Registered: Apr 1999
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Dave, I grew up around those linotypes, at the keyboard was my Mom, her and her Dad owned operation, at one time, very large, but scaled down on advent of hot type or was it cold type, don't remember, but remember reporting to news office on a daily basis to make the "lead pigs" that fed machine...I also learned to set type/copy, in fact, all facets of business...
Tom: I didn't think anyone knew how to make a cup out of flat piece of paper or lite cardboard (not a common trick), used to floor others when I'd do it and they'd spend rest of time seeing when it'd leak, which it never did after I mastered technique, lol....
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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-------------------- Brian the Brush brian the brush uk Yorkshire, UK www.brianthebrushuk.com Posts: 123 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Sep 2001
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