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There's hundreds of talented and reliable gig workers in my community that will install signs for $20 - $25 an hour. Most do not have insurance, so I can't use them as subcontractors, but my customers are free to use them, and they do. Of course, the situation is completely different if union...

The graphic design industry is in flux. The good colleges still teach design principles and creative thinking, but the graduate must, and I mean must, aggressively learn the technical side of production on their own. The colleges do not have teachers in place that know this stuff, mostly...

In my market the union shops are charging $95 - $115.00. Non-union charging $25 - $85.00. I can get near the top end for anything over 45' or so. 20' - 50' is very competitive, and I can sub-contract that cheaper than I can do it myself. Anything on the ground I charge $65.00, and get about...

You will save both time and money ordering stickers from Sticker Mule. Save your printer for custom one-off work like signs, displays, vehicles, etc. If you are new at this, I have to caution you about using copyrighted art. Unless you have express, written permission from the copyright...

Yes, it is possible, but based on my casual perusal of your comments, I don't believe it will be possible for you.

Get a barber pole.

Every decent size city has a couple of one-man shops doing neon and neon sign repair for beer signs, channel letters, skeletal neon and whatever. They charge what they charge and you just have to mark it up. Before LEDs, most electric sign shops had their own plant. Most of those are...

I have only gold leafed Gemini CAB letters a few times. ScotchBrite, clean, then size. Lay the leaf down with no wrinkles them go over it lightly when it is all covered with a soft camel hair "make-up" type brush. I really wouldn't call it burnishing, which to me is a process when water...

SignGold is 22k gold already laminated with adhesive on the back. It goes down like vinyl, but it is less forgiving. It's a good product. It runs about $24.00 sq.ft. (loose gold leaf runs about $16.00 sq. ft., but requires experience and skill to use it and takes time). SignGold is easy to...

If you are using formed Gemini CAB letters, sand first before sizing. Order your letters in a yellow color. Use 23k loose gold and apply with gilders tip. Use slow oil size (I have guilded directly on Gemini CAB letters with good results). For dimensional letters, figure on one book 23k gold...

My plotter mostly just sits there. Every once in a while I will cut some window lettering, but practically everything else is digital printing, which I outsource. Get a subscription to SignCraft magazine, and familiarize yourself with the specific niche of the "craft" based commercial sign...

How times have changed! My professors maybe spent one day going over process. They were much more concerned about ideas and communication, and encouraged us to look at the world around us, learn everything we could, and develop our design skills. I learned how to push buttons and flip...

I'm sorry for your poor experience. Your dismissal of education may become a detriment to your future career growth. I would recommend a thoughtful evaluation of your capabilities and goals in order to ensure a sustainable career and more fully realized life.

Seeing as though this has evolved into a Mac vs. PC thing, I will offer my two cents: PC and Windows operating systems are widely marketed and flexible. Because they command a 90% of the market, almost all software companies will be sure that their program operates in that environment. There...

Scale drawing in Illustrator: Hot Door CADtools.

Adobe Photoshop took the world by storm in the early '90s. It was powerful and fun and anybody could use it. Illustrator had actually been around longer, but it was a more technical program with a steep learning curve. As Photoshop became the standard in image manipulation, Illustrator went...

OP must not work in a sign shop...

Mr. Toad, My experience has been quite different. At one time we had four electric sign shops in my metro area of 100,000, and a half dozen commercial shops some of whom had small cranes or bucket trucks. I was running one of the electric shops, and we had a good sized fleet of service...

I don't do many real wood signs anymore, but when I do they are primed with a stain blocking alkyd primer and top-coated with high quality lexterior latex. I do not use acrylic polyurethane on wood signs. I have yet to try the Nova acrylics, but from all reports they seem to be a good bang for...

Goofing around on this site is becoming too much like work! I have been recovering from an ankle injury, and probably just have too much time on my hands. Back in the trenches on Monday!