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Pretty strong words, compadre! Maybe we were up in the air 130' installing signs for national accounts and putting up electronic billboards, in addition to crafting quality signs with an emphasis on design. It is possible to build a reputation based on excellent design and service, gradually...

I managed to get a BA with a course of study centered around both graphic design and rhetoric (double major). During that time, I was painting signs for a living and started a successful multi-million dollar sign shop. I have spent a lifetime studying advertising art, and my commitment to this...

Before you select any piece of equipment you have to determine the market you will be serving. Will you be able to offer installation and maintenance service to corporate entities, or local maintenance and installation to small businesses? This will help determine the type of fabrication...

If you are doing signs on demand, or have a specialized service, or are busy enough to keep a printer running consistently and need quick turnaround, adding on-site printing capability might make sense. I would advise, however, to do a cost analysis, taking into consideration all the costs...

There are plenty of shops in my area who will do whatever the customer wants. The service I provide is more comprehensive, and has a greater value. I believe it is the reason I have a deep client list, some going to back to almost 40 years.

You've got to be doing a boat-load of printing to pay off the investment in a printing operation. Along with the cost of the printer, you will need a laminator and a cutter, external ventilation and air supply (check your local code), trimmer, additional room to handle and store materials...

I agree with many of the comments above. The play on words simply does not work, and no design effort is going to fix it. I would explain that to the client, and if the client insists on using the name, I would politely refuse to do the job. I can't afford to have people think I had anything...

That sounds ridiculous. I have never seen a Starbucks , McDonalds or Amoco sign with 12" address numbers on it. I think you may have a very unique situation.

I use an Intuos 4 for adding color to pen and ink drawings. I use a variety of inks, pens and brushes to "ink" pencil drawings on a variety of papers to create line art. The inked drawings are scanned, then colored using the Intuos 4 with PS or Corel Painter. I was never comfortable with...

OK. I'll admit I am primarily a graphic designer these days, but I came up through the sign business, so I look at design through the lens of a sign guy. I still sell a lot of signs, but I no longer have a big sign shop, equipment and a bunch of employees. It is not uncommon to get a request...

Like this:

You might try making "TWISTED CEDAR" and "CENTER" the same font, case, color, size, and weight. Also I would pay attention to the margins, as Stevens prescribes. As you know, a design will look different on a piece of white paper than when it is installed and has a busy background.

OK, here we go... Drop the phone number and web page. Nobody is going to slam on their brakes to write that information down. Anybody who is interested will google the name. Group the name into 2 visual "bites". "TWISTED CEDAR" is one bite, and "CHILD CARE CENTER" is the other. Each "bite"...

How much to charge comes in three pieces: (shop rate x time) + supplies. Really easy if the client just lets you charge that after you are done. I have a few clients that are OK with that, and I have some that try it themselves. But the majority of clients want a price quote. Experience...

Laminate everything except for when the client insists on not paying for it. Obviously, lamination may not be needed for cheap give-a-ways or short-term events, but it is the responsibility of the vendor to explain that to the customer, and the obligation of the customer to clearly insist that...

Please don't be so condescending! Most of us know how to use resampling, sharpening, and noise reduction to mediate the issues that come with enlarging images for large scale output (I will often use the Camera Raw plug-in in Photoshop). You will end up with a higher pixel count image that...

That photo took 15 days to shoot (70000 shots stored on 40 terabytes) and 2 months post-production. None of my clients have anything even remotely close to that kind of budget.

A 5000px x 5000px image will yield around 31 pixels per inch when sized at 4 meters. It will look pixelated at any viewing distance under 15' or so. You could interpolate additional pixels into the image, but the results will be blurry. Depending on the viewing distance and the clients...

Yeah, but it takes skill and years of practice to hand paint professional quality graphics. I charge $250 and up for hand lettering a set of doors. I rarely do it because modern automotive finishes require specialized treatment and paint technology. Most typically, it will be an old-school...

Adding additional insured entities onto a policy will expand coverage and comes at a cost. If your agent is endorsing additional insureds without underwriting the insurance company could deny the claim and the insured party (you) may need to file suit for damages from the agent. This will only...