Even the terminology is obsolete?

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

A couple weeks back I got a call from an employee at a customer of 20+ years about lettering 3 new trucks - a big cargo box and two vans. I told the guy I was only interested in painting signs now and would be happy to quote it. He asked if I could recommend somebody else to "get it done like we've been having them done". I said no, but I'd be happy to quote it with hand lettering them. He said he'd check and call me back. This weekend I messaged the owner on Facebook. He said he didn't know anything about it but would look into it. Today he messages me and said the employee didn't know what hand lettering the trucks meant! He was familiar with vinyl though and thought that was what they had to have. Looks like I'm still getting to keep the customer after all. Glad I followed my old rule of never trusting anyone to relay a message accurately.

 

[marcsitkin]

Terminology is a huge problem in the large format printing end of the industry as well. Many, many customers are inexperienced buyers, and have problems specifying what they need to buy. And, like the example you gave, they are often looking for the wrong product. I often have to ask a lot of questions to make sure that I can provide them with something that will work for them. And it usually boils down to language.

Twenty years ago, most of my customers were professional graphic or event marketing people who had experience in their jobs and we shared a common language. Now, most of the calls I get are from administrative assistants trying to do the jobs of the laid-off graphics and marketing employees who have been let go. While I'm happy to help them, I'm very cautious to provide a lot of detail and I insist that pricing is done in written form.

This problem with semantics leads to some interesting problems in marketing. Words that mean something to prospective customers are hard to choose when the customers don't know how to ask for what they need.

 

[James Burke]

As printed signage becomes more prevelent, I have a bad feeling that "hand lettering" may come to mean vinyl cut letters...sad day, indeed.


JB

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

This is where the portfolio comes in handy and in keeping in touch with clients past and present, stressing advertising value, not how it is done.

If they see Before's and After's... hand lettered beside Vinyl Hand lettered always shows it's experienced image, it also comes off truck doors with out harm easier, can be re-painted over on other area's making easy maintenance, walls, boards etc.

Since I do Window Splash this gives me a good excuse to be in the area to resell clients, noticing they just got a truck or something new to advertise for them.

 

[Gino]

That's just too funny. :Big Laugh

I get answers and dumb looks about that same stuff quite a bit.

The one that comes to mind was recently someone was in the shop and we were talking about signs...and painting something by hand. I said that I had hand painted these signs for a guy and now we do them by computer... and this person says to me.... hand painted.... what do you mean by that ??

I showed him some samples around the shop of hand painted signs and he said.... how in the world would you paint them by hand ?? I said with lettering brushes and I showed him some brushes. He looked at them and said..... I can't believe you waste your time with those little brushes painting signs when you could do them by computer the way its always been done. I just laughed and when I showed him a truck I did by hand.... he said, won't the letters just wash or smear off in the rain ??

Sometimes it just amazes me what these young people dream up and how they perceive life before computers.


I had an employee a long time ago actually tell me he never saw anyone mix paint before... as I was doing. I asked him how would you get this certain green color.... and his totally honest answer was.... go to the store and buy it. :ROFLMAO:

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

That's just too funny. :Big Laugh

I get answers and dumb looks about that same stuff quite a bit.

The one that comes to mind was recently someone was in the shop and we were talking about signs...and painting something by hand. I said that I had hand painted these signs for a guy and now we do them by computer... and this person says to me.... hand painted.... what do you mean by that ??

I showed him some samples around the shop of hand painted signs and he said.... how in the world would you paint them by hand ?? I said with lettering brushes and I showed him some brushes. He looked at them and said..... I can't believe you waste your time with those little brushes painting signs when you could do them by computer the way its always been done. I just laughed and when I showed him a truck I did by hand.... he said, won't the letters just wash or smear off in the rain ??

Sometimes it just amazes me what these young people dream up and how they perceive life before computers.


I had an employee a long time ago actually tell me he never saw anyone mix paint before... as I was doing. I asked him how would you get this certain green color.... and his totally honest answer was.... go to the store and buy it. :ROFLMAO:

This reminds me of how mesmerized most people are watching a signpainter at work. Inevitably, they will say something like "I can't believe you have the patience to do that". I've actually had people bend over forward with their nose just inches from my lettering hand to watch. At that point I usually hand them the brush and say "here, wanna give it a try?". Nobody takes me up on it for some reason. It's an entirely different ballgame from computers - which EVERYONE thinks they can do.

 

[Marlene]

I think anything done by hand gets people's attention as we are all so used to machine made things. I saw a show on candy making and they showed a little shop that makes candy by hand and uses an old fashion die to cut the shapes. people were lined up to look thru the glass at the process. hand lettering has become something like that to most people as it is seen as a craft that only a few can do.

 

[Gino]

Back before any computers, just about everyone that came into the shop where I first worked would eventually walk over to my bench and watch me letter. The boss didn't mind people watching, but he never wanted us to talk to the customers... or each other, that ate up production time, but people would always say... ya know... I have a niece, cousin, brother or some family member that was good in art. I'll bet they could do that. Can you teach them and I'd nod towards the boss and he'd tell them to bring 'em in and we'd see if they can paint. It was kinda like the first version of 'America has Talent'.

They'd come in and it was always my job to show these adults, kids or whatever... how to letter. When in college, I was going to be an art teacher in the fine arts, but 1/2 way through took up sign painting... so I guess he thought I had a way with teaching.

It was my job to either encourage or discourage these wannabees. I generally had about 1/2 hour to do this. I was off the clock when doing this, but for the most part... I worked piece rate so it didn't matter much. Most of them couldn't even hold a pencil correctly let alone a brush. The control you lose when not holding a tool correctly will impede many strokes of formation of components in lettering. Almost all of them would paint with the brush starting near them and paint a stroke curving away from them into the air. Trying to get someone to pull a brush towards their belly was hard. I didn't care if they couldn't paint a straight line or make two perfect circles in a row, but if they couldn't at least follow instructions.... I knew they'd be a problem. I worked along side of a guy early on where the owner there would stand behind you and if you were pulling or twirling your brush wrong... he'd grab the brush handle and pull it up through your fingers to get his point across. What a mess that made.

Anyway, now some 35 years later... these same people are coming into the shop, they don't ask if their wannabee designers can train and learn.... they just tell you little Suzy is great with this kinda stuff and now we don't have a choice sometimes but to reproduce perfectly ugly made signs for these know-it-alls.






.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

Anyway, now some 35 years later... these same people are coming into the shop, they don't ask if their wannabee designers can train and learn.... they just tell you little Suzy is great with this kinda stuff and now we don't have a choice sometimes but to reproduce perfectly ugly made signs for these know-it-alls.

I hear that! What I long for most about the good old days was that by and large, customers back then left EVERYTHING up to the signpainter. They just paid their deposit and waited - with no idea of how the sign was going to look. That kind of customer always got rewarded with my best effort. For the rare one who wanted to see a sketch, I always obliged of course. Invariably though, when it was time to do their job I had a better idea than my initial sketch. Then, I hated being constrained to the layout I was required to produce.

 

[SignManiac]

I've learned one thing after all these years, my full time job is educating clients. I make sure I go over every detail and that they fully understand what I'm saying. I show material samples and explain why and how I use them. It's the only sure way to make sure that when the job is done, there are no unexpected surprises.

It comes down to product knowledge and presenting yourself as a professional. Customers aren't stupid at identifying stupid just because they can be stupid. As soon as you open your mouth, they can tell if you know what you're talking about.