Freelance design and Merchant Membership

[Pat Whatley]

Pierre Tardiff has an instructional DVD coming out sometime in the next few weeks.

 

[TwoNine]

Awesome Arlo! I have been practicing my six basic strokes. I think I'm getting the 'feel' of my brush down a little bit better. I'd LOVE to watch you at work.

If you make them, they will buy.... (Cheesy? Yes.) But in all seriousness - let me know if you want a CC# to order your first copy right now. I'd love to be your first customer!

Cheers,
Chad

 

[knucklehead]

I'm in. Both design service, and video.

 

[FatCat]

Arlo that is great news! Count me as another anxious student in waiting...

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

With everything available on YouTube I don't really know what I have to add anymore. I'm thinking of a total old school demonstration of a direct layout... chicken scratches to indicate where the lettering is and let it happen direct from my hand and the brush. Been cleanin' out the area in the garage around the easel already. Direct layouts were how I was taught by the old masters over 30 years ago. I also have a friend in town who was one of my early teachers. He has the most unique, beautiful casual letter style. I'm going to enlist him for a demonstration. In fact, he is the only guy I've ever seen who can letter an entire sign with casual lettering that 9 out of 10 customers would like better than one with more formal fonts. I'm gonna have him do a direct layout lettered sign demo as well. On the fonts I'm going to select to do close-ups of painting them, I'm going to demonstrate the difficult letters only - B, C, O, Q, R, S, E & F. You'd be bored to death watching me letter an entire alphabet. Also, I have always refused to use tape to square off stroke ends. It's a lot easier, but I'll never forget the story of Doc Wooten - one of the greatest brush men who ever lived. Doc's only problem was once he ran out of tape, he was done painting. I'm going to show you how to get around that by squaring off the strokes with the brush tip.

I watched the YouTube vids mentioned in this thread. Each of those guys has an advantage over me - they obviously never went thru years where they layed off painting altogether. SteveC once said to me "I haven't painted in so long, I'd be dangerous with a brush in my hand". That was the same with me until I started getting lettering jobs again in the past several months. It all came flooding back, along with a tinge of regret that computers by and large began replacing this beautiful, satisfying trade. Most of the painted jobs I've sold lately have been to people who've experienced vinyl failure on their signs from the Texas sun. You realize there is a whole generation of customers who have no idea signs were ever hand painted? The novelty and intrigue of that fact alone has helped me sell a few jobs. In the past, when you were lettering on site, invariably you would draw a group of spectators who were fascinated to watch you work. I don't believe the appeal of a sign created by the human hand will ever disappear. I liked Mike Steven's line on his book Mastering Layout - "the art of eye appeal". That's the secret to hand lettering. What would otherwise be called mistakes are interpreted by the human eye as an overall appealing look. A well laid out sign will carry off a poorly executed lettering job most of the time. I used to get in trouble with the old timers teaching me by pointing out what I thought were minor mistakes in their execution. One of them told me "nobody else looks at a sign, the details, like you do. They take it in overall as a visual experience and those 'mistakes' add to the charm". That's where I intend to take you. I guarantee you, once you experience being in "the zone" while hand lettering you will be totally addicted. Time passes without you noticing it and quitting time always arrives too soon. The rush of stepping back from a completed sign you hand lettered in the zone can't be topped. I'm sensing a lot of motivation from your requests and think you will all succeed if you don't give into boredom or get discouraged because you don't think you're making progress quick enough. It's going to take a lot of PRACTICE - and I didn't like that word either. I'd suggest you begin to call it FUTURE MONEY time that you are engaged in while trying to get it down. I am firmly on the side that believes that hand lettering is coming back around. Now, I'll finally be able to realize a goal of passing on what I know to people I will probably never meet - thanks to technology.

 

[GB2]

Who could refuse to use your services under those terms...I would for sure. I do think you'll have to be a little more realistic with those terms though.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

Who could refuse to use your services under those terms...I would for sure. I do think you'll have to be a little more realistic with those terms though.

In what way will I need to be more realistic? I'm planning on showing you what it was like to show up for work before computers, get handed a work order, and have to lay the sign out directly on the board and paint it in an amount of time that would guarantee the shop owner a profit. It's taking the skillset back to its very beginnings. You can go on YouTube and find countless "here's how to paint a sign" videos, but I'm going to show you what was required of you back when sign painters were the highest paid people in the sign business. Some of you can apply it to your existing business as you occasionally get a customer interested in hand lettering. Some of you can use your plotter to produce a pattern to work from with the pounce bag method - which I'll also be showing. I'm not going to go over anybody's head if that's what you're worrying about. I fully expect that what I will produce will show you more in an hour and a half than 5 years of trial and error. It's how I'd get you started in person. I'm personally probably more thrilled with the prospect of creating this than any of you are with watching it. If I help create one profitable sign painter from the video it will be a success as we will have added another hand letterer to our ranks. I'll also be demonstrating wall lettering with fitches... that remains a huge market you don't see being utilized because not enough people know how to do it. I'll get you going with enough info to produce a sellable wall sign. Any suggestions are entirely welcomed.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

Youtube is fine for some things ... but no one on there really shows the how to use the brushes, just what they could do with them ... I mean I looked extensively on all sorts of video sites on how to thin my paints to the right consistancy accurately without being too runny or too thick ... none, let alone brush application and the such ... I can find it for all fine art apps but not professional painting and lettering.

 

[FatCat]

I for one am stoked about this Arlo. I've asked and poked around for the past 2 years in my area for someone who could get me started hand lettering without success. In my area they must be hard to come by or not willing to share their knowledge.

Bless you for this - really. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you in this venture.

 

[neato]

Yep, this is pretty exciting to hear. Its so cool to me how in this age of digital printers, wacom tablets, and vector programs that something as simple as a paint brush and a can of one shot can be so thrilling.

 

[GB2]

In what way will I need to be more realistic? .........I am entire willing to let you decide what the final product is worth to you to pay me, I won't argue with it ever. Nothing will be owed ever if none of my designs are selected.QUOTE]

I was referring to the fact that you'd be willing to work for any unspecified amount and will provide designs for free and if someone claimed that they didn't use them that they wouldn't owe anything for them. I mean, those are great terms but for your sake you should be a little more realistic and set some basic fee schedules.

 

[lexsigns]

layed off painting altogether. SteveC once said to me "I haven't painted in so long, I'd be dangerous with a brush in my hand". That was the same with me until I started getting lettering jobs again in the past several months. It all came flooding back, along with a tinge of regret that computers by and large began replacing this beautiful, satisfying trade. Most of the painted jobs I've sold lately have been to people who've experienced vinyl failure on their signs from the Texas sun. You realize there is a whole generation of customers who have no idea signs were ever hand painted? The novelty and intrigue of that fact alone has helped me sell a few jobs. In the past, when you were lettering on site, invariably you would draw a group of spectators who were fascinated to watch you work. I don't believe the appeal of a sign created by the human hand will ever disappear. I liked Mike Steven's line on his book Mastering Layout - "the art of eye appeal". That's the secret to hand lettering. What would otherwise be called mistakes are interpreted by the human eye as an overall appealing look. A well laid out sign will carry off a poorly executed lettering job most of the time. I used to get in trouble with the old timers teaching me by pointing out what I thought were minor mistakes in their execution. One of them told me "nobody else looks at a sign, the details, like you do. They take it in overall as a visual experience and those 'mistakes' add to the charm". That's where I intend to take you. I guarantee you, once you experience being in "the zone" while hand lettering you will be totally addicted. Time passes without you noticing it and quitting time always arrives too soon. The rush of stepping back from a completed sign you hand lettered in the zone can't be topped. I'm sensing a lot of motivation from your requests and think you will all succeed if you don't give into boredom or get discouraged because you don't think you're making progress quick enough. It's going to take a lot of PRACTICE - and I didn't like that word either. I'd suggest you begin to call it FUTURE MONEY time that you are engaged in while trying to get it down. I am firmly on the side that believes that hand lettering is coming back around. Now, I'll finally be able to realize a goal of passing on what I know to people I will probably never meet - thanks to technology.

I remeber that feeling!!! I feel guilty now for abandoning my real true love I still hand paint carved signs a few times a month so I guess I get in that zone a little but it's not the same as used to be- I had no idea people even had any respect for sign painting anymore- back when I stopped doing it daily no one wanted it everyone wanted vinyl so I went with the times.
You are right, it takes practice- I practiced every waking hour for years!!!

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

In what way will I need to be more realistic? .........I am entire willing to let you decide what the final product is worth to you to pay me, I won't argue with it ever. Nothing will be owed ever if none of my designs are selected.QUOTE]

I was referring to the fact that you'd be willing to work for any unspecified amount and will provide designs for free and if someone claimed that they didn't use them that they wouldn't owe anything for them. I mean, those are great terms but for your sake you should be a little more realistic and set some basic fee schedules.

I already have a guaranteed monthly income in place, and I've been around this forum long enough to know the caliber of people on it. I have no reservations about letting you decide what my work has saved you. Obviously, if someone was like that guy who abused a pizza places policy of "if you don't like it you get your money back" and was always asking me for layouts they claimed they didn't like I'd fire them. I think doing work totally on spec will give more people motivation to use me to get more of their work out the door sooner. And I'm only talking about laying out signs here... I won't get into any corporate branding efforts. I'm talking about custom level design for your signs where you decide totally what to pay me for it. Actually, I shouldn't discuss it any further until I have a merchant membership. I just need a few paying jobs to pay for the MM, but I think I sold about an $800 hand lettering job yesterday to a tattoo place that will involve airbrushing so it shouldn't be an issue much longer.

 

[iSign]

Looking forward to you DVD Arlo.
In fact, I'm right up there with the majority opinion that it will be a valuable product, I'd like to suggest you consider taking that $800... (or the next $800... or at least the next one after that) ...and consider investing it on better quality videography, and lighting, and audio quality and professional editing... by better, I mean better than you can hope to expect from a DIY garage project... I mean I'd love to see it shot in your garage, all surrounded with the real life trapping and trimmings of our dear friend and animated S101 character "Arlo" ...but just as we know most dabblers & hobbiests fail, when they think they can bypass the professional sign artist & create a passable product... I think it's with the utmost respect in your hobbiests videography skills, that I say i think your true talent is in the video content, and to have a better chance of selling at least $800 more worth of finished product... I humbly offer the suggestion to take yourself seriously enough to invest in delivering a top tier professional product.

If you already were going to do that, than forget everything I just said & put me on the advance order list (actually, put me there either way)

On the other topic, regarding design work... have you ever asked Jill how she did with her short MM time offering similar services? I thought that would be a boom for her... but although I haven't been around much lately, I think did notice she no longer had the MM title by her avy...

..and further on that topic, I'm with GB2 and Rick on getting paid ALL THE TIME!! Did you check rick's signweb link? I didn't, but if it points to a guy with success doing what you wish to do, without giving anything away... I'd expect it to be worth a look.

(been back to watch the wife teach yet?)

 

[Jillbeans]

I think it's great but you also need to treat sign folks just like regular customers, pay a set fee in advance for designs.
I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy your vid, too.
My MM was really nice, I just can't afford to re-up it yet.
All the 101ers who used my services were great to deal with, and paid without a quibble.
I can never repay what I owe to Fred and to my 101 friends.
Love....Jill

 

[neato]

I also did the MM for a while offer freelance services and it was great. Should work well for you Arlo.