Got to thinking................................

[rjssigns]

Left tech school to work my first real job in a factory. Built all kinds of pollution control equipment, dryers, printing equipment etc... Did that for 26 years then my job was sent to China. While working the factory job I got involved with cut vinyl doing signs, also did striping on cars. Painted the occasional car and motorcycle too.
Ending up going back to school for graphics/design, prototyping and supply chain. I now run my business full time and teach part time. I'm also back in school.(sheesh at my age)
20 years ago you could have told me where I'd end up and I would have said you were full of it.
I make less money, but I am in control and happy.

 

[Gino]

For me...... I started painting and lettering drum heads and other stuff while in Junior High School. Was always good in art, so went to college to be a fine arts major and went with the intentions of becoming a college level professor. Wasn't making money, so I quit to go on the road with a band and we did quite well. For those off times..... had a sign guy tell me, he didn't need anyone to draw flowers or boats, but someone who can letter. So I studied, practiced and went back and he took me in. From there, I learned almost all facets of a sign shop from early 70's, until I went out on my own in '82. Just kept good people around me and kept learning from tricks of the trade to business savvy. Never wanted to own/run my own business, cause I felt a better mechanic than manager, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Been it it for 45 years, but doing it for about 55 years.

Will go to my grave with a brush in my hand..... so to speak, as the brushes don't come out too much anymore, but it still happens.

 

[myront]

So cool, and THANK YOU for your service!

Thank you

 

[Fred Weiss]

I had an office coffee service business. Every summer it would slow down so I got into making a brand new thing on the side ... vacuum formed magnetic signs. That year I made more in ten weeks from magnetic signs than I made all year selling coffee. And I found that customers really liked my work.

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

I was a high school student. My aunt hired me my senior year after my dad insisted that I would be an awesome employee. That was 17 years ago this coming January.

Sadly I don't work for her anymore. She passed away two years after I started for her. Fortunately, one of her previous employees bought the business from my uncle and aside from a brief time in which I worked other menial jobs, I've been here since.

 

[Chasez]

Started out working as a bag boy at a grocery store at 16.. finished high school and went straight into a sign shop. From there moved across the country and bounced around a couple sign shops for a couple months then back home and back to the same sign shop. Now working for the family business (3m solar and security/safety films authorized dealer and full on print shop with some architectural signage/glass plaques - some LED edge lit). Been here 10 years now... signs and graphics are pretty much all I know... dabbled in some driving range work handing out golf balls on the side couple years ago for the free golf . Did some schooling few years ago at a tech school and got my web and graphic design certificates and now putting those to use on the side and starting up a business to help start ups with all their design needs (producing all logos, letterhead, signage spec, and custom workflow software). I will probably die doing this

Chaz

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

I was a waiter in several different restaurants for several years. Immediately before, I worked midnight to 6am shift at a convenience store, for a total of 4 nights. I walked into a trophy / sign shop to order a logo for one of my truck club members...i was offered a job, and been doing this for the last 26 years...

 

[myront]

Before the military I bailed hay, picked peppers before I was legal enough to work a real job. 1 summer I worked at a craft/hobby store. McDonalds fired me because my mom's car broke down the day I was supposed to work so I called and told tem I couldn't make it in. As soon as the car was fixed I went in after my shift to pick up my paycheck. Looking back on it I guess it really did look bad. Burger King fired me after 2 weeks, said I wasn't picking it up fast enough. Also spent a summer checking out toolboxes to military flightline workers. While in the military I also had a part time driving a school bus. Even buffed floors at K Mart for a few months while stationed at Dover, DE. Worked from 3pm-midnight, got up at 5am to buff floors for 3 hrs sleep a bit more and start all over. About to start another part time job stocking shelves. Gotta pay them bills ya know.

 

[mpn]

Commercial printer. Started at 14 and the shop has moved into digital printing, large format & signs. Learned layout from my mother & father who hand set type & artwork.

 

[Johnny Best]

Grew up in a sign shop, my mother's father was a sign painter. Manly did gold leaf. I would sit and watch him and learned how to curse. He was a drinker and smoked Lucky Strikes. My grandfather's friend was an old German who was on the Russian front. He use to come by every day to the sign shop, he was an artist, and taught me how to draw, use a speedball for calligraphy and paint while they talked about the war. After high school in 1966 took off to travel, have done almost every job in the sign, screen printing and printing industry. Worked in sign shops, ad agencies, newspapers while traveling to make money and leave after a few weeks because of boredom and ruthless owners.
Traveled all over the US and Canada for 5 years. Met someone in my travels, fell in love and settled down and had four children. Put them all through college and luckily no one went into the sign business. Now have 7 grandchildren who I teach to draw and paint.
After being forced out of hand lettering because of vinyl lettering on glass becoming so cheap and fast, gave up the glass guilding and bought a plotter and a Mac and started using SignPost. The rest is a blur. Still, wake up every morning and work in the sign business.
And like bob I am getting old in the tooth and thinking of going to Vegas and dropping some acid and hiring some girls for a final fling.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

I have been doing this since 1992. Before that, college student

 

[Ken M. Klein]

Corporate sales providing direct marketing programs to Fortune 500 companies nationally.

 

[vincesigns]

I was a Sales & Marketing exec. in the Furniture Industry. I was 43 in 2004 when I bought an existing Signarama in Greensboro, NC. Grew that to be the #1 location in the world and made the Inc. 5000 3 years in a row. Bought the Graphic Components business in 2010, sold Signarama business in 2014 and have been running Graphic Components (wholesale only ADA and Interior Signs) with my partners full time since 2014. Love the sign business and love our customers (we only do business with sign companies).

 

[NateF]

Wow - interesting that only a couple here actually started out in the sign business.

I did auto repair, pizza delivery, and taught piano lessons. I ended up in ministry, serving at a local church for 9 years. Along the way our church needed some printing done, so I did the design, outsourced the printing, and realized that I could market what I did to other churches. After a few years of growing that as a side business, we bought a franchised print shop about 40 minutes from our house. The shop at that point was focused primarily on digital printing, but we added a Roland wide format in 2013. I've learned a TON from reading the forums here. We've grown to the point that we do just about anything that doesn't require major fabrication or a bucket truck to install (though we do occasionally outsource that work when needed). Along the way we've also added screen printing, mailing services, etc, and have built a solid, successful business.

While most of the old signpainters have eventually moved to vinyl, I've been fascinated by the art of hand-painted signage. Running a business doesn't leave me with a lot of time to mess around, but I'm trying to learn to hand-paint signs. At this point I'm working more on hand-drawing the layouts, but I've managed to finish a couple painted signs (nothing that I'm willing to show off yet, though.)

Let me just say that none of this would be possible without everyone here on signs101 who is so willing to share tips and advice. It goes without saying that I've learned a ton of how-to from the members on this site. But the biggest takeaway, by far, has been how to price my work appropriately. I started out pricing my jobs way under where they should have been. I'm thankful for those here who helped change my mindset to charge what I needed to to cover my expenses and make a decent living.

 

[islanddogsignsllc]

Since, I've been on this forum, I've read over and over again about all these people who have done something else before becoming a sign person. Perhaps more than one job or vocation.

So, what have you done before entering into the sign industry ??

​

An aerospace engineer for over 20 years specializing in parachute design. Eventually became president and CEO of three different aerospace companies. Had enough of the corporate world about ten years ago and quit and bought a small sign company. Work harder and longer for less money than the old aerospace days but wouldn't go back .

 

[Marlene]

I was in my second year of X-ray tech school and dropped out as I just couldn't abide with the way patients were treated. What did me in was a lady who had an IV that we were told was probably in her last good vein. The nurse told us to be careful and not let it stop running. The tech didn't raise the IV pole which was down for transport but did raise the table so it stopped. That kind of disregard for people was an everyday thing and I didn't want to be a part of that. I moved on to Rossignol Ski where I screen printed and worked in QC. When they moved back to France, I saw an ad for a screen printer at a sign shop and have been here every since.

 

[Cyclynn]

I was a ranger for the National Park Service

 

[Marlene]

Been doing this sort of work since I was ~10 years old. Hand lettering grocery store ads for my family's weekly newspaper, A stint in the USAF, then a bewildering sequence of print shops, hand typesetting, offset camera work, running presses, and signs, always signs. In 1966 I went to work for IBM and like Navin Johnson, discovered my special purpose; writing code. I discovered that I could write code like Mozart wrote music and did so until I retired in 2002 ending up doing 31 years at HP. Still doing signs, Indy cars, top fuel dragsters, funny cars, etc.during all those years. When I retired I had a list of things I wanted to to. I got them done before noon the first day.

A friend, who had a booming business leasing and installing T posts and hanging real estate signs for all the realtors in the area, stopped by and asked if I still did signs. Seems that he got daily request from realtors for custom signs. I said yes. He asked if I still had any equipment. I told him I had a box of brushes.and a goodly collection of One Shot. He said he was thinking more of cut vinyl. Something I always wanted to give a try. So I invested some money, bought a plotter, Yet Another computer, and a butt load of this and that, and we set up in my shop. The next year we bought a printer and another plotter. We did a land office business.

I moved to Colorado's western slope in 2006, bringing all my tackle with me. Here I rounded up sufficient business to make it all worth while. I'm a bit long in the tooth now but I do just enough to pay for my weekly entry fees at various horse chasing cattle events and have a little walking around money..

I told my wife that should any of my gear die I was closing my doors. Lo, this year the printer I was currently wrangling died. I found I couldn't give it up. It's part of what I am, sitting around in the sun yelling at people to get off my lawn isn't acceptable. So I bought another printer, did enough to pay for it in a few weeks, and I'm still chugging along. Albeit I run a boutique business these days, seeking no new clients and turning down as much work as I accept. But the work finds me and I do just enough to still pay my entry fees.and associated expenses. Still have the same old computer running XP, a 10 year old Graphtec plotter, and a completely rebuilt Mutoh 1204 of unknown provenance. And I keep going, writing a little code here and there and signs, always signs. Most likely I'll keep on doing it until I either get tossed of a horse or wear away by erosion

I think you would do a great job of yelling at kids to get off your lawn. "Begone from my cultivated argrostis tenuis you adolescent specimens"

 

[chester215]

I drove a coffee truck in Boston after high school to make enough to eventually go to college.
Graduated with a degree in Turf Management and worked on golf courses, mostly under construction in one way or another, for the next 15 or so years.
The work was great but the industry was not very good to me so I looked for something else, working in a machine shop for a few years.
My dad wanted was thinking of retiring from the sign business back in 1999 so I came to the sign business to some day take over.
He passed away 1 1/2 years ago, still working or making short trips in his RV until the day his heart gave out.
Been here since 99 and have enjoyed working with family the entire time.

 

[FatCat]

Worked residential construction summers when in high school, and also for a few years out of high school. Learned how to do basic carpentry, masonry, a little bit of electrical and plumbing and a whole lot of crap work. Went to a tech school for graphic arts, then got in the offset printing industry from 1994 - 2008. Was able to apply a lot of experience from those trades into making signs when I started my shop in 2009. I keep learning and growing and all the while enjoying the ride...