How did you get into the signs business?

[competition graphics]

Started hand lettering some race cars when I was younger, and got into painting helmets. Worked at a couple different semi-truck and trailer service centers and graduated to Body Shop mgr for 7 years in the 90's. Had race cars of my own and installed all my own vinyl on the cars and at work in the body shop on customers trucks. Got sick of the front office at work and thought I might make a run at buying my own cutter and some vinyl and maybe have a neat little sideline sign deal and make some cash for the racecar. Twelve years later that cool little sideline deal turned out to be a 50+ hour a week job that still doesn't feel like a job and I get to come and go when I want and it's been a blast every day. Just this summer I replaced the racecars with a 56 chevy hotrod and the wife and I cruise every chance we get.

 

[TonyHoles]

I found a stick figure disc and a collection of pre-designed word art (life, love, family, etc.) and thought what the heck it can't be that hard, right?

 

[WILLIAMS]

I started hand lettered signs in 8th grade. In highschool,

sweet work... i love this style.

i was just talking about this last night with a friend. we did a couple of signs for a dinner & movie promotion for outback & amc back in highschool. our first "real" gig. the signs had interchangable inserts for the candy name you had to buy to enter. we created it on a transparent sheet and used an overhead projector to transfer it to the sign and inked them up. guilty of using brush script for the heading too. we netted like $600- pretty sweet when you're young.

same here

not to mention at the time it seemed pretty pathetic to spend $100k on college to earn $35k for an entry level graphic design job.

 

[Joe Diaz]

Looking good Weasel!

I grew up in the industry. My parents would bring my brothers and I to work during the summer so they could keep track of us. They would pay us $1 an hour to basically follow my dad around cleaning up after him. We would mow the lawn, sweep the shop, and help my mother file work orders and invoices. I learned most of what I know about the industry by following them around. I would tag along at the letterhead meets and was at the very first walldog meet. I learned even more from watching those folks. The letterheads are like my second family.

After high school, I got a job at a larger sign shop by campus to help pay for college. That shop specialized in the large pylon and other lighted signs. Mainly an install shop. At first I worked in the production department, then later they put me in the design department and I became the resident tech guy. After I graduated I worked there for about a year then moved back to work with my parents. Been working here ever since.

 

[TonyHoles]

OK a serious answer....I have been in to art my entire life. Growing up as an only child for the first 13 years of my life made for lots of alone drawing time. Anyway that lead me to computer graphics and I grew up messing with pretty much any and every art program around and eventually settling with and loving Adobe products.

I have been around streetbike clubs and racers and ride myself so changing my decals was something I like to do often and I got so busy doing decals for friends and referrals I started researching signs. I gradually became a full fledged sign making machine.

I have been at it for 5 or 6 years and I love every minute of it...because I get to do what I love and would probably do even if I didn't get paid for it. Getting paid for it is much more fun.

 

[k.a.s.]

I was PO'd cause the local sign wanted a forture to make my farm sign and then he would'nt give me vector file of my logo so I bought a plotter.......j/k lol.

Actully my mom was an art teacher till she quit to help my dad on the farm, when we sold most of our cattle in 1995 she started painting signs in our basement. In 1997 I was still in high school and we bought a 24" Graphtec plotter (which still cuts everyday BTW) I started doing graphics and racing stripes for my friends and helping my mom make signs. I graduated in 1999 and have been here ever since, added a MultiCam router in about 2000 and a JV33 last year.

Kevin

 

[coyote]

When I was in high school I was on the sign committee-we did all the posters and such for events, school elections, etc. Also, painted a 2 x 3 hanging plywood panel for the local town Christmas display and won $125. (back in 1970, this was big bucks). I was on the scenery painting crew for our school productions. We got our flats from Broadway shows that were upgrading, so this was really professional stuff and huge fun.

Got a degree in art education, substitute taught and starved and finally went with my roots and got a job with a sign shop-woodworking, sandblasting, gold leafing, painting pictorials (my fave), screen printing, and finally vinyl (not my fave). Back when I started, sign painting paid much better-it's amazing how cheap everything has become. I saw the future when I went to a local sign franchise that was opening in town and was told I was too skilled (too expensive).
c

 

[amp267]

ive always been in to lettering, i use to do all the illegal party flyers for our party crew (sounds funny saying it now). from there i took a production printing class in high school. a few years later i was working in a shop that did t-shirt printing, and signs. i was there about a year or so. i left in 98 and worked various jobs. i purchase coreldraw in 05 just because i wanted to do some design work on the side. from there i decided to purchase a screen printing set-up for a little extra cash. went to a few shows then i picked up a plotter and heat press. i have to admit i really didnt use the plotter for the first year, it was meant to only be used for heat transfer material. then i realized i should be using it for signs stuff, i already knew how, i had worked doing it for a while. a versacamm later and ive been full time for the last 5 months.

i left a pretty good paying job, in a bad econmy, that was about as easy of a job as you could ask for. so far so good.

 

[hoppers]

Interesting stories by everyone....I'm only 1 year in this vast wide sign world, but always been neck deep into art and photography. Wanted to expand my wide format photo printing into a side biz and it has expanded even further once I found out what this Versacamm can fully do!

I'm still small taters, but hoping 2009 is the year for my side biz to get fully off the ground. Working on the website, biz plan and accounting right now.

Weasel - the skeleton and dino drawings are too funny and cracked me up...nice work.

 

[3dsignco]

Counterfeiting was illegal.

 

[synergy_jim]

In 2000 I went to work for a store fixture manufacturer doing 3D walk through presentations and ended up as their creative director/ head designer 3 years later.

While I was there we invested in some sign making equipment so we could do all of our fixture signage in house.

When the place headed south, I bought the sign equipment and moved into my basement.

5 years later.... here we are....

 

[jiarby]

I got laid off in my job at the race track so I bought a bunch of clipart dvd's on eBay and a $400 vinyl cutter on Craigslist. We set them up in the livingroom and on weekends went to the flea market selling stick familys, word art (Live, Love, Laugh), and peeing calvins. Made great foldin' jack doing that (sometimes $20-25 for 4 or 5 decals)

Now that we got that all figured out we now want to get a printer and start doing MX bike kits and dirt track cars. (Do you guys know where we can get free templates for those??). I have a few racing buddies that said they would let me advertise on their race cars if we letter them up. We are changing the business name from GraffiXxXtreme to WrapMasta's. I think the future is in wraps (why I want a printer and templates). How much should we charge for a wrap??



haha!

just kidding!

 

[jbennett]

I HAD a wife that didnt want to work and a friend with little computer knowledge. He was frustrated and sold me his stuff for pennies on the dollar. It was another one of those promises from her that "It is really what I want to do!". She probably made less than $100 with it, and with my being a computer oriented person with a thirst for creativity (no design talent though). I have endured for 6 years now and made some good money and feel like I have came a long way since the beginning. It has helped me through some hard times in more ways than one.

jbennett

 

[CES020]

Lost a bet

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

i wanted a job in high school, and working for my aunt at her sign shop was the only job my mom would allow.....here i am, almost ten years later...

 

[wrapman jamz]

I fell and hit my head. When I woke up with no memory, someone told me I painted signs for a living. I have been banging my head for over 25 years now...but can't seem too loose the memory again.

 

[imagep]

I had just bought a screen print shop to merge into our offset shop. People just started coming in wanting vinyl graphics. They guy I bought the screen shop from was supposed to do the vinyl for us, but he seemed to never get around to doing it. Then the sign guy that we had done business with for 15+ years just didn't seem to get around to our new sign for our new location.

I checked with another sign company, they wanted $2,000 just to print and mount vinyl on the alluminum that we had already purchased. So I checked out vinyl cutters on ebay, found that I could buy one of those fantastic Mastercutters for less than what I would have to spend with a signmaker, did the sign myself, and it just grew from there.

We still have that Mastercutter, along with a Graphtec cutter and a ecosolve printer and a couple laminators.

And the signmaker that I had done business with for so long? He now farms out printed vinyl to us.

 

[Deaton Design]

Was setting on my dads porch one day, and this guy, a young guy with good hand lettering skills, was doing some lettering on a block building. Fascinated me. I was also already taking the Art Instruction Schools courses through the mail. While I was doing that, I started trying to find out about signmaking as much as I could and it was very hard. Back then , no one would tell me much. Eventually I found out some info, found signcraft, and started trying to do signs. Lettering is much harder than drawing. Drawing for me comes easy, lettering didnt. Took awhile and alot of crappy signs, but finally got it down and hand lettered everything for about 15 years, then went to vinyl. Still handletter some, but mostly vinyl. I love the design part of the work. I think Im burned out on the fabrication side of it. My dream was to become a syndicated comic strip artist, but I had to make a living and signs provided that pretty good for quite a few years. Havent given up on being syndicated though. Still working on it.

 

[Jillbeans]

This has been asked before but I'll answer again.
In Kindergarten kids used to get me to draw pictures. By 4th grade I won a scholarship to art classes at the Carnegie. In Middle School I had my first drawing published in a magazine.
In high school I did lots of murals and also window painting for businesses.
Went to AIP for 2 quarters, but hated it even tho I got straight As.
(didn't matter whether you could draw or not, if you had the $$ the teachers would push you through)
Got married. Had a kid. Cousin needed some painting done for his store, from there I started doing painting for him and his friends. He kept getting me jobs. Had another kid.
Got divorced, made more $$ from signs than a real job.
Got married again. Had another kid.
Discovered the Letterheads in 1993 and shortly thereafter the Mike Stevens book.
Got a plotter in 1998. Got divorced. Started hosting meets in 2000.
Learned Corel in 2005 to impress Stevo.
Started getting more into designing and here I am, 24 years later still painting, gilding, vynulling, and other stuff. Still learning.
Love....Jill

 

[Gino]

I always admired Vanna White's letters and she's got nice ones.... so I thought I'd try my luck at some letters too.