How did you get into the signs business?

[Mosh]

I had always been good at art, I was plannig to be an engineer. In high school I worked for my dad's contracting company. We did some work for a local sign shop, and I told my old man I thought that would be a cool job. Well next thing I know I was working there.
Within one year I had my own shop (junior in high school) and 20 years later here I am.

 

[onesource]

Stole some brushes from OP then swiped some lettering and layout books from from someone else, hell might've been OP also. Undercut some locals and while they were pissed and not looking took a crane repainted it and put a bogus name on the door. I then went collected a bunch of deposits, skipped town sold the crane added that profit with the deposits and bought a bigger crane the honest way by paying for it. Drove to a local distributor and snagged a plotter then I was in business.
Really!. needed a job liked it and stuck with it.

 

[ncastrellon]

How and why I do it.

I was a typical production artist for 10 years. Two years ago I was hired as a production artist and large format operator for a commercial printer. I've never touched a large format printer but I was up to the task. We used a beat-up mimaki JV3 160-S. It was a piece of junk but I made many tweaks to make it print decently. My former boss was too cheap to hire a tech (he was just a very bad person overall), but I learned very quickly how the printer worked and I've been addicted to the large format world ever since. I am now opening a sign division for my new employer… how exciting is that?! Going to expos, making 'friends' with other sign shops, getting practical experience and constant research brought me to this point and I would never go back to just being a desk jockey designer. The sign industry is amazing and the market is saturated but I love the work. It's very rewarding to design, print, manufacture and finally see your final product and satisfying a client. That's why I'm staying in the business for a long time to come.

 

[redline graphics]

lol...after 15 years im still trying!!!!

 

[quicksigns]

Seems like just yesterday that I got laid-off from General Electric and went to work for my brother who was making more on a weekend then I did in one month making "pissing on decals". He had a regular sign shop, but on the weekend, he had a rented booth at a flee market that was making a killing off those decals. After a month of helping him, GE refered me to a different company and I went back to work for a week and decided that sign business was what I wanted to do. Its been a lil over 10 years now.

 

[David Wright]

How do you get out?

 

[pointjockey]

I simply needed the money

 

[astro8]

I was born into it as was my grandfather, father, 2 uncles, 2 brothers and now 2 nephews and probably my son who's still at school.