How did you get into the signs business?

[511graphix]

I want to know how you got into the sign business. for me I was always a art loving person. I went to college to become a High school band Director. but the art pulled me in. the main reason I bought a vinyl cutter. was to help out in cutting the price down for our family race team. and also so we didnt have to wait forever to get our work or to get something that looked like crap. so after going through the computer graphic classes and having the color foundation ect. I know my skills are allot better then the locals area shops. so it pretty much. led to were I am now.. so How did you get sucked in? LOL

 

[GregT]

It's what I did after high school working for a friend. Tried other fields and kept coming back. Tired of working for someone else. Started my own shop. Loving every minute of it for the past 10 years.

 

[mark in tx]

Because it is so easy, just put vinyl in the machine, load some clip-art, press a button and get paid!


Just kidding y'all.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Quit work at an ad agency. Started in the sign shop as a temporary gig until I could find another agency job. Realized that the biggest difference between ad agency work and sign shops is the power tools.

14 years later I bought the shop.

 

[signpro]

i quit McDonalds when i was 17 becuase they didn't give me off the weekend i requested off for (4th of July). before i went out of town with friends that weekend, i applied at a sign shop. my mom called me while i was upnorth with friends, saying i had an interview monday when i got back. i started tuesday! only lost 3 days of work, not including weekend! i've been on/off at the sign shop through college and part time for a few years while i managed a car audio shop, but still did the design/installs at the sign shop. then almost 3 years ago, my family & i bought this sign shop, now i'm full time. i'm 29 now, so over 11years.

sorry for the long explaination.

 

[TheProfessor]

After college I was working as a marketing, advertising and event coordinator for Harley of Annapolis. I used to have all my stuff printed at the local signs by tomorrow. Harley is an awesome company but the pay isnt wonderful... so I moved over to the sign shop and worked there for a year and a half. I then moved to the company I am at now, Severn Graphics, which is a nice step up. I make 200% less "For Sale" signs than I used to, and I get to do some real design work again. I do miss the small set-up of our signs by tomorrow. I learned how to do a bit of everything: design, print, plot, weed, apply, remove, laminate... and my favorite... the blowtorch

 

[SignManiac]

Thirty five years ago I volunteered to paint a few ABC's...The rest is history.

 

[Mikeifg]

Worked in Indy cars for years. Then got into Alot of Fleet work nationally, saved up some money and here I am.

 

[mrchips]

I was a shop teacher for ten years and was eligible for food stamps.....so I got a real job. Thirty+ years later.........................................

Joe,

Makin Chips and Havin Fun!

 

[Tim Aucoin]

I've been in the printing industry for almost 30 years now. 10 years ago I went in with a co-worker and purchased this business (Kwik Kopy Design & Print Centre) from the retiring owner. We've added many new technologies, especially as the digital era took off. Our offset printing business is slowly dying to digital applications, so I needed something to replace the revenue lost in that area. I started into wide format printing a few years ago with a pigment based printer (Epson 9800), and have been doing a ton of banners, signs and posters. I decided to take it one step further and get into solvent printing, purchasing a Roland SP-540V. My goal is to completely remove my offset print department within the next 5 years and go completely digital including a complete service sign department!

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

After high school, I started waiting tables, but my hobby was customizing trucks. I fell in with a bunch of other guys with trucks while hanging out at the local tint shop, and and we decided to for a truck club, and I went in buying vinyl for the club and the owner of the tint shop. I would apply all the graphics for every one.

Way back in '91 I walked in to the trophy / sign shop to order another logo ( the night after I quit my job no less), and he said that he had seen all the trucks with the logos in town, and checked a couple of them out, and wanted me to start working for him. I would do the signs, and the lady that worked there would do the trophies. I learned layout & design, colors, how to apply proficiently...

From there, I went on to another sign shop (because the lady there offered to train me to become a manager of a 2nd location that never happened). There I learned how to work on electrical signs, and got my CDLs while driving and opperating a 100' Skyhook.

From there, I went to a sign / billboard manufacturer, where I learned sheetmetal work, CNC work, and eventually became the engineer that drafted and design the signs and billboards.

A couple of more shops after that, here I am owning my own shop.

This July it will be 18 years in the sign biz...

 

[petepaz]

went to votech (graphic art)
then night school (graphics art)
worked in a carpet store for 5 years and found an ad in the paper graphic artist wanted
will train and so it began the company was just a screen printing comp. at the time did decals, nameplates.... and as the digital stuff cam in to play so started the sign business

 

[high impact]

fell in on accident, oops...DANG IT! Now stuck. lol

Seriously, bought out a local bankrupt sign business who had done all my signs for another business I had previously owned and the rest is history...

 

[WILLIAMS]

got into it because i thought that's where the money was... haha

i always had an interest in art... have a b.s. in graphic design. focused on print design for a few years after college. got bored. started getting sign work. agree with Pat with the difference being power tools.

 

[weaselboogie]

I started hand lettered signs in 8th grade. In highschool, I started working for Consolidated Stores AKA Big Lots as the local store ad maker. These were weekly ads that hung in the window advertising a specific item. Within a year, I was traveling to other stores, throughout ohio, Pa and west virginia doing posters and banners for store openings, and revamping existing store signage. I even was at HQ doing sign work for National managers meetings. The only place that was big enough table to do the signs was their 20ft conference table. All this when I was 19yr old. These were ALL done by hand with huge markers.
Signs were a obvious step.

 

[wes70]

1990 - 1992 went to college and received Architectural Drafting diploma... feelanced with some architects. Work was scarce at the time with the recession and all. Decided to go back to college to get my diploma in graphic arts. Worked in a printing department for Pearson International Peacekeeping Centre. In 1997, took out small loan and purchased a roland print/cut (pc50) and the rest is history.

 

[Billct2]

Got to know the local sign painter/carver in high school.
He talked me into going to Butera School of Art/Sign Program.
That was in '74, been at it ever since.

 

[sarge]

after i retired from the US Army in 91 .. I had been doing circuit board schematics for boeing and doing allen brady code for robotic application .. the schematics were done on autocad and printed using a plotter .. then someone gave me their corel draw .. got cancer .. during recovery i taught myself corel draw .. anyway .. i started making stickers, then signs .. i suppose i did my first sign in 98 .. never planed on it .. i have some good gigs doing decals for the military and some arms, and ammunition companies .. so it was a natural progression

 

[signpro]

got into it because i thought that's where the money was... haha

same here

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

did my own sign ..cause the sign inspector thats the only way without a permit

then next doors then several others over a year

then went to school ...cause the last job I did looked like crap ... lots of copy ..end to end top to bottom ...egad it was bad

when at school realized this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my earth time...34 years ago