Idea for a new thread......................................................................

[Stacey K]

In 1980 I was 7, I began my career with crayons.

 

[rjssigns]

In the mid 80's I was learning how to be a "mop artist" as my mentor called it. Mike would lay down the first strokes then said "follow them". He was a young guy with an old soul. Absolutely incredible what he could do with a set of "cutters" on a 15' x 48' billboard. He made it look too easy. If the sign side slowed down he took on fine art commissions. Unfortunately his demons got the better of him. After he passed it took the wind out of my sails so I gave up. As I close in on retirement I would like to find another "mop artist" to take me under their wing.

 

[Gino]

Here's one I'll never forget. Two of us were out for a week lettering on-site at a millwright, rigging and moving company. Huge place. So, we're lettering this one day and I went to wash out my brushes and oil them at the end of the day and said to Dave...... hey, the oil jar is empty. Here we were using oil all day, instead of penetrol for paint flow in our paint. I'll bet it took 6 months for the lettering that day to dry..... if at all.

 

[zspace]

When I first got in the business there were 3 Sign painters on staff. It seemed like magic watching them take a sketch and hand paint a sign. There are still a few around here mostly doing temporary graphics on retail windows during the Holidays.

 

[Billct2]

I started with the local sign guy in '73, then went to Butera Sign School in Boston. Hardly use my brush kit anymore except for gilding. I was just telling somebody how I decided to learn carving in the 80s because "they'll never replace that with a machine"

 

[Gino]

Hahaaa..... reading another thread where someone wants a holster for their heatgun, reminded me of so often doing this one.

Painting something, had a run and took a rag and wiped it off. Smudged it a little, so you added some turps to the rag and got it all off. Stuffed the rag in your back pocket. How many of you walked around with a burnt spot on their a$$ for a few days ??

 

[netsol]

Let's say pre 1980. 4b or 4a or arty came out in '82.

My 4a has sentimental value.
I still use it from time to time

 

[Gino]

I'm still use my hands for signwork from time to time, too. That's sentimental for me these days. I even open my eyes to see what I'm doing.

I know notasignguy is gonna have something to say about that one..........

 

[signbrad]

I learned to draw a large oval with three push pins and a string (or wire). Wire is better than string because if the string stretches it can cause the ends of the line to not meet up perfectly, kind of like an old Roland I used that couldn't make a three-foot oval without the same problem.

Brad

 

[GAC05]

Used to work with my Dad in the paint and body shop. Would cut masks out of manila folders that he would hold up to the panels and ghost in rows of scallops before laying down the clear coat.
I remember a few times he would lay down lace from the fabric store to use as a mask. Really subtle stuff that would only show at certain angles. Then on other cars, he'd dump enough metal flake into the clear to almost make a non-skid surface. People went in for a lot of odd stuff in those days. He is still kicking but does not paint anymore.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Hahaaa..... reading another thread where someone wants a holster for their heatgun, reminded me of so often doing this one.

Painting something, had a run and took a rag and wiped it off. Smudged it a little, so you added some turps to the rag and got it all off. Stuffed the rag in your back pocket. How many of you walked around with a burnt spot on their a$$ for a few days ??

Never used turps but I have done that with other solvents. I spilled about a half gallon of lacquer thinner on my jewels one day. It took a minute and then was like fire. Not like you can just drop your drawers and clean up in the middle of a jobsite either.

 

[GAC05]

Never used turps but I have done that with other solvents. I spilled about a half gallon of lacquer thinner on my jewels one day. It took a minute and then was like fire. Not like you can just drop your drawers and clean up in the middle of a jobsite either.

Pumped gas for my Dad at a time when cars had the filler behind rear license plate and pumps did not have the anti-spill shut-off. My height was perfect to catch the powerwash of overfilling gasoline right below the belt-line every time. Took more than once to remember to step off to one side.

 

[Bradley Signs]

Mid 70's when I got started, took commercial art in Vo-ed school, teacher became mentor, and taught me how to hand letter, and let me work with him and payed me well.... he was a great man to me, then said student, (me) got a job right before graduation.
Started working for a startup sign company. Lettered everything by hand, sketched it on with a pencil lightly, then lettered it. We lettered a lot of those pan faces that Coke would give to business' back them with simple black block.
Helped install the signs...
Metal fabed with what ever tools we had or made or the boss could afford at that point.
Used a swing seat for a large sign company before they were banned.
Hung over the side of a ship that was dry docked for winter, and lettered it with a can of sterno keeping the paint soft! It was about 30° and a blizzard coming off of Lake Erie!
Cans were built with hammers and hand rivet guns, a small aluminum brake and what ever else...
The list is endless....
Can't imagine kidz today even being able to build anything without a computer and a CNC or Printer.

 

[unclebun]

I started in 1993 and for the first few years we were mixing the old ways with computer cut vinyl lettering. The shop I worked in was already using PCs, but we also painted pictorials and lettering on billboards, did some custom painted backgrounds on signs, and also wall murals. We used an overhead projector and drew out the lines on the signs with Stabilo pencils. I painted a lot of big letters on billboards that I just had to cut in the line from a pounced or drawn letter, and also numbers on dock slips that we pounced a pattern on the concrete and lettered with a fitch. But within a few years the software got better and we started outsourcing Scotchprints for big pictures, and the only painting was for coat outs.

I did use easels for painting and putting vinyl on signs that were multiple boards. We also had stringers on the shop wall we could nail the panels to for billboards.

 

[Gino]

Back in the 80's and 90's I built a large easel in our middle paint room. It was 60' long and 16' tall. My old shop was about 14,500 sq ft. It had heavy hinges all along the top, but every 4'. That way, I could pull out how ever many I needed to use for painting. We did a lotta billboards for a local sports complex and some of their signs were 40' and 10' tall. We had a rolling stage so we could just go from top to bottom. When it was in full use, it was spectacular to see. We'd have 2 or 3 guys up there painting a sign and knocking 8' x 16' signs out in about 2 or 3 hours. Many times, we'd use pounce patterns generated on our 30" gerber sprocket. Faster than waiting the the electric pounce.... and much more accurate.

 

[unclebun]

Ahhh, the electro-pounce. Source of much hilarity when you could get a newbie to shock himself with it.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Pumped gas for my Dad at a time when cars had the filler behind rear license plate and pumps did not have the anti-spill shut-off. My height was perfect to catch the powerwash of overfilling gasoline right below the belt-line every time. Took more than once to remember to step off to one side.

So...everyone spilled gas before the auto shutoff? Hiw the hell would you know when it was full?

 

[GAC05]

So...everyone spilled gas before the auto shutoff? Hiw the hell would you know when it was full?

It's kinda like when you hit puberty - you get a tingling-burning sensation below the belt. And then you just know.

 

[Gino]

So...everyone spilled gas before the auto shutoff? Hiw the hell would you know when it was full?

You paid attention to what you were doing and weren't on a cell phone gabbing.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

That wouldnt work for me... I click the nozzle and take off to the bathroom or get back in the truck to cool off and get on my phone. I taught my daughter how to pump gas last week.