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Just another new guy!

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stripes

New Member
Hello everyone, My name is David and I have been in business for 3 years now. The majority of the work we do is copy/print and apparel decorating.
I do however, offer coroplast and magnetic signs. I have joined here to better the quality of my workmanship and learn some tricks that may further my education.

I had absolutly no experiance when I started in any of these services I offer and have come along way. But a good example of how new I am is that today I did a 4' X 4' Coroplast sign for a ball tournament. It was a list of 12 sponsors in 4 colours. It took 7 hours to cut (Roland GX 24), weed and apply
:omg2: It looks great but I have know idea if this was way to long to do a sign this size. Anyway, I look forward to learning here.

Thanks, David
Capreol, Ontario Canada
 
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Salmoneye

New Member
That's $455 plus materials and material markup not counting design. That is a mighty fine coroplast sign. (Laughing with you not at you) I have a lot of background in printing but like you not much in signage. This forum will prove invaluable to you as it does to me and you said all of the right things in your post. This is an education and we will get better and faster with time. Post a pic of it if you want, I have never done a 4 color cut sign but we print most of our stuff.
Welcome.
 
ChicagoGraphics

ChicagoGraphics

New Member
7 hours for one 4'x4' sign from start to finish?

Now that's 6 hours to long, I hope you improve and get faster at it, if not I'd look for another line of work to do.
 
S

stripes

New Member
Thanks everyone for the welcome! ChicagoGraphics might have a good point! LOL The sign that I made was my first attempt at anything larger that 18X24 and my shop is so small that I was literally laying on the floor do it! (workbench is only 3'X6')

Now for the fun part, I did this sign because the teams that are in the tournament all buy their uniforms from us and many of the sponsors buy thousands of $ in promotional items from us. I did the sign for FREE!! it was a great learning experiance for me in that I knew instantly that I was doing something wrong. So here I am eager to learn.

I will post a picture later today. Thanks all,
David
 
CS-SignSupply

CS-SignSupply

New Member
Welcome. I am sure many of us have been in a similar situations when trying to stretch our capabilities. What was the most time consuming part of this project? I suspect weeding was a good portion of it.
 
S

stripes

New Member
My creation

CiberSupply said:
Welcome. I am sure many of us have been in a similar situations when trying to stretch our capabilities. What was the most time consuming part of this project? I suspect weeding was a good portion of it.
Click to expand...

Yes, weeding was time consuming, so wasn't getting up and down off the floor! LOL In retrospect I should have kept track of each step timewise. Here is the sign. I have developed tough skin over my 56 years so please speak your minds freely!

Thanks again, David
 

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S

stripes

New Member
A magnet for my company

I thought since I was looking for feedback I should include a picture of a vehicle magnet that I made for my company.
David
 

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CS-SignSupply

CS-SignSupply

New Member
Need to spend a little more time learning how to space, align and level your allocation. Have read any books on viyl application? What software are you using?
 
S

stripes

New Member
software

CiberSupply said:
Need to spend a little more time learning how to space, align and level your allocation. Have read any books on viyl application? What software are you using?
Click to expand...

I only have the Roland Cut Studio that came with the GX-24, I just ordered the book, Mastering Layout Mike Stevens on the Art of Eye Appeal, (recomended by another thread on this forum) and I am trying to decide whether to purchase and learn either Adobe or corel.
For now I am using Publisher

Other than that, I am fumbling around but with the intention of becoming the best I can. What I did was to draw a graph on the board and placed the weeded names as evenly as possible.

Can anyone please recomend some basic tutorials that I can start reading? I am going to buy a premium membership here so that I can
read the ones on this site.

David

PS. If it explains my lack of knowledge, I was a commercial plumber for 35 years and had to retire due to health issues, so it was either start over and self learn a trade or sit on the porch and watch the dog grow old!:doh:

I also added a picture of where our largest market comes from, custom apparel decorating. The signs simply were added because we had the cutter and the customers. But, if I am going to do it, I want to do it right!
 

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JKADesigns

JKADesigns

New Member
I'm surprised that you haven't gotten a good flaming yet. I can believe that you took 7 hours to do that sign... two registration marks on top of each decal aligned up with a line and split transfer taped would have made your work much easier. I can't be one to judge, but based on the looks of your sign, for a newbie who's done several signs, that sign looks like it can't take more than 2 hours to do max if you know the basic tricks. Of course, double the time since you didn't have a good workbench to work on... I would have screwed a sheet of plywood to my bench and put a poster on that and screwed the coro through the grommets and then you'd have a decent workbench.

Hope you're using an xacto knife and tweezers for weeding... that makes it so much easier.
 
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stripes

New Member
Thanks for the feedback so far

joeslawn said:
I'm surprised that you haven't gotten a good flaming yet. I can believe that you took 7 hours to do that sign... two registration marks on top of each decal aligned up with a line and split transfer taped would have made your work much easier. I can't be one to judge, but based on the looks of your sign, for a newbie who's done several signs, that sign looks like it can't take more than 2 hours to do max if you know the basic tricks. Of course, double the time since you didn't have a good workbench to work on... I would have screwed a sheet of plywood to my bench and put a poster on that and screwed the coro through the grommets and then you'd have a decent workbench.

Hope you're using an xacto knife and tweezers for weeding... that makes it so much easier.
Click to expand...

My whole shop is only 8'x20'. That holds computer etc... two photo copiers with saddle stitchers, epson 1400 printer, sales counter, heat press, brother 6 head embroidery machine, roland GX-24, and a 8'X8' display area for what we sell. So much for space.

Now, as for registration marks, I am sorry to say that I have not learned how to do that yet. The signs that I do are all done with the basic cutting program that came with the machine.

Do I deserve do be flamed? maybe, maybe not. The one strong point I have is that before I got too involved in sign making I went looking for a place to learn what split transfer taped and the basics are. So, hopefully we can all be patient and in a year or two you will be suprised at how much I have learned with a little guidence.

Thanks everyone!:notworthy:
David
 
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