ryan_long_01
New Member
Hey everyone...
Glad to be here, as I've looked around the last couple of days this seems like a cool place with a lot of support and answers as well as a nice bunch of people.
I'm 25 years old, just accepted a position with a local neon/sign shop here in Indiana to do graphic design and setup for their work in vinyl (with a printer/cutter), 3D-router (they cut signs in signfoam, wood, aluminum, etc), etc. I'll probably end up doing a little bit of everything around the shop.
My background is in architecture, which is what I went to school for and got my Bachelor's degree in. The program I graduated from at Ball State University was very respected and because one learns so much there about the design process, a lot of graduates end up in other fields of design because the skills are so easily transferred.
After graduation, I spend a year in the Chicago burbs working for a major retail graphics firm, mostly running work on the 2 digital UV large-format flatbed printers that we had (Inca Eagle and Inca Columbia, $500,000-750,000 printers that could print up to about 10 feet by 6 feet). They could print directly to the substrate, which could be almost anything -- we printed directly onto bubble wrap, acoustical ceiling tile, and carpet while I was there, bust mostly it was styrene, coroplast, board stock, ultraboard, etc.
I've just finished a year toward a master's degree at Purdue University, but while I really enjoy teaching classes as a TA, the program there isn't really right for me, so while they originally considered me for a summer position, in the interview my new employers said it could very easily turn into a full-time, long-term position.
I feel I have a pretty good eye for design and a fair understanding of the printing industry, but I'll have a lot of questions about the ins and outs of working with vinyl (which I only helped out with in Chicago), as well as questions about Flexi, which I've never used before (my former employer used SignLab, and I hardly ever even had to touch that). Hopefully I'll be able to help out with design critiques (one of my strong points from architecture school and teaching) and Photoshop (which I've used for 10 years now).
Well, this is far too long already. Glad to be here!
Ryan
P.S. -- I HATE the font 'Papyrus' with a passion, and it haunts me -- I see it everywhere. Anyone else despise it as much as I do?
Glad to be here, as I've looked around the last couple of days this seems like a cool place with a lot of support and answers as well as a nice bunch of people.
I'm 25 years old, just accepted a position with a local neon/sign shop here in Indiana to do graphic design and setup for their work in vinyl (with a printer/cutter), 3D-router (they cut signs in signfoam, wood, aluminum, etc), etc. I'll probably end up doing a little bit of everything around the shop.
My background is in architecture, which is what I went to school for and got my Bachelor's degree in. The program I graduated from at Ball State University was very respected and because one learns so much there about the design process, a lot of graduates end up in other fields of design because the skills are so easily transferred.
After graduation, I spend a year in the Chicago burbs working for a major retail graphics firm, mostly running work on the 2 digital UV large-format flatbed printers that we had (Inca Eagle and Inca Columbia, $500,000-750,000 printers that could print up to about 10 feet by 6 feet). They could print directly to the substrate, which could be almost anything -- we printed directly onto bubble wrap, acoustical ceiling tile, and carpet while I was there, bust mostly it was styrene, coroplast, board stock, ultraboard, etc.
I've just finished a year toward a master's degree at Purdue University, but while I really enjoy teaching classes as a TA, the program there isn't really right for me, so while they originally considered me for a summer position, in the interview my new employers said it could very easily turn into a full-time, long-term position.
I feel I have a pretty good eye for design and a fair understanding of the printing industry, but I'll have a lot of questions about the ins and outs of working with vinyl (which I only helped out with in Chicago), as well as questions about Flexi, which I've never used before (my former employer used SignLab, and I hardly ever even had to touch that). Hopefully I'll be able to help out with design critiques (one of my strong points from architecture school and teaching) and Photoshop (which I've used for 10 years now).
Well, this is far too long already. Glad to be here!
Ryan
P.S. -- I HATE the font 'Papyrus' with a passion, and it haunts me -- I see it everywhere. Anyone else despise it as much as I do?
