Sign Brokering

[401Graphics]

What makes you a "sign-maker"? According to some, those qualifications aren't met by 98% of the people in the sign business. There are people that make Channel letters and do nothing but that. I think they are sign makers. I've never built or installed a channel letter. There are people that do nothing but electronic displays. Are they sign makers? They engineer, sell, and install electronic signs all day. I've never made or installed one of those. Are people that make ADA signs, sign makers? They wouldn't know which end of a plotter to put the material in if they are using Photopolymer. Do you have to know it all to be called a "Sign Maker"? Or is it a dollar threshold? I know franchise owners doing millions a year. Are they sign makers?

What's the importance of the label? None, I'd argue. You can be in the SIGN BUSINESS and not be someone that people write books about. Who would you rather be, the Sign Shop Owner that is doing $2M a year in revenue or the "Sign Maker" that can't make enough on his/her own to pay their bills? I know both. The last "Sign Maker" I had a relationship with now drives a truck for a living because he couldn't make it as a "Sign Maker". And I'm sure there are true artists that are making a killing and franchise owners that are in the toilet.

What difference does it make? We're all good at various things in the SIGN BUSINESS. You might be better at some things, I might excel at others. If we share that knowledge, we'll both be smarter and more educated about the business.

I'm sure many of you are just like me, when sitting at stoplights, or out in traffic, you are always looking at signs,etc. I see stuff that's been there for a long time and I think there were just as many hacks out there in 1980 as there are today. I can't remember the last time I saw a car graphic that was top notch, yet those people keep selling them and people keep buying them. I've also seen some of the crappiest hand painted work ever, praised by people because it was "hand painted", even though it was horrid.

Brokers are just people, nothing special about them, per se. Some are bad, some are good, some get it, some don't, some will help you build your business, some will screw you. Pretty much the same rule with everyone else in life. People are people.

Just my opinion.

 

[Bigdawg]

You misunderstood Gino - when I said don't tell my boss I'm not a real sign-maker... it had nothing to do with whether he is or not and never said you called him anything.

Nowadays, you no longer need the talent, just gain knowledge and you'll be Okay. Problem with that is..... too many come in that can't even memorize the route on an elevator, but they can push a mouse around and some kinda software package which makes them an instant arteest.

You don't think what you post is insulting to those of us that aren't old time sign people and have never worked in a real (by your definition) sign shop? Read it again. I deleted the rest of what I've been sitting here typing because there's really no sense and I'd rather try to stay friends. But this overall disdain for computers and digital skills gets me sometimes. So I'll just point out that there were many sign painters that could't do it all too - and times - they are a changin'. Doing it all now includes using vinyl and digital prints and being inventive with new technology and methods while moving forward.

My sincere apology to legacyborn for this thread hijack. Gino, let's be done with it now and go back to talking about sign brokering. I think we've both expressed our opinions pretty thoroughly.

 

[Techman]

There is a world of difference between a jobber and a broker..

Jobber,,,
Manufacturer, tradesman, or wholesaler who deals in small lots of goods or 'jobs,' or acts as an agent, middleman who assembles or manufactures and sells to an end user..

Broker
A broker is an individual or party (brokerage firm) that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed.

I believe most of us fit the jobber category. We buy parts and assemble them into a product that is greater than the sum of the parts. Will carry a good name..

A broker is the one who can do nothing but gather completed parts to sell at a commission. It is he who wanders around beating down prices to increase his income and likewise develops the bad name...

 

[John Butto]

Sign Breakers

There have always been sign brokers in the sign business. I have been in this business for a long time and back when I would travel and you would work for a sign company, the shop owner to me was the sign broker, who took your handpainted work and marked it up and sold it so he could make a living off of your talent. A lot of shops would hire you and not pay you an hourly wage and you set up a price for certain size letters were so much when doing glass gold. He would figure out my price at the customers business add what he wanted (most times double) and that is the price the customer got. The sign business has not changed that much as far as people but you do have less looking at it as an artform and more as a job. You take a person in an ad agency who has no concept of a sign but can put out great "branding" or a person who makes channel letters to me is a metal sculpture. But, the sales person, well those are people who try to know everything about the product and everything about the personality of the maker so as to set up their wheeling and dealings. Sometimes that is one person who can manipulate their own personalities. And in closing, I think BigDawg and Gino are a lot alike.

 

[Gino]

There have always been sign brokers in the sign business. I have been in this business for a long time and back when I would travel and you would work for a sign company, the shop owner to me was the sign broker, who took your handpainted work and marked it up and sold it so he could make a living off of your talent. A lot of shops would hire you and not pay you an hourly wage and you set up a price for certain size letters were so much when doing glass gold. He would figure out my price at the customers business add what he wanted (most times double) and that is the price the customer got. The sign business has not changed that much as far as people but you do have less looking at it as an artform and more as a job. You take a person in an ad agency who has no concept of a sign but can put out great "branding" or a person who makes channel letters to me is a metal sculpture. But, the sales person, well those are people who try to know everything about the product and everything about the personality of the maker so as to set up their wheeling and dealings. Sometimes that is one person who can manipulate their own personalities. And in closing, I think BigDawg and Gino are a lot alike.

That's because I

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Perhaps it's me, but I can't figure out why she has this misconstrued image of people who have worked a trade from the bottom up and in addition have learned computer systems and can work in both worlds, vs someone who goes out and buys a computer, a plotter with a bird's name and some unheard of vinyl and consider themselves a beginner ??

Alrightie then, back to your regular programming and broadcasting. Stay tuned for the next commercial advertisement on this same station.
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