A letterhead, pinhead, motorhead, pothead, shit head… and other heads out there, but we’ll keep this the PG version for the moment…. are just people that are really into their ‘thing’.
No matter what bills are being paid, no matter what the end user wants or is willing to pay…. these people are all willing to go to great lengths to keep it pure and the way GOD wanted things.
A true letterhead will not do it for the money unless you do it RIGHT…. otherwise he’ll walk away laughing. The motorhead that tells you, that you can’t change the engine out for a small block because of specific reasons will do it, if you insist, but the car probably won’t perform as if he had picked all the correct components for the new home of the engine and had put his whole self into the changeover. Pinheads will laugh in your face if you mention vinyl stripes and probably throw paint buggers at you. A pothead will share with you because he knows he’ll get residuals in return…. he just knows it from a l-o-n-g developed habit; nonetheless, he still knows his weed. A shithead… well, that one needs no explaining, and most of us are good at being that one. We all have practiced long and hard for that title. Sad part is, that one can become quite convincing in a matter of minutes….. ask me how I know……
My take on a ‘Letterhead’ is really someone that still believes in doing things with his hands and really being able to get ‘into the sign’…. almost becoming part of it. When that sign leaves the shop, a part of ‘you’ goes with it. You lived the sign the whole time it went through your shop, no matter how big or small your place is…. you’re in that sign. You breathed the colors right into the grain. You knew the outcome before it was finalized for the customers proofing. You also probably spent more time on it than you had figured, but that part doesn’t really matter. Now, that sometimes means working with carving tools, paint brushes, silk screens, charcoal, pencils, speedball pens, airbrush, neon or electrodes, but a purist is really talking about the one that does it all by hand without modern contraptions. Those people are true artists…. starving sometimes, but at peace with themselves for delivering a perfect product. You generally don’t see many hacks in that pure of an artist.
Regardless of what you’re an enthusiast in [cars, painting, building model airplanes, striping, dancing, singing and playing an instrument or teaching the basics]… there is no disgrace in doing it your way, but cutting corners just is not in their vocabulary.
My take on a Letterhead…….
Gino
