Just Curious, For Sign Painters

[Graphics2u]

I don't paint signs. But I have a customer that wants a 22" x 28" sign for his collector car. Original was painted on Red Poster board. Here's the new one, What would it roughly cost to have this hand painted.

I just want to see how I compare.

Thanks for your input.

[jdb]

I've painted quite a few of these and I don't know of anyone who would take the time to hand letter the font you have in black there. It looks to be 1/2" or under. With all those serifs that would take some time that would have to be charged for. Showcards are kind of a knock out thing that are meant to look very appealing and attractive but done in a minimumal amount of time and the small copy would normally be done in a casual. That font could be done loosely and look very close. If that would be the case then I would charge around $145.00, hand lettered.

[Graphics2u]

I've painted quite a few of these and I don't know of anyone who would take the time to hand letter the font you have in black there. It looks to be 1/2" or under. With all those seifs that would take some time that would have to be charged for. Showcards are kind of a knock out thing that are meant to look very appealing and attractive but done in a minimumal amount of time and the small copy would normally be done in a casual. That font could be done loosely and look very close. If that would be the case then I would charge around $145.00, hand lettered.

Thanks. That font is almost Identical to the old sign he brought in and I thought it would be a royal pain to paint it!

[Steve C.]

I worked for many years as strickly a shocard artist. But it was for someone
else so I dont know what they where selling for, it's been 20 years ago so I
guess that doesnt matter now anyway. The only way I would do all that small
copy would be with a speedball pen. If I used a brush it would need to be
larger and in a casual font. Probably around $150. these days. Ive done a
few of these cards printed for around $100.

[Billct2]

I did cards like that also, and when I had my chops I could do a small "plug" lettering like that with a brush ( not as good as some but good enough). Now I wouldn't try, it'd take too long to get my stokes back on that little stuff.
I know one guy who still does a lot of cards and he'd get about $150 for that.

[Graphics2u]

Thanks everyone for your input.

[Si Allen]

Many years ago, when I used to do them, never had that much text on them.

Back in thos days I would have charged $60 which would be about $160 in today's money.

[THATgirl]

I use to love lettering shocards. Matt board, india ink, and a few brushes used to make you lots of money back in the late 70s and 80's. That's a nice looking one, but wouldn't want to letter those small letters either anymore. In the 70's and 80's I would letter 20inx22in for furniture stores and get 20.00 each. A full size mattboard would be 60-80.00.

[SignosaurusRex]

Hand Lettered, about 2 bills. Most guys around here just want vinyl on plex and framed.

[Gino]

Don’t know….maybe it’s me, but that doesn’t have the feel of a shocard to me. It still looks way too mechanical to me.

Speedball, some sables RichArt and a 22” x 28” Crescent board with that amount of copy would be about a 1-1/2 hour card. When we were turning these out hand over fist…. about $45. for that one. Today, wouldn’t want to do it anymore…. but, set it up, tweak it and hit the “PRINT’ button. About $115. There is no design time on that sign, so you don’t need to make up a bogus charge. Today, typing copy in doesn’t relate to someone handpainting it on and not having to do anything further.

[Flame]

Is a vinyl mask and some 1shot out of the question? That small text just looks like a pain in the behonkey.

[Si Allen]

Flamey...those were done with water paints and were flat, not glossy like 1Shot.

[Flame]

Flamey...those were done with water paints and were flat, not glossy like 1Shot.



oooops. Well.... never mind then. I was just trying to think up a way to have that small, PITA text painted.