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We built our shop ten years ago. The lighting installed back then was four banks of T12 fluorescents and two high bay lights. That technology is now obsolete. The old style ballasts are now replaced with electronic ones which we have found to have a much shorter life. The old bulbs are getting...

We are currently in the middle of a ten month design build on a theme park project. As you can imagine there are plenty of cool signs to be build and all of them will be dimensional. Every ride, attraction and building will sport a cool dimensional sign in keeping with the theme and story of the...

I was dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age. I thought they were cool but the last thing I thought I needed was a computer. Bak in the early 90's I witnessed my kids working on computers often. And Janis did our books on our company computer too. The odd time I pecked out a letter...

It can be so intimidating to start in this business. There is so much to learn. Design, layout, materials, colors, construction techniques, business skills, pricing, customer relations and thousand more things. Back when I started (more than 40 years ago) I was young and very green. The sign...

One of our part time helpers is studying kenesiology (sports medicine) in university. For one of her classes Sarah has to spend 12 hours in a wheelchair. I insisted she do part of that time in our shop, but on the condition she not cheat if at all possible. My request was for two reasons. First...

It is a dream come true each time some of our work appears in SignCraft. To have my articles appear there is one better. But all that pales when a picture of my grand daughter Phoebe appears on those pages. It's just about enough to make me bust my buttons. Each time I submit an article...

It has long been my view that advertising in the magazines, newspapers and TV is best done as editorial. I don't read many ads and I suspect most other folks are the same. We will purposely do more work on select projects to create eye candy that is newsworthy. If we are doing a big lift...

Here's a fun project currently underway in our shop. The double sided sign measures 4' x 4' x 4' deep. It's routed from 30 lb Precision Board with a welded steel frame inside. The bull's head is sculpted by hand using Abracadabra Sculpting epoxy. -dan

I live in a wonderful town. I believe its one of the better towns around. But in the last weeks I have been disturbed by what I see in the paper - especially on the front page. Without fail, the pages are full of bad things, drug busts, shootings, murder, accusations of wrongdoing and such...

I often get asked just how it is we manage to sell the dimensional signs we do. The answer is simple. Build it and they will come. People have to see what you can do before they will ask for it. I am a HUGE believer in investing in samples for our own showroom. Those who have visited our shop...

A was visited by a fellow from Ontario last week. He was on vacation visiting family in the city. He had been an industrial designer, but with the decline in the economy he had changed to landscape design. He loved what he saw in my shop and not so quietly wished he could do something similar...

Through the years I've often thought and dreamed of writing a book of my sign making adventures, chronicling my unique journey in this business. Each time I looked into it in past years I was put off by the extreme cost of publishing such a book on account of the full color images that would be...

Each year I take the time to take a close look at our website, refresh and redo as necessary. In looking at the analytics we discovered few people were taking the time to look at more than a few of our old 80 page website. I liked the look and results of some of the blogs I was doing so we...

I get quite a number of emails each week. One of the frequent questions concerns pricing work done on a CNC router. I got an email yesterday morning which asked those same questions. I thought it worth posting here. I have posted my answers under his questions and would love to see a discussion...

After a little more than a decade of using a Windows based PC we are going to the other side... and switching to a total Mac system. I've used a Mac laptop for almost two years and liked it a lot. It's given me no troubles in that time. With some serious software upgrades pending and the...

Locally a businessman bought a life sized version of the Predator and put it out front of his business on the pedestal. He declared it art and not a sign. Someone took offense and complained to city hall. They in turn sent out their bylaw enforcement officer who wrote up the offending business...

We all have our favorite operating systems and programs. I hope this doesn't become a debate about that. For us it makes sense to switch to a Mac in the coming weeks. I just feel comfortable after doing tons of research and using my Macbook Pro for the last two years. I'm ready to go totally...

The seventh edition of the Sign Magic Workshop is now history. What a time of learning it was! Normally we get together for some Chinese food on Thursday as a meet and greet, then go back to the shop to get the lay of the land. This time out it proved to be different! Attendees started...