Buntrock
New Member
Hello, and how nice to come across this site!
I was drafted right out of high school by my art teacher who had a sign business on the side, this was in 1980. I started out coating 4x8's for what, $3.00 an hour. I began to learn from all the sign painters in Central Jersey, what a group! How we all stuck together back then, a totally different culture. Everybody shared everything, from a can of One Shot to info on the jack-ass trying to play each other over the phone for a bare bone price.
I decided to speed up my education in hand lettering by going to a school. I saw advertised in the brand new trade magazine at the time (SignCraft).
The school was Butera School of Art in Boston, Mass. After that I packed up my sign kit and drove cross country to Southern California and worked as a freelance sign guy with several large sign companies, I learned a great deal.
After a year I drove back to Bridgewater, New Jersey and started Bunce Signs. In 1996 when Rutgers University joined the Big East Sports Conference (who I was doing sign work for) I finally broke down and went Vector, dove in and bought my computer and Roland 24 inch plotter, changed my one man sign shop name to Big East Signs, and went on to really get serious and design some complicated layered vector graphics in
Corel Draw. Blending my drawing ability with my new tech investment in scanner and plotter I was jammin.
In 2006 though, I ran out of patience with the trade. It seemed like every guy being forced to retire from AT&T was attending a franchise trade show and deciding to go into the sign business. I did not have the money to go out and buy a printer, nor did I want to. I could still hand paint a graphic and airbrush, so I developed an attitude towards the trade.
I've been out of trade as a full time sign maker since and was doing pretty well in the environmental trade until the economy burped and I had to have a new heart valve installed.
Now I've decided to dive back in and playup both my brush work and custom vector graphics. Hell, I might even sell vector graphics to the franchises.
Anyway I'm glad I'm back and I'm glad to run into your site. I hope I may contribute something and be there for you like we all were when I first broke into the trade.
Best regards,
Jeff Bunce
Buntrock
I was drafted right out of high school by my art teacher who had a sign business on the side, this was in 1980. I started out coating 4x8's for what, $3.00 an hour. I began to learn from all the sign painters in Central Jersey, what a group! How we all stuck together back then, a totally different culture. Everybody shared everything, from a can of One Shot to info on the jack-ass trying to play each other over the phone for a bare bone price.
I decided to speed up my education in hand lettering by going to a school. I saw advertised in the brand new trade magazine at the time (SignCraft).
The school was Butera School of Art in Boston, Mass. After that I packed up my sign kit and drove cross country to Southern California and worked as a freelance sign guy with several large sign companies, I learned a great deal.
After a year I drove back to Bridgewater, New Jersey and started Bunce Signs. In 1996 when Rutgers University joined the Big East Sports Conference (who I was doing sign work for) I finally broke down and went Vector, dove in and bought my computer and Roland 24 inch plotter, changed my one man sign shop name to Big East Signs, and went on to really get serious and design some complicated layered vector graphics in
Corel Draw. Blending my drawing ability with my new tech investment in scanner and plotter I was jammin.
In 2006 though, I ran out of patience with the trade. It seemed like every guy being forced to retire from AT&T was attending a franchise trade show and deciding to go into the sign business. I did not have the money to go out and buy a printer, nor did I want to. I could still hand paint a graphic and airbrush, so I developed an attitude towards the trade.
I've been out of trade as a full time sign maker since and was doing pretty well in the environmental trade until the economy burped and I had to have a new heart valve installed.
Now I've decided to dive back in and playup both my brush work and custom vector graphics. Hell, I might even sell vector graphics to the franchises.
Anyway I'm glad I'm back and I'm glad to run into your site. I hope I may contribute something and be there for you like we all were when I first broke into the trade.
Best regards,
Jeff Bunce
Buntrock
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