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Got to thinking................................
- Thread starter Gino
- Start date
CreativeCreationGraphics
New Member
I was a delivery driver for a while in Beverly Hills when I lived in LA. Got to meet John Legend, Chris Hemsworth, Stan Lee, and Marilyn Manson. Hollyweird and Beverly Hills are some craaazy places. Everybody is out of their mind lolSince, I've been on this forum, I've read over and over again about all these people who have done something else before becoming a sign person. Perhaps more than one job or vocation.
So, what have you done before entering into the sign industry ??
flyplainsdrifta
New Member
ran the box office and booking at a nationally known comedy club, drove comics, did comedy, some writing and improv. all from the age of 16 to 24. crazy time of my life
CreativeCreationGraphics
New Member
Also me and my brother started our own business at like 16 and 18 years old selling those "hoverboard/segway" things called WatchMeHover. We were selling around $5,000 a week in the first two months (good money for a couple of kids)
d fleming
New Member
Screen printer first, then added signs. In between I have built a ton of stuff, lol. From residential to Disney Attractions. Commercial pest control for a while, taught high school, back into signs and screen printing almost 18 years ago full time. Building a craft distillery now for my old age.
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I started at 19 in the sign business during college...was my first real job and pretty much all I know. While working in the sign business I had part time work at a radio station and when I left to start my own sign business I was in the computer industry while building up my sign business. I went to school for computer networking... I discovered it was going to take me into the corporate culture which was not jiving with me.
HDvinyl
Trump 2020
I was a backstage runner for an entertainment company when I was 19-22. Mostly country singers(which I'm not a fan) but I've met, and driven around many big named ones. I once got to hear Brad Paisley tell his wife(on the phone) that "I did it!, I just got booked for the Tonight Show!" He was the opening act for Tim McGraw that night and I was taking him from his hotel to the venue.
Lets see... I started off at tech support when I was 18, then moved onto Networking... Sitting at a computer all day made me hate them (When it used to be a passion). I got to a point I'd come home, and do anything besides touch a computer... so I decided to get a different job. Took a huge paycut and got a warehouse job in shipping/recieving... Got moved up to being a lead hand within a year... That lasted for about 8 years until the company got bought out, and anyone there longer than 5 years was let go because we were "Too expensive".
I was in panic mode since my kid just turned 1... and applied for everything. Got a job in a sign warehouse trimming vinyl and doing grunt work... then a position opened up in the digital department... From there I started doing all the digital printing, cutting, laminating, etc... I've slowly been getting into the designing / artwork setup aspect of it too. It's a mixture of computer work and other stuff... so I don't get bored, or burnt out, it feels like the perfect job! I enjoy wrapping, and my companies been great with experimenting... Anytime I want to try something (Like a 3D printer) They're more than happy to pick it up, put me through a course, or whatever. So out of all the previous jobs... even though I'm not making as much as I did at any of them, I enjoy this one the most.
I was in panic mode since my kid just turned 1... and applied for everything. Got a job in a sign warehouse trimming vinyl and doing grunt work... then a position opened up in the digital department... From there I started doing all the digital printing, cutting, laminating, etc... I've slowly been getting into the designing / artwork setup aspect of it too. It's a mixture of computer work and other stuff... so I don't get bored, or burnt out, it feels like the perfect job! I enjoy wrapping, and my companies been great with experimenting... Anytime I want to try something (Like a 3D printer) They're more than happy to pick it up, put me through a course, or whatever. So out of all the previous jobs... even though I'm not making as much as I did at any of them, I enjoy this one the most.
IND Digital Dept.
@industryprintshop
So cool, and THANK YOU for your service!
Well before printing and as of currently I am 100% in the amusement industry (worlds largest traveling carnival). I was born into the industry and have been with it for 40 years. I travel the midwest with a carnival all year. I got into the large format printing because the ones that were doing graphics for carnival rides were so booked up and it took forever to get something. I decided to invest and give it a try to pickup the slack where others couldnt. Carnival rides are unique in a sense that there arent any templates available online for dimensions. Since I have access to almost 300 rides in our company the dimensions part is pretty easy to achieve. No one really wants to measure anything and send them incase they are wrong. Sign painters for our industry are becoming a thing of the past so printing and seeing the design ahead of time is a huge advantage to clients plus it takes half the time a sign painter would normally take.
So for me its a part time thing that I do from my house when I am home from traveling. In the winter time I fly to Texas every sunday night and return home Wednesday night, so I have basically 4 days to work on stuff for clients. It is just extra money for me in the broad scheme of things. Safety signs are a big part of it. They are readily available with the manufactures but at ridiculous prices. I can mark mine up 400% and still be 50% less than a manufacture.
Not coming from the sign industry and being self taught is a challenge in itself and sometimes can lead to expensive mistakes. Live and learn. I live on this site reading and gaining knowledge from others on here. Really its a invaluable rescource for me. With that said I want to say thanks to everyone on here for what has been contributed for me to learn by.
So for me its a part time thing that I do from my house when I am home from traveling. In the winter time I fly to Texas every sunday night and return home Wednesday night, so I have basically 4 days to work on stuff for clients. It is just extra money for me in the broad scheme of things. Safety signs are a big part of it. They are readily available with the manufactures but at ridiculous prices. I can mark mine up 400% and still be 50% less than a manufacture.
Not coming from the sign industry and being self taught is a challenge in itself and sometimes can lead to expensive mistakes. Live and learn. I live on this site reading and gaining knowledge from others on here. Really its a invaluable rescource for me. With that said I want to say thanks to everyone on here for what has been contributed for me to learn by.
bob
It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Been doing this sort of work since I was ~10 years old. Hand lettering grocery store ads for my family's weekly newspaper, A stint in the USAF, then a bewildering sequence of print shops, hand typesetting, offset camera work, running presses, and signs, always signs. In 1966 I went to work for IBM and like Navin Johnson, discovered my special purpose; writing code. I discovered that I could write code like Mozart wrote music and did so until I retired in 2002 ending up doing 31 years at HP. Still doing signs, Indy cars, top fuel dragsters, funny cars, etc.during all those years. When I retired I had a list of things I wanted to to. I got them done before noon the first day.
A friend, who had a booming business leasing and installing T posts and hanging real estate signs for all the realtors in the area, stopped by and asked if I still did signs. Seems that he got daily request from realtors for custom signs. I said yes. He asked if I still had any equipment. I told him I had a box of brushes.and a goodly collection of One Shot. He said he was thinking more of cut vinyl. Something I always wanted to give a try. So I invested some money, bought a plotter, Yet Another computer, and a butt load of this and that, and we set up in my shop. The next year we bought a printer and another plotter. We did a land office business.
I moved to Colorado's western slope in 2006, bringing all my tackle with me. Here I rounded up sufficient business to make it all worth while. I'm a bit long in the tooth now but I do just enough to pay for my weekly entry fees at various horse chasing cattle events and have a little walking around money..
I told my wife that should any of my gear die I was closing my doors. Lo, this year the printer I was currently wrangling died. I found I couldn't give it up. It's part of what I am, sitting around in the sun yelling at people to get off my lawn isn't acceptable. So I bought another printer, did enough to pay for it in a few weeks, and I'm still chugging along. Albeit I run a boutique business these days, seeking no new clients and turning down as much work as I accept. But the work finds me and I do just enough to still pay my entry fees.and associated expenses. Still have the same old computer running XP, a 10 year old Graphtec plotter, and a completely rebuilt Mutoh 1204 of unknown provenance. And I keep going, writing a little code here and there and signs, always signs. Most likely I'll keep on doing it until I either get tossed of a horse or wear away by erosion
A friend, who had a booming business leasing and installing T posts and hanging real estate signs for all the realtors in the area, stopped by and asked if I still did signs. Seems that he got daily request from realtors for custom signs. I said yes. He asked if I still had any equipment. I told him I had a box of brushes.and a goodly collection of One Shot. He said he was thinking more of cut vinyl. Something I always wanted to give a try. So I invested some money, bought a plotter, Yet Another computer, and a butt load of this and that, and we set up in my shop. The next year we bought a printer and another plotter. We did a land office business.
I moved to Colorado's western slope in 2006, bringing all my tackle with me. Here I rounded up sufficient business to make it all worth while. I'm a bit long in the tooth now but I do just enough to pay for my weekly entry fees at various horse chasing cattle events and have a little walking around money..
I told my wife that should any of my gear die I was closing my doors. Lo, this year the printer I was currently wrangling died. I found I couldn't give it up. It's part of what I am, sitting around in the sun yelling at people to get off my lawn isn't acceptable. So I bought another printer, did enough to pay for it in a few weeks, and I'm still chugging along. Albeit I run a boutique business these days, seeking no new clients and turning down as much work as I accept. But the work finds me and I do just enough to still pay my entry fees.and associated expenses. Still have the same old computer running XP, a 10 year old Graphtec plotter, and a completely rebuilt Mutoh 1204 of unknown provenance. And I keep going, writing a little code here and there and signs, always signs. Most likely I'll keep on doing it until I either get tossed of a horse or wear away by erosion
Solventinkjet
DIY Printer Fixing Guide
I started shoveling lasagna and pizza into an oven at 14. From there I have had at least 15 different jobs including selling shoes, housekeeping at a nursing home and hotel, cashier at a stop and shop, graphic designer at a small sign shop, dish washer, desserts, sides and salad guy at a fine restaurant, maintenance guy at a school, and finally I managed a Papa Johns for about a year before getting back into the sign industry. I can trace my current job all the way back to high school where they had a decent graphic design program. Even though I don't do it for a living anymore, it got me my first job in a sign shop because I was able to use the Adobe suite. All those jobs at restaurants has made me a decent cook too!
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Since, I've been on this forum, I've read over and over again about all these people who have done something else before becoming a sign person. Perhaps more than one job or vocation.
So, what have you done before entering into the sign industry ??
What about you?
BIG EASY DOES IT
New Member
Industrial waste water sampling, so companies could meet county guidelines for production waste water disposal. 5 years. Not awesome. Take the smell of screen printed coro anyday.
Bigdawg
Just Me
My dad was a photographer and publisher. My first "job" was rolling film in the basement for him to process. Then I graduated to hand-addressing the little local newspaper that we produced ("The Looking Glass"). I was taught paste-up and camera work and eventually typesetting when my parents bought a typesetting company - an old Compugraphic 64 that did type up to 14 pt and a headliner that did single-line 16pt or above. We next had a real estate magazine that was eventually bought out by the big guys in the area, but I loved the production end of it. Endless pieces of border tape, the smell of rubylith and of the waxer that all the type had to run through brings back such memories. Worked at the local newspaper cutting color for ads with ruby and zip-a-tone and eventually went to work at a company doing specialty stat camera work and stripping in ads to existing negs - back in those day you were supplied camera-ready artwork - nothing was digital.
I got burned out after a while and worked a few temp jobs to pay the bills and feed lo, my many children. But jumped back into graphics when the typesetting company I worked for bought a Mac. Because I had the old school printing experience, I understood the integration of doing digital production better than most and made a good name for myself for being able to find a way to print the unprintable for local printers that needed negs. When I left there, I went to work for a man that ran one of the first Linotype-Hell drum scanners. He taught me how to digitally correct color in photos - back in those days it had to be perfect if you were working in high-end color. After that I went to work for a printing company that did big-name tour books doing color correction and layout. I started my own company working for only printers and designers and taking their digital messes and producing negatives that would work for the presses. Eventually we started doing screen printing and about 12 years ago we started doing signs. We closed that business and moved to Florida where I work for a sign company that shares the same desire as I have to produce quality products.
I love this business and all aspects of it. Can't imagine doing anything else... and honestly hope I never have to.
I got burned out after a while and worked a few temp jobs to pay the bills and feed lo, my many children. But jumped back into graphics when the typesetting company I worked for bought a Mac. Because I had the old school printing experience, I understood the integration of doing digital production better than most and made a good name for myself for being able to find a way to print the unprintable for local printers that needed negs. When I left there, I went to work for a man that ran one of the first Linotype-Hell drum scanners. He taught me how to digitally correct color in photos - back in those days it had to be perfect if you were working in high-end color. After that I went to work for a printing company that did big-name tour books doing color correction and layout. I started my own company working for only printers and designers and taking their digital messes and producing negatives that would work for the presses. Eventually we started doing screen printing and about 12 years ago we started doing signs. We closed that business and moved to Florida where I work for a sign company that shares the same desire as I have to produce quality products.
I love this business and all aspects of it. Can't imagine doing anything else... and honestly hope I never have to.
Gene@mpls
New Member
Worked on the guidance and control systems for the Lunar Expeditionary Module in the mid 60s till they landed on the moon- then Honeywell dumped all of us. I restored 60-70s Corvettes for 25 years and owned a bodyshop, sold out and bought a Summa cutter and Flexi and taught myself to make signage and have done very nicely with it with my daughter for 20+ years- selling the first of the year but I am still here 7 days a week- this is where all my tools are and I love to work.
Billct2
Active Member
House Painter, Cutting Cordwood, Car Wash, Farmhand, wanted to be a potter but one of the guys I studied with made his main living carving & lettering signs and he got me into it. Talked me into going to Butera Sign School in Boston in '74 and I've been in it ever since.
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My first real job was a projectionist at a movie theater in the later 90's early 2000's. After that I bounced around working at customer service at a credit union, night stockier for a big box store. One of my favorite jobs was being the manager of a SoBe Love bus for a few years. It was a marketing tour for SoBe Beverages. I would basically drive around the country to everything from Wall-Marts, colleges, concerts, NASCAR, sporting events and more and hand out samples of SoBe. I would be in a city for 4-7 days and move on to the next one. I was on the road for 8-9 months at a time for about 3 years. I've also been in radio for the past 16 years doing everything from morning shows to promotions/marketing, right now I'm happy with just doing a weekend shift. Also worked as the marketing manager for a beverage distributor which is how I got into this. They ended up buying a printer to create in house POP/POS and told me to learn how to use it. Eventually we started to wrap our vehicles and trucks, people started to take notice and we than started to to work for other companies and people. I quite there and now work full time for a sign company.