I've spent 25 years putting ink on stuff. All sorts of stuff. That's my specialty.
I learned a craft that included darkroom photography, manual lithography, etc. Most of which is now a forgotten dark art practiced by few. I've been a technological pioneer when we were the first trade shop in western Canada that began using calibrated inkjet prints as contract color proofs when nobody else had the skills or faith enough in them to print consistent accurate color from an inkjet.
So now I find my craft has overlapped with the
sign business. I guess because I don't regularly pick up a paintbrush and hand letter
signs I'm not "core".
So be it. I don't want to do 3D
signs, gilding or channel letters. I certainly don't want to deal with messy paints and cleaning brushes. I have a niche in your market that suits me fine. I produce high quality color printing. You see it on wraps, mall displays, trade show displays, fine art reproductions, posters, and all sorts of other places.
You see, I don't want to be a
sign guy. Because I do so much more than
signs. Why should I care about whether or not I can hand letter a
sign when I have an 80 page catalog to design, or two websites to build? I'll leave that niche for the guys who have the skills to do it well. Instead I'll concentrate on my areas of strength and building my business around those skills. If you happen to think those skills aren't as important as the ability to hand paint letter forms, bend steel, glue down gold leaf, or any of the other niche skills that relate to the
sign industry then so be it. They work for me and my customers see value in them. That's what matters most.
If the power does go out, you'll find me by the fridge drinking the beer before it gets warm.
