Idea for a new thread......................................................................

[Gino]

How many here would be willing to participate in a thread about designing, fabricating, building, making signs, installing them the O L D ways....... BC....... Before Computers ??

Rather than make categories, just jot down a thought or two of doing things the old way, when it had meaning...... or should I say, took talent.

* Did you layout with a grease pencil, charcoal or did you make patterns for all your lettering ??

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'm not in that group but I do remember working on angled easel style setups to apply vinyl vs flat tables. Does anyone do that anymore?
A bit off track but there's some historical sign info in this write up: https://untappedcities.com/2018/04/...n-shop-that-makes-all-of-nycs-subway-signage/

 

[Moze]

I think that would be an interesting and enjoyable read. Computers have definitely eliminated the need for talent in a lot of areas in the sign industry. Neon bending, hand lettering, etc. are all becoming a lost art.

Are there enough veterans here to contribute? I would think you're talking, what, people that were doing this 30+ years ago? pre-1990?

 

[Bobby H]

When I first started making signs I drew and painted them by hand. One of my first projects was for my late Aunt Delores, back when I was in high school in the early 1980's. She had a small (but really good) burger joint in New Mexico. The project involved a fairly large, non-lighted building sign (plywood on a metal frame) and some hand-painted window graphics. I drew some thumbnail sketches and then refined them into scale drawings and interpolated them to the full size surfaces using a grid system. I was trying to follow some of the same methods as mural artists I had seen in a documentary.

Image enlarging projectors can be pretty handy for some projects, but it's critical to get the image thrown just right to minimize keystone distortion. A couple of my co-workers do a lot of hand-painted mural work and still use a projector to lay down a lot of the basic line work. When I first started at my workplace we still had a working projector and I used on a good number of projects during the early to mid 1990's.

During college I did a few odd jobs for a sign shop in Staten Island to make some extra money (my class schedule was too busy for a regular full time or part time job). Most of those projects were hand-painted. Later I worked part time for a camera and computer store in Manhattan helping create a bunch of their print ad work. I had to use a photostat camera and other tools to build up camera-ready ads using the same analog paste-up methods as old newspaper production. It's mind-numbing "fun" doing things like hand-cutting spot color plates out of amberlith with an X-acto knife or gluing various thing to a full size ad board with rubber cement.

 

[GAC05]

Does hand cutting vinyl count? I was a Trim Line Shop doing vinyl graphics & signs before plotters came out.

 

[Johnny Best]

I used vine charcoal for layout, easy to clean off later on. Still do a lot of painting and drawing by hand, Good idea Gino.

 

[James Burke]

...the O L D ways....

I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that 75+ years ago, the angst and strife about the "old ways" mainly centered around grinding up your own cinnabar (vermilion), white lead and indigo...and scoffing at those who simply chose to open up cans of One-Shot.

I'm just wondering why one person's red, white and blue has to be that much different from anybody elses.

But if it does make a difference, I used to build millions of dollars worth of injection mold tooling on WWII era manual machinery...long before CNC became a household name. The majority of the equipment in my college training came from war surplus.

JB

 

[Val47]

In highschool, I was president of the pep club. I was that gal, with the team I could rally... In the hallways after school. With rolls of poster paper, pulled out and using poster paint, and an assortment of brushes.... Making supportive "banners" for the upcoming game/match. I was doing it for every home competition, no matter the sport/event. Debate team. That's right .. I was on it.

Does that count?

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I hand panted "signs" when I was a teenager... I got in trouble for it because some people thought it was graffiti. I called it artwork.

 

[ProSignTN]

I'm old. I'm in. Don't paint but do have the drawings to make an adjustable easel.

 

[ProSignTN]

Yeah, and I still know how to service neon, layout a panel with charcoal and use a pounce pad.

 

[Val47]

I have another possibily relevant share... But it wasn't making signs per say... I made/created some maps for the Forest service, while employed by the US Forrest service survey Crew. No computers... Large format Geo graphics printed.... But I had to physically "add" labels/lettering and boundaries with super Old school capabilities. It was fun.

 

[Pauly]

would be an interesting thread to read.
But
i wouldn't call using a computer is less talented... It's very one sided.
Just because some can use their hands, but not technologically inclined, doesn't mean it required more tallant to do one, not the other.

 

[Val47]

would be an interesting thread to read.
But
i wouldn't call using a computer is less talented... It's very one sided.
Just because some can use their hands, but not technologically inclined, doesn't mean it required more tallant to do one, not the other.

I'm not sure that was the point. The point as I see it, is highlighting the before times. Not a diss on the now, but appreciating where we came from and fun stories about how it was done before.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

I'd certainly read it for historic value. I'd have very little to input, but would like to see if there's anything I can do today that could be improved by "how it used to be done".

 

[Pauly]

I do understand that.
I was more for the quote "or should I say, took talent."

 

[netsol]

would be an interesting thread to read.
But
i wouldn't call using a computer is less talented... It's very one sided.
Just because some can use their hands, but not technologically inclined, doesn't mean it required more tallant to do one, not the other.

I always tell my employees, the purpose of all the computer equipment is to compensate for the shortcomings I (we) may have. I write like a 3 yr. old, and if you saw one of my drawings, you would wonder what the hell I was doing in this business. The computer technology sidesteps that...

 

[Gino]

Let's say pre 1980. 4b or 4a or arty came out in '82.

 

[Gino]

Correct. It's not a diss on using computers. It's the modern way. We just didn't have them back then. However, the sign painters of yesteryear were talented. Those who weren't weren't very busy. People/customers gravitated towards shops with good eye to hand coordination, whether it was shocard, neon, welding, electrical or lettering a crane. If you didn't know good layout, color wheel and composition, you pretty much found a job at the local grocery store. Speedball, doing newspaper ads and pin striping were also a lotta fun. Boring to learn, but very interesting. At my first shop, I was the only guy who could hand stripe, fast. Guess what, I was called on to stripe just about everything. Wondering what I got good at ??

 

[JWitkowski]

I started a sign business in about 1982ish, with my then girlfriend-laterwife-exwife. Hand-lettered signs, trucks and boats. Pinstriping came later. Then we bought a Gerber GSx plotter and the brushes got used less and less. For a period I operated a small but quickly growing sign business in Ireland adding gold leaf and hand-carved work to the predominant vinyl signwork. Now I do some hand-lettering and work for a museum from time to time, including a fire truck restoration with gold leaf. I posted photos of that some time ago on this forum somewhere. Next, I'm exploring hand/machine-formed 3-dimensional vintage repro signs painted using 1-Shot enamels.