I do decals, lettering, signs etc. on the side of my 50 + hour a week Truck driving job so my wife can be a stay at home mom. The quality of signs and vehicle lettering up here in Maine blows my mind!! Does the customer actually give a crap?! Here are a few pics of the northern craftsmanship that I wouldn’t even let finish on my printer. Blows my mind. Just had a trucking company buy 20 new trucks and the print shop didn’t feed calibrate. Lol smh . Also just passed a sign with one of the vinyl letters just barely hanging on..
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Low quality sign shops here in maine
- Thread starter Jamie0075
- Start date
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
Not a big deal, There is worse out there... I dont know what up with the arrow though
Marlene
New Member
Ogunquit, Kennebunk Port, that area has some awesome signs. Bangor, Rumford, Machias and all the country named towns like Mexico, not so much.
bannertime
Active Member
I was recently in New York and couldn't help but laugh that some signs at the Finger Lakes parks were just reused traffic signs. You could see the one way and speed limit graphics underneath.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
To tell you the truth..... I don't think you can give Maine all the credit. I believe there are perfectly ugly made signs all over this country...... all over the world. There are FA-A-A-AR more hacks around than professionals and that's where this kinda level comes from. They don't know any better and just do whatever they want. You think we have a lotta hacks and wannabees on this site ?? This place reflects a fraction of all the backyard and weekend mechanics out there. Someone recently said something about overcoming the fame of sign painters being drunks and whatnots..... better having a trade you can do and do well, then to be a wannabee hack and have no talent at all.
Malkin
New Member
Whats worse about that arrow is the the red showing is from the stroke bleed on now missing bottom right part of the "W".
I have also seen some real crud out there. While coastal & inland Maine has some great signs, some made by some very talented signpainters I've had the pleasure of getting to know, there is still a lot of junk. Print/cut lettering that is 50% peeled off after only a year, and so on....
Most things around here seem to be either:
-From a shop that tries to be better.
-From a shop that doesn't care.
-or a lot of "do-it-yourselfers" who have a business but can't seem to afford a professoinaly made sign.
oh, and the vista print magnets, eww...
I have also seen some real crud out there. While coastal & inland Maine has some great signs, some made by some very talented signpainters I've had the pleasure of getting to know, there is still a lot of junk. Print/cut lettering that is 50% peeled off after only a year, and so on....
Most things around here seem to be either:
-From a shop that tries to be better.
-From a shop that doesn't care.
-or a lot of "do-it-yourselfers" who have a business but can't seem to afford a professoinaly made sign.
oh, and the vista print magnets, eww...
Rick
Certified Enneadecagon Designer
It's everywhere... this is a newly built apartment building in Los Angeles, they tried to "hipster" it up... not only that, but all the interior signs were installed where you can see the tape/glue through the face. Instead of polishing the edges as called out, they kept the saw cuts, multiple fonts because they were too lazy to follow the specifications, non-compliant signs everywhere... a mess.
Attachments
I have to agree with Gino here. I see [fill in expletive the describes poor quality / craftsmanship] signs all the time. And I wonder to myself, "A customer was actually cool with this? Really?" I even have to set the bar with my production guys sometimes. I see a flaw or poorly done thing and I ask, "Would YOU pay you for that? I would not. As a matter of fact, I, would be mad at you if you gave me this POS." Then we talk about how to do it better the second time. After doing that exercise a few times, our guys have a sense of the quality level we all expect. Now I will say, I am often the minority and the guys who sign my paychecks will sometimes veto my redo call, and send the sign out the door noting that said sign is getting installed 30ft in the air or in a remote area, etc.
All in all you just gotta do you, as they say. You, wasting time knocking the competition, says more about you, then it does about them. Just keep your focus on quality at all levels (design, fabrication, and customer service) and those things alone will set you apart. And eventually, make you some coin. I hear you though. I still trip out on how some of us in the industry get away with some of the things we do. Thankfully there are are secret places like S101 where we get to vent to like minded folk. And those like minded folk let you know to stfu and get back to work, when we are out of line.
Whats that you say? Its not a secret? You mean customers can see this stuff too? Oh...
All in all you just gotta do you, as they say. You, wasting time knocking the competition, says more about you, then it does about them. Just keep your focus on quality at all levels (design, fabrication, and customer service) and those things alone will set you apart. And eventually, make you some coin. I hear you though. I still trip out on how some of us in the industry get away with some of the things we do. Thankfully there are are secret places like S101 where we get to vent to like minded folk. And those like minded folk let you know to stfu and get back to work, when we are out of line.
Whats that you say? Its not a secret? You mean customers can see this stuff too? Oh...
Just makes your stuff look even better. Don't knock your competition, it doesn't sit well with most people. You do your thing and let those other guys just work their way outta business.
I’m sure I am not anywhere as good as most of you. I learn everyday.
I throw away better quality prints than I have seen out there. My wife laughs at me because I critique my prints with a magnifying glass. A little overboard but I like to do the best I can.. not to mention when I install something on a vehicle and it’s even 1/16 off I’ll take it off and do it again lol.
I throw away better quality prints than I have seen out there. My wife laughs at me because I critique my prints with a magnifying glass. A little overboard but I like to do the best I can.. not to mention when I install something on a vehicle and it’s even 1/16 off I’ll take it off and do it again lol.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
While going over it with a magnifying glass is a little over the top, getting things straight is a "MUST". My rule of thumb is most signs (not all work, just signs) are meant to be read and from a distance of some sorts. Flowers are for getting your nose right up on them. You're not smelling signs, just flowers. So, relax on the pickiness of super fine detail of signs.
bannertime
Active Member
One day I got fed up with it. I knew the customer that was coming in was really picky and liked to get angry. Instead of having the employee remake it, I told him to go give it to the customer when they arrived. See what it was like when you give out subpar jobs. So customer shows up and we're already prepping to remake it for when he complains. Customer simply says "oh this is great!" Looks it over some more and says "great work as always!" and walks out.
There's bad quality everywhere. Sometimes it's justified...
We've sent out some signs with bad banding on them like the op before. Our head was bad, and we couldn't get a replacement for a week... Some customers didnt want to wait, and said to just print it. Their reasoning was if your more than 2 ft away, you don't even notice it. And the purpose of a sign is to draw you in from far away... So to them it did the job.
I was just in china for a few weeks - every, and I mean every sign had banding or fuzzy text, or was a small image blown up about 800% more than it should be. Every decal, every sign I saw was slapped on.. didn't even try to get it straight, they just slapped it on. Don't even get me started on the English... 75% of the signs that had English, the letters were so badly aligned .I don't even know how.... Some letters would align to the top of others, some to the bottom... Some just in the middle... Etc.
I was amazed at how bad the quality was... But then I realized it gets the job done... And in 1/10 as much effort as we put into doing it properly.
I throw stuff away when I see banding all the time... If I accidently weed a letter and stretch it, or place it down not perfectly... I'll recut the letter, or the whole thing if I need to... I've ripped off full panels because of small tears, slight crookedness, or even contamination in a spot no one would ever see.
When it's MY work I want it to be perfect... When it's someone else's I don't care.
There's a lot of utility wraps around, the companies do them for half the price our company does them for. Some literally are 6" too short, have multiple joins on all sides... And we're talking a 30-40" wide box, no reason for it.
A lot of companies come back to us after getting that quality of work done for half the price.... So it doesn't bother us. Ugly signs, and shoddy work is part of.the business, it's a part of every business...
We've sent out some signs with bad banding on them like the op before. Our head was bad, and we couldn't get a replacement for a week... Some customers didnt want to wait, and said to just print it. Their reasoning was if your more than 2 ft away, you don't even notice it. And the purpose of a sign is to draw you in from far away... So to them it did the job.
I was just in china for a few weeks - every, and I mean every sign had banding or fuzzy text, or was a small image blown up about 800% more than it should be. Every decal, every sign I saw was slapped on.. didn't even try to get it straight, they just slapped it on. Don't even get me started on the English... 75% of the signs that had English, the letters were so badly aligned .I don't even know how.... Some letters would align to the top of others, some to the bottom... Some just in the middle... Etc.
I was amazed at how bad the quality was... But then I realized it gets the job done... And in 1/10 as much effort as we put into doing it properly.
I throw stuff away when I see banding all the time... If I accidently weed a letter and stretch it, or place it down not perfectly... I'll recut the letter, or the whole thing if I need to... I've ripped off full panels because of small tears, slight crookedness, or even contamination in a spot no one would ever see.
When it's MY work I want it to be perfect... When it's someone else's I don't care.
There's a lot of utility wraps around, the companies do them for half the price our company does them for. Some literally are 6" too short, have multiple joins on all sides... And we're talking a 30-40" wide box, no reason for it.
A lot of companies come back to us after getting that quality of work done for half the price.... So it doesn't bother us. Ugly signs, and shoddy work is part of.the business, it's a part of every business...
Texas_Signmaker
Very Active Signmaker
I don't have knowledge about every industry there is, but the sign industry from my experience is one of the best.
I was in the computer repair world and there is always anyone claiming to be a repairman that would work for basically nothing on your machine. Everytime we turned around a new store would open and offer a service for less and less. Customers were a pain in the ass. You want to talk about a suck industry?
You want to be a plumber? Drive around from house to house making $100 here and $300 there? With a customer hanging over your head?
Of all the industries out there, we have very little to complain about. This one is great! If you want to complain about the race to the bottom or hacks or anything, then get involved with a restaurant, computer repair store, resale shop or car dealer or some other industry and then complain about signs... Seriously some of y'all need a wake-up call and realize how good it is and these annoyances with the industry are nothing compared to others.
I was in the computer repair world and there is always anyone claiming to be a repairman that would work for basically nothing on your machine. Everytime we turned around a new store would open and offer a service for less and less. Customers were a pain in the ass. You want to talk about a suck industry?
You want to be a plumber? Drive around from house to house making $100 here and $300 there? With a customer hanging over your head?
Of all the industries out there, we have very little to complain about. This one is great! If you want to complain about the race to the bottom or hacks or anything, then get involved with a restaurant, computer repair store, resale shop or car dealer or some other industry and then complain about signs... Seriously some of y'all need a wake-up call and realize how good it is and these annoyances with the industry are nothing compared to others.
Johnny Best
Active Member
Listen to OldTex, sounds like a seasoned sign painter. Telling us how good we all have it. He's become an old soul in his thinking.
I would agree with Tex on this being a great work field to be in but I would like to try being a hiring coordinator at a strip club before I make up my mind agreeing with him.
I would agree with Tex on this being a great work field to be in but I would like to try being a hiring coordinator at a strip club before I make up my mind agreeing with him.
Last edited:
