Your first computerized signs....

[Pat Whatley]

Had to look up a job for a customer today that was so old I thought we'd done in back in the Gerber 4B days. That got me to wondering what the oldest sign jobs I've got saved were. I still remember the very first sign I made when we got our first computer with a screen but it wasn't backed up (had a scanned Sylvester the Cat on it that I colored in with markers because I didn't know how to fill in the colors). This was back in the day when everything got backed up on a floppy and I only backed up jobs I thought we might do again because I could only fit about 25 jobs on a disk.

I did a search and here are the results....my first three computer produced jobs from May 16, 1992....a time when Kaufman, Brush Script, and Commercial Script were the only script fonts we had. The 25c is because I didn't know how to type ¢ so we'd just do a c and add a line to it.

Anybody else care to share?

 

[d fleming]

When computers first showed up in our trade, I took a job in a franchise shop just to learn them. Thought it was better to get paid to learn than to take classes. The machine was an anagraph system with a 15" tractor fed plotter. The mouse was used on a digitizing tablet to put control points on a trace of logo from paper. All other info was painstakingly input into the program which when finished would give you a green line drawing on a black screen. If you didn't like what you had, you went through the process again. I remember the first time I saw a system with on screen real time capabilities it was the forerunner of Signlab, Casmate. Had a 24" Graphtec plotter with it. I also remember thinking the first time I saw a plotter run what a great tool for turning out rubylith positives for screen printing. Up until then I had always used knives and brushes for all my projects. Was a simpler world.

 

[Marlene]

I too started with a 4B back in the late 80's. we got our first computer with a screen and it was an ANAGraph. I can't show my first saved jobs as they were all on those huge floppy disks back when floppies really were floopy and before the smaller hard disk floppies. I was so thrilled to be able to make a design and not only be able to see it on screen but to be able to save it and make it again. things have changed so much.

 

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Ouch, Pat! Ha! The lemonade one isn't bad. I can't stand looking at my old layouts. I have some pics I'll have to dig up, scan and post. My first was on a SuperSprint in 1989. After that, I took a step backward and worked in a couple of shops with a 4B. In one of those shops, for anything other than fonts we had an electric pouncer (Zap! Ouch!) to make a paper pattern, then pounced vinyl with the powder and handcut it. Didn't work there long!

 

[J Hill Designs]

I love my electric pouncer

 

[Marlene]

In one of those shops, for anything other than fonts we had an electric pouncer (Zap! Ouch!) to make a paper pattern, then pounced vinyl with the powder and handcut it.

did my time with the zap-0-matic too. also with an overhead projector. we had a copier that would enlarge up to 200%. for some hand cut stuff, I would blow things up with that, tape all the papers together to make a pattern and use that to cut things out. ugh, I sure don't long for the "good old days"

 

[OldPaint]

mine was a mix of paint and vinyl which i bought from a sign shop only to learn the guy that sold me the vinyl contacted my client to try and get him to buy signs from them!!!! which in turn p.o.ed me then i started lookin for a plotter. all the small black is vinyl. phone # is paint. the 2nd one is the 1st of 4-5 i had to make. impound yard signs, 18" X 18" on aluminum. sure was easier to cut vinyl than hand paint. the baron was 1990, atlas was 92. and i cut the vinyl outa corel 3!!!!! to a ROLAND PNC-1000, i picked up for $1600.00 after another sign shop tried to sell me a gerber 4b without the link card and 3-4 fonts for $4000.00!!!! with the roland and corel.........i had every font available that was on the computer. when i bought roland the guy give a dongled program called LETTER ART 5.0. i used it for long run pounce patterns to a 14" wide dot matrix tractor feed, which i ran a pounce wheel over and used to paint with.

 

[Red Ball]

I love my electric pouncer

Yeah, right!

100 degree day. Sweating profusely. Seated on a stool, after lunch, staring at that spark for hours, leaning on the metal, falling asleep, dropping the pen in your...

Waking up VERY quickly.

 

[gnemmas]

Prior to Gerber 4b, we were using dot matrix printer printing on 14" fan-fold paper, then hot laminated for water proofing. True pioneer "digital sign printer" in 1985!!

Black ink ribbon cartridge only, but we had fancy florescent yellow, pink and red papers!

 

[btropical.com]

First "signs" where actually off a 4 b and it was windshield banners we knocked out. Camaro Firebird toyota ,we where just a window tint company then we bought the 4 b . And we sold windshield banners for 2 bux a letter installed . And you could still **** without a jimmy wrap in our small town

 

[Pat Whatley]

And we sold windshield banners for 2 bux a letter installed

I started working here in 1992. The owners had a price sheet for vinyl lettering based on size and he sold the heck out of ready to apply lettering. Here we are 20 years later, I'm using the same price list, and I rarely sell any RTA vinyl because people say I'm too high.

(by the way, the last windshield banner I cut said "2 Juicy 4 U")

 

[Billct2]

First machine I worked with was a 4B in the early 80s.
I have jobs back to '91 on my harddrive.
I remember shortly after we got the 4B we laned tow clients that paid for the machine in a few months.
The company installing those new fangled cable TV lines rented the building next to us. They used "gypsy" installers from all over the country
and every time a new one came in we made them a set of mags black helvetica on white.
The other customer was "Crazy Eddie" an elctrnics chain that was expanding into the state. We would put three or four lines of helvetica lettering around the whole store
with the barand name sthey carried, in black helvetica.

 

[AUTO-FX]

leaning on the metal, falling asleep, dropping the pen in your...

Waking up VERY quickly.

So THAT'S why they call you red b...