Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008 - (Page 32)

Photo 2. Photo 3. Photo 4. Photo 5. airbrush itself. Because of this, I help them to learn the rough-and-tumble side of the industry, where they’ll see that a computer can’t always do the job for you. It’s important they learn this, and this is the point I’m getting to in this month’s column. Situations have come up in our shop where the printer has gone down and we have a number of jobs that require a little more than black-on-white. Our Roland VersaCAMM SP-540 has been going strong for three years and is working everyday. Because of this, it needs a little TLC every now and again (Photo 3). When this happens, it’s usually at the most inopportune times—like when our work order board is full. The printer has definitely made us lazy to a degree, but because we know how to live without it, we don’t sweat it. We grab a can of Frog Juice Color, cut some vinyl, and carry on. We normally have snowmobile numbers to do in the winter, and our customers are pretty finicky about how they want their numbers. The printer basically let us do a five-minute design, followed by a five-minute print, a little Frog Juice Clear 32 Sign Builder Illustrated May 2008 to finish ‘em off, and out the door they go. That’s fast, cold-hard cash, and that’s why I’m in business. But we can do them almost as fast with cut-vinyl and a little creative know-how. I made sure both guys in my shop knew how to do it the oldfashioned way, which has paid off in spades. The principles of design still carry through, whether we print our stuff or do some effects with vinyl or paint. Tim is our newest guy (Photo 4). He’s been here for just about five years now, and I call him “The Motivator.” I started him off on the basics, and then I let Dana (the shop’s “computer nerd”) train him on the computers. He’s made some great work, and he’s still getting better. Dana started the same way Tim did, and he had some artistic talent to boot. I just showed him how to put it to good work. It shows in almost all of his work. I introduced him to the old-school painter’s tricks and techniques, and he picked up on them pretty well. Dana’s migrated most of them onto the computer; he can pretty much do anything on the computer that I can do with a brush. But he still knows what to do if the printer’s on vacation. We’ve made him our shop’s Jack-of-All-Trades, because we remember the basics and he applies them to the new stuff (Photo 5). Now we’ve reached the point in the story where I’m going to refer you back to the title of this article—”Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks.” When I hired my guys, they knew a little. I showed them the triedand-true techniques that were developed by the likes of Mike Stevens and other guys before him. I also try to emphasize this with any of the interns we have. Nowadays layout seems to have lost its importance—mainly because legibility isn’t as important these days. Everyone is looking at their computer screen, and it’s right there in front of them. Look at it long enough and you’ll understand it. Working with the interns, I can say that the kids of today use all the “bells and whistles” at once. They just don’t know when to say “when.” You can see it in the wraps and billboards around town. They haven’t comprehended that what works on the screen doesn’t necessarily translate into a real life-sized sign. It’s getting rare to find the newer sign shops produce

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008

Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008 Contents SBI Agenda Quotes & Comments Contributors Costly Concerns Dispatches Sign Show Dateline: Time to Find a New Identity Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks Sign Illumination: It’s Time to Pay Attention Restoring Old Photographs for Digital Printing Price Doesn’t Sell the Signs You Want to Make Architects in LED Codes for Electric Signs: Don’t Get Blindsided! Digital Displays at the Pearl Harbor Museum The Art of Wayfinding Signage Grand Format National Following Traffic Sign Regulations Designs on ADA Signage Painting Professionally SBI Marketplace Imagine-It Graphics

Sign Builder Illustrated - May 2008

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