By signcraft
Posted on Monday, May 19th, 2025
There are loads of great ideas in the photos of outstanding signs on SignCraft.com. But what about the back story: How did the layout come together? The finished product can’t tell the story behind the design—the decisions about letter styles, colors, illustrations and the like. What materials were used? If it’s a 3D sign, how was it fabricated? If it’s a custom truck lettering project, how was it handled?
There’s a lot to learn from a behind-the-scenes look for a specific sign project. This week, Brian Schofield, Lines & Letters Design, Bridgewater, New Jersey, tells how this truck lettering project came together:
This truck lettering project is quite the opposite of the one that I talked about in “Putting it together: DHT Specialized Hauling”. That was a commercial truck lettering job done in printed vinyl with hand pinstriping. This project was a pair of custom hand-lettered truck doors with a fairly complex design.
Lately I’ve had a fair number of Latino customers coming from close to New York City. A large percentage of those drive the trucks and own the trucking companies. They often have a design style that appeals to them—with decorative letter styles with cool effects and unique colors.
This job was done for one such customer. This type of customer really values that the graphics were custom designed specifically for their business and that every stroke—and there were plenty of them on this truck—was done by hand.
He told me what appealed to him and then gave me maximum freedom to make something happen, so I wanted to do something fresh and unique. Even after 40 years, I still push myself to do something new. I don’t want to just repeat, repeat, repeat like some kind of robot.
Letter styles:
The purpose of the lettering was more decorative than for maximum legibility. I designed a very ornate letter style for “Ruiz” with scrolls plus diamonds in the center of the vertical strokes. I rested it on the “Trucking” panel, then used panels for the C at the top and LLC at the bottom.
Starting from the inside of the letter, which has an airbrushed white-to-gray gradient, there is a two-tone gray inshade, a white outline, then a convex outline in multiple shades of yellow and greens, followed by a black outline with a convex edge. There’s a lot going on. From a distance it’s legible, but the detail is meant to be seen from 10 feet or closer.
Layout:
There’s an airbrushed gradient on the “Trucking” panel, which also has a convex edge, and lettering that has a convex outline. The LLC panel has the same treatment. The panel at the top has a unique shape then full convex treatment. Finally, the script of the city and state has a highlight and an outline. This design is all about dimension.
Colors:
This truck was an unusual color—almost like a Duranodic bronze or brown with a matte finish. I had to do some thinking to come up with a color scheme that would work with it. When I got partway through I sort of panicked. I wasn’t sure that there would be enough contrast to push the lettering forward.
The combination of the colors of the background and the inside core of the lettering seemed to lack the contrast that it needed to be read from a distance. I had to use a few of my little funky techniques to overcome that concern.
I really enjoyed doing this job because the color combination was a little odd and unique. It created fun a design challenge. I don’t like to use the same old color combinations. The customer also gave me maximum freedom and control. I wasn’t “working nervous” as I call it. That’s when you’re doing your best but still wondering if the customer is going to be okay with it. You don’t know what to expect when they come to pick it up. This time I had a pretty good idea of what he wanted and was able to give that to him.
