Letterheads: Catch the Fever!

Most people catch the “Letterheads Spirit” following their first meeting—especially following one of the big meets. Exposure to Letterheads can be a life-changing experience. Sign makers return home loaded with new ideas, concepts, techniques and skills. More importantly, Letterheads events are places to meet others with similar goals and drives. A network of friends and colleagues provides an invaluable resource for their future.

I met the original Letterheads via an invitation to attend the Boise BBQ in 1982, hosted by Noel and Lucy Weber. The meet was relatively small, but it was loaded with great talent. I saw a wide variety of new techniques as each person shared their craft and skills. The event amplified my interest in the art and craft of making custom three-dimensional signs and glass art.

The next Letterheads meet

Near the end of the three-day Boise BBQ, I volunteered to host the next meeting. The original group gave me the nod. I had no idea at the time how much the upcoming event would change my life and the sign making world for the next decade and beyond!

When I returned home from Boise, plans for the upcoming event began. Following hundreds of letters, phone calls, and more letters, I began to fill a hefty list of talented sign makers. They planned to make the trip to Moore, Oklahoma, in late October of 1982.

Invitations were sent to craftspeople that I saw featured in Signs of the Times and SignCraft magazines. Both editors supplied me with addresses and phone numbers. Other than the group I met in Boise, I had only met a few of the rest.

What’s a Letterhead?

That’s the question I got from most people when I called them. At the time, the only exposure to Letterheads was through a single article in Signs of the Times magazine. The original group had swept many of the categories in the first Signs of the Times Commercial Sign Design contest. Following the contest issue, Todd Swormstedt ran a story about the group. That article was how I found out about the Denver group.

Only a few of the people I contacted knew much about Letterheads. I had to pass along my excitement for the potential of a large gathering of top-notch talent that would be willing to share information and techniques. As the event drew closer, I could sense the enthusiasm growing via the many phone calls and letters.

The Oklahoma Bash

The name of the meet was inspired by something Steven Parrish said when I called to invite him. Steven was a master gold leaf specialist I had met earlier. He said, “Sure, I‘ll come to your bash.”

Over a period of three days, roughly 135 people showed up to be a part of the event. The list included magazine editors, Todd Swormstedt from Signs of the Times, and the three McIltrot brothers from SignCraft magazine.

A pressure cooker of talent

My efforts to assemble talent paid off! For three beautiful fall days, the new wave of Letterheads put on impromptu demonstrations on a wide variety of techniques, including hand lettering, wood carving, glass etching and glue-chipping, showcard writing, surface gilding, reverse marbling on glass, glass gilding, vertical screen printing, chisel sharpening, sandblasting, calligraphy, pinstriping and more. The collective energy was off the charts!

The Letterheads Spirit was in full view, and I am certain everyone caught it. The event lasted well into the night on Friday and Saturday. It seemed no one wanted to miss a minute of the demos and teaching.

The first International meet

The Oklahoma Bash drew sign makers from all four corners of the country, plus two from New Zealand. Looking back, I should have expanded the invitations to colleagues in Canada and England, and elsewhere, but the lengthy long-distance calls would have been cost prohibitive. Either way, the two members made it an International Meet!

The aftermath and testimonials

Over the period of the next few weeks and months, I received a large notebook full of letters from the attendees, telling me how the Oklahoma Bash changed their lives. Each described how they were inspired to improve their work and apply some of the new techniques in their projects.

Thanks to the media exposure in both Signs of the Times and SignCraft, the Letterheads movement spread to the mainstream sign-making world. Many of the attendees went on to host both large and smaller meets. Ron Overby hosted the next large meeting in Kansas City. Like the Oklahoma Bash, the Kansas City meet was a major stepping stone, exposing even more talent and energy.

The Oklahoma Bash registration list contains the names of Letterheads that went on to host many of the future big events, such as Gary Anderson, Gary Rhodes and Carl Rohrs, Mark Klein, Butch Anton, Raymond Chapman, Mike Moore and others. Letterheads events continued, both large and small, with an International Meet happening every year or two.

The 10^th and 20^th anniversary meetings were hosted in Denver by the members of the original Letterheads. While not specifically under the Letterheads name, other parallel events began happening across the country, including Wall Dog weekends, Conclaves, Art Camps and many pinstriping gatherings.

The 50^th Anniversary of the Letterheads is just around the corner, on June 20–22, 2025. It should be a grand event, reuniting hundreds of sign makers from all over the world at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Space limitation have limited the attendance at the 50^th Anniversary to 350 people, and the event sold out in less than 48 hours of the opening of registration. Following the event, SignCraft will be sharing a taste of what happens there. Stay tuned!—Editors