Cover Photo: Tattoo Bar & Restaurant – Rob Cooper
When it’s time to redo a sign, it’s a great opportunity to make it more effective. Rob Cooper, Koh Tao, Thailand, has repainted… Read More
signcraft
Bob Whelan’s unique gold leaf burling technique
Engine turning, or burling, gold leaf, is a popular traditional technique for enhancing surface, gold leaf, particularly on vehicles. It’s especially common on… Read More
Want the lowest-cost advertising going? Buy a sign.
When it comes to long-lasting advertising, an effective, appealing sign is hard to beat. Compare it to the longevity of other types of… Read More
Time-tested tips for succeeding in the sign business
Ray and Rose Grossi of Midwest Signworks in Morris, IL, have been established in their market for over 40 years. Early in that… Read More
Cover Photo: American Bud Beer – Mark Casey
Once upon a time, most beer was brewed locally—much like today’s microbreweries—rather than by big mega-breweries. Those breweries of yesteryear had unique names… Read More
Putting it together: Two freestanding HDU church signs
A photo of a great-looking finished sign can be inspiring, but it can’t tell the story behind the design—the decisions about letter styles,… Read More
Cover photo: Star Transport – Brian Schofield
There’s much more going on in emblem-style graphics than a lot of airbrush work. Brian Schofield says that one of his secrets of… Read More
More signs of Livingston, Montana
Livingston, Montana, is one of those towns with more than its share of cool signs of all vintages—fading ghost signs on old brick… Read More
Cover photo: Fort Bragg Cyclery – Rick and Megan Sacks
A little “shock value” goes a long way to boosting a sign’s effectiveness. There’s something that catches the viewer off guard. “What’s… Read More
Wrap with readability in mind
Not long ago just having a wrap on your vehicle turned heads. Today it’s hard to go more than a block or two… Read More
Cover photo: Miss Kokomo – Randy Howe
There’s more to creating an interesting, effective sign layout than grabbing a cool typeface and typing the text into the layout. The spacing,… Read More
Custom graphics make a statement
In a world where there are loads of generic things—from hamburgers to graphics—there are still plenty of customers who value custom graphics. For… Read More
Pierre Tardif: Hand lettering trucks across Quebec
Pierre started painting signs and banners in the late 1980s. By the time he was first featured in SignCraft magazine 25 years ago,… Read More
Cover photo: Ace Towing – Brian Schofield
What’s more amazing than to see your company name as a gleaming chrome or gold emblem that appears to be mounted on your… Read More
Design & Price: Semi graphics
In every issue, SignCraft gave a few sign makers an imaginary project. We asked them to do a sketch of the sign they… Read More
Q&A: “Why didn’t this vinyl stick?”
Shortly after a reader applied a cut vinyl logo on a customer’s office wall, the graphics began to peel off. The sign maker… Read More
Putting it together: a welcome sign for Blumenort – RT Signs
Even though you can’t see it in the photo of the completed sign, every sign has a backstory—the issues the sign designer has… Read More
Cover photo: Star Solutions – Braun Bleamer
Signs face a lot of visual competition out in the real world. Other signs, billboards and traffic are all drawing readers’ eyes away… Read More
CNC routers speed production and open new markets
CNC routers are a common production tool in more and more sign shops. Cutout letters, sign faces, 3D carving—all these and more are… Read More
Cover photo: The Red Barn – Sean Beauchamp
Custom sign shops are unusual, creative places that design and fabricate a custom product—designed for one specific use for one specific customer. And… Read More
