Adam Straus: Growing a custom sign business
Sometimes a high school job can lead you to a lifelong career. For Adam Straus, a high school co-op job landed him in… Read More
signcraft
Q&A: Are heat transfer t-shirt graphics durable?
Readers want to know: “Are heat transfer t-shirt graphics as durable as screen printed? What’s the best way to produce them?” This reader… Read More
Cut out the words to send a powerful message
One of the benefits of using cut-out letters on a sign on a building is that it transforms the building itself into a… Read More
Signs We’ve Seen: Signs of London
Here’s another case of a sign designer on vacation—and snapping photos of cool signs along the way. This time, it was David Showalter… Read More
Make the main message shout
We naturally notice larger things first. They’re more obvious and more noticeable. The Mack truck beside you in traffic is more conspicuous than… Read More
Design & Price: 3-by-10-ft. printed banner
In every issue, SignCraft gave a few sign makers an imaginary project. We ask them to do a sketch of the sign they… Read More
9 tips for creating clean contemporary sign designs
You don’t have to look very far these days to see the latest trend in graphic design. You’ll find very clean, very simple… Read More
The trendsetting work of the late Chester Cunningham
Back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, you couldn’t talk about sign design in a sign shop for very long before Chester… Read More
Q & A: How do you improve vinyl adhesion on exterior acrylic paint?
“Vinyl graphics don’t always adhere well to exterior acrylic latex paint. Some letters want to lift with the application tape and letters may… Read More
Remember “The Signs of Sanibel Island”?
The cover story of the very first issue of SignCraft back in 1980 was a feature on the signs Sanibel Island, Florida, and… Read More
Signs We’ve Seen – December 2022
Looking for a quick idea for that next layout? It could be waiting for you here. We’ve got are over two dozen idea-packed… Read More
What’s it cost to produce graphics for this illuminated sign?
We did the graphics for this illuminated sign for a local furniture store that sends the bulk of their sign work to us…. Read More
Phillip Newell: From sign maker to full-time designer
Designing cool signs—make that “effective cool signs”—has always been the draw for Phillip Newell. Now 46, he has spent the last 20-plus years… Read More
Tapping the residential sign market
Not every sign advertises a business, announces a sale or tells folks where to park. Some are nameplates for a residence, be it… Read More
When a signmaker takes a cruise
What happens when a signmaker takes a cruise? They take photos of the signs on the ship and in the ports where they… Read More
Q&A: How to identify a font
Readers want to know: “How do you identify a font that was used in a certain layout or a logo that a customer… Read More
Five ways to harness the power of simplicity
No one has ever said that it is easy to keep your layouts simple. The temptation to add just one more thing is… Read More
New life for old sign layouts
Nothing makes a better case for the power of effective signs than before-and-after photos. Seeing, it seems, really is believing. Sometimes it’s the… Read More
Let the key elements overlap
One way to create a unified design is to let the elements bump or overlap each other. Sometimes it is simply the tail… Read More
Q&A: Best paint for window splashes
Readers want to know: “What paint works best for Christmas window splashes?” Window splashes are great advertising, and Christmas windows are a terrific… Read More
