Six ways to get the most out of a plain vanilla truck
Not another white pickup! The traditional work truck or van is almost inevitably white. Coming up with ways to avoid a generic look… Read More
signcraft
Design & Price: 3-by-12-ft. banner
In every issue, SignCraft gives a few sign makers an imaginary project. We asked them to do a sketch of the sign they… Read More
Time tracking makes estimating and pricing easier
Tracking what it costs you to produce a sign—the time and materials involved—provides essential information that you need for pricing and estimating, and… Read More
How we made it: Graphics for a nature center
Sometimes a single creative project can call on a sign maker to use a multitude of their fabrication skills. Redgie Adams and Jon… Read More
Ray and Rose Grossi paint a wall sign
A wall sign or mural is one of the most unique forms of street advertising. They’re big, and when well designed, they make… Read More
Stripes & Graphics: Cool lines for cool carts
At 19, Chris Palmateer was a young pinstriper in the Tampa Bay area, picking up jobs at auto body shops. There were several… Read More
Fine tuning a basic sign layout
In the recent tip, “Compress with Care,” we talked about—and showed—how excessive condensing can make a typeface harder to read. Using a condensed… Read More
Profile: Stu and Chris Dobell
We first featured the work of these two well-known Aussie sign painters in our November/December 2009 issue. Take a look at their outstanding… Read More
Profile: Rick and Megan Sacks
Shop name: The Sign Shop Shop: 2400 sq. ft. Graphics equipment: Graphtec cutter Flexisign Pro Online: www.mendosign.com Facebook: MendoSign Fifty years is a… Read More
Signs by Van
Age: Phil, 68 and Jeremy, 39Shop: 4000 sq. ft. Staff: Nine Graphics equipment/software: SCM 5 x 12 five-axis router Vectric Aspire and Fusion… Read More
Tips & Tricks: Compress with care
Every day sign people have to deal with creating layouts for signs that have too much copy on them. Many customers have unrealistic… Read More
Signs We’ve Seen: April 2021
Check out this creative sign work by SignCraft’s readers. We’re always interested in seeing your work or photos of great-looking signs you’ve seen…. Read More
How to show the true value of a sign to a client
“We’ve been in business for over 50 years,” says Larry, “and I cannot count the times a customer’s first question was ‘How much… Read More
Follow-up: Ray Sauder
Age: 49 Shop name: Raynbow Signs City: Palmerston, Ontario, Canada Staff: Five plus Ray Shop size: 4800 sq. ft. Graphics equipment: Roland SolJet… Read More
April 2021: Letters
First two monument signs Dear SignCraft.com, I am the second generation in my family’s sign company. We started as a wide-format printing company… Read More
Follow-up: Jon Depreter
When Jon Depreter was first featured in SignCraft 17 years ago [May/June 2004], he had a busy one-man shop in New York’s Hudson… Read More
Follow-up: Chris and Debi Lovelady
Shop name: Vital Signs LLC City: Thomasville, Georgia Staff: Five plus Chris and Debi Shop size: 5500 sq. ft. Graphics equipment: HP Latex… Read More
Profile: Max Clark
Shop Name: MaxSigns City: Bend, Oregon Shop size: 400 sq. ft. Age: 69 Graphics equipment: 24-in. Graphtech / 15-in. Gerber envision plotter… Read More
A gallery of CNC sign ideas
As you see in every issue of SignCraft, CNC routing makes a wide variety of 3-D signage not only possible, but practical. The… Read More
Tips & Tricks: Legibility and letter size
The seven-second legibility test I fully agree with the sentiments stated by Ken Millar [see Designing signs for legibility: Letter size and Designing… Read More
