I have witnessed a multitude of changes over the years in the sign industry. At the age of 17 I began work at a sign company in Nanaimo. My job as the "sketch artist" was to produce sign renderings on paper and card stock. I would hand draw all the letters and graphics in pencil then later fill them in with acrylic paints by brush. There were no computers, no Photoshop, no Adobe Illustrator and no CorelDRAW. Everything was done by hand. Once these sketches were approved by the client they were placed into a projector and hand traced on paper taped to a wall. This would produce the patterns required to make a sign. In the case of a fluorescent backlit sign, an appropriate sized piece of clear acrylic would be coated with a thick latex medium. This coating would appear as a milky blue colour upon first application. It would then dry to a clear rubbery finish. The pattern that was created would then be taped to the non-coated or face side of the acrylic. This would then be lifted onto a light bank, an array of fluorescent fixtures that allowed the pattern to be seen through the blue latex mask. An X-acto knife was then used to carefully cut the pattern lines into the mask. Letters or backgrounds would then be peeled away to leave the acrylic exposed for painting. More than one colour meant that the masking process would need to be repeated between colours. This was an incredibly time consuming process to produce a sign.

Today most sign companies use self adhesive translucent vinyls on white plastic to achieve the same effect. Computer driven plotters cut these materials precisely easily. No more depending on the steady hand of surgeon to achieve a sweeping bezier curve. The vinyls continue to evolve for greater colour variations and longevity. Signs produced using this method radiate with vibrant and even colours eliminating the need for toxic paints and talented painters.

With the invention of the digital printer the sign making process changed again. Photo imagery can now be applied to any sign... including illuminated ones. This is where I find a dilemma. I embrace the digital printer as an artist. I can now produce a sign not limited by the vinyl pallets offered by 3M or Avery. I can print almost any colour that a Pantone chart can throw at me. However! This does not mean to say that I can just rip a print on some vinyl, slap it on some plastic and throw some light behind it. Nooooo noooo noo! This is just wrong! In my opinion digital printed graphics just will not work for some applications. Solid black backgrounds produced by digital printing are going to illuminate dark grey at best. This gives the entire sign a very washed out finish. Signs with field coverage by one dominant colour need to be done in translucent vinyls or a combination of digital printed and translucent vinyls. I am a "sign guy" through and through and when I go for a drive in the evening admiring all the lighted ads, I am very disappointed to see these faded and washed out signs. 2 passes of ink is not always the answer people! One needs to work on these things with your printer. Don't be afraid of printing out a small sample, slap it over a bright window... that is what your public is going to see. If it looks like a faded patch on an old pair of jeans then chances are it's going to look like that when it's live and large, 20 feet in the air stuck to a sign face. I would love to start posting photos of some examples... but I would probably be slagged by the manufacturer of the sign and the customer.

That was my squawk for the weekend. Have a look for yourself when you find yourself out for a walk or drive in the city. You don't have to look far and you will see what I'm talking about.

Joe

I have titled this blog NO.1 so I will try my hardest to make sure that it is not NO.2 I have been aware of blogs since they  first started showing up on the world wide web but I have never had really much interest in reading one or writing one. (My apologies to those of you who have been blogging since it's inception)
I'm not going to write much more today. This was an initial "Squawk" to say hello and let you know that I will be joining the ranks of the many who put their thoughts to digital dialogue.

Cheers
Joe