Back when I first started painting window splashes I was only 15. The trouble was I looked like I was 13. ANd here I was trying to be a businessman. Not everyone took me seriously. I remember approaching a business to do their windows for the Christmas season. The owner liked my designs and selected...

The information on wagons comes in real handy today... I'm in the midst of designing a project where we will build a wagon among other things. Perfect timing! The historical information of course will be translated to 'CARTOON' for an upcoming project. Even so, basing it on historically accurate inf...

I am in the research stage of a complete computer upgrade these days. First will be a new laptop and then, early in the new year a desktop unit. It will probably be Apple equipment this go around. The software will all be upgraded as will the tired old scanner. Our desktop printer is in good shape. ...

We all have a dream shop which lives in our head and I'm no different. I've spoken to many letterhead friends who hold this same wonderful dream of their ultimate shop and inevidably it looks much different than mine. My dream shop lived in my head for almost 20 years, while I worked in our tiny gar...

My signmaking journey began (40 years ago) when I was a skinny little kid of 12 or 13 years. I remember sitting on a hot sandy beach as I watched a skilled brush man paint a scripted name (LindyLou) on the side of my uncle's boat. The signman deftly applied the flowing casual script in black and the...

I love going to other's sign shops, especially when they are full of eye candy. It simply blows me away! I marvel at the works displayed, knowing full well the countless hours they represent. It gets me wondering sometimes... just how these folks make a living. No end of hours are spent learning the...

For those not familiar with the type of signs our little company specializes in, take a look at our website by clicking on the www link in the box under my post. I fully realise that most of our work is 'out there' as defined by the typical work many sign shops do these ways. Even so I proudly consi...

I drop into this site on occasion for there are many talented sign folks here whom I have admired for many, many years. Some I have had the honor to meet and a few I am proud to call friends. I hope to make many more! The work displayed here and on the websites of the members is nothing short of bre...

A couple of weeks back we held our first Router Magic Workshop in partnership with EnRoute Pro (SAI Software) here in our studio/shop in Yarrow. My goal was to do a number of things through the weekend. I wanted to inspire others to take a more whimsical but passionate approach to dimensional sign m...

oops... double post.

We have a website and definitely feel it's worth the time and effort. While we do get hits and enquiries from folks surfing I'm not much worried about that. I certainly don't track the number of hits. I see our web page as a virtual portfolio for the most part and send people there regularly. Our bu...

In all the years I've been painting murals I've never had one defaced and have only seen it very rarely on others and I've done over a hundred murals all over Canada and the US.. I've painted a few of them in places I would never venture otherwise and have even had an armed guard stand watch while I...

Raymond In my experience painting walls I would prime the stone/brick whatever with a high quality acrylic primer and then paint with the same high quality brand of acrylic paint. I don't like to seal masonry as it needs to breathe as does acrylic paint. To seal it means paint failure in my experien...

The latest issue of SignCraft carries another great article by Mike in which he discusses some principles of marketing and selling high end work. I've long agreed and adhered to many of these same principles. Even so, the article is a great checklist and reminder of things we often take for granted....

In our shop we do nothing but unusual and far out stuff. It's all high end and priced likewise. People often ask me how we manage to do only this type of work. The answer is simple... we turn down everything else. We are known as THE SHOP to go for when folks want OUTRAGEOUS stuff. We are known as p...

Kieth I have had the fun of doing about a 100 historical murals to date all across Canada and the USA. Most are quite large and have been up to 5000 square feet. With the exception of a handful they have all been done with acrylic paints. I wouldn't use anything else. I like the quick drying aspects...

Thanks for sharing Larry. Every single piece is mind blowing and inspirational!

-dan

After dreaming for years I have finally found the solution to my own massive collection of 'good stuff'! We are in the end stage of finishing the new (much, much larger) studio/workshop. My collection has been languishing in storage for quite some time but the time has finally come to begin unpackin...