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Signmaking 101: Contrast

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

Moderators: Ron Percell, Mike Jackson, Danny Baronian

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Mike Jackson
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Posts: 1705
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2004 11:02 pm
Location: Jackson Hole, WY
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Signmaking 101: Contrast

Post by Mike Jackson »

If you had to put your finger of one of the hallmarks of old school signmaking, it would be the fact they understood how to use contrast between lettering and background to make lettering and graphics stand out (or not). Besides good color schemes and a seasoned sense of proper letterstyles, letter weights and so forth, they understood the number one requirement of almost every sign....It has to read!

Maybe they obtained that message as a result of constant training through the union process or from other schooling, but they all (most anyway) seemed to understand it. Even the boring signs were legible.

When we moved to Jackson Hole in 1986, we tried to make each sign as readable as possible, using good contrast, good letterstyles, and allowing enough air space around the lettering. We did tons of sandblasted and carved wooden signs over a 9 year period.

Since we sold the shop about 9 years ago, we have seen a lot of "style changes" and mood swings here. The most current one is the use of a plasma cutter to cut steel, aluminum and other metals to make the signs. Across the board, they fall terribly short of being effective signs. Around here, architects are falling in love with rusted sheets of metal with additional layers of equally rusted lettering using a different kind of metal. I don't know how long it will take for the customers to finally get the message that the investment in this "rustic" look may be costing them business. Don't get me wrong, I think I could actually like a lot of it if done well, and I would enjoy learning the metal working processes.

One thing for sure, if it doesn't work when it is new, it won't work for a long time! Unlike wood signs, the new metal signs are going to last a long, long, long time, even if bad in the interim.

Even on the painted, vinyled, and printed signs, contrast is usually poor. Most of that is probably a result of lack of training and the ease of "computerized effects". As Steven Parrish might have said, "They know the tricks of the trade, but not the trade". I like that line.
Mike Jackson / co-administrator
Golden Era Studios
Vintage Ornamental Clip art
Jackson Hole, WY

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Jill Marie Welsh
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 9:40 am
Location: Butler, PA USA

Post by Jill Marie Welsh »

Thanks for the quote, Mike.
I see so many distortion-happy Corel effected signs that it really bugs me.
There are signs out there with little or no contrast, or with glaring mismatches of color.
(I wonder how these people dress...do they mix plaids and checks?) They waste all their bells and whistles on cheap tricks that detract from the readability of their work.
I said the other day, just because someone can buy a plotter does not mean that they can buy talent.

Everyone needs to learn the basic color wheel. Some of us are blessed with the natural ability to just "know" which colors go together. Others are colorblind, or would appear to be. Even old-time sign folks are guilty of getting lazy and letting the computer do "fancy" things that they nearly forget that they can do themselves by hand.

The over-dependance on computer generated signs has effectively "dumbed down" the public. Why is it that a graphic designer gets paid beaucoup bux to design something for a committee, that gets sent to a sign company to replicate, that usually could have been better-designed by the common sense wielding mind of the sign artist?

Who among us has not gotten specs designed by an architect that state the sign to be on X material with X sized lettering in X Pantone color that looks like . when it's done? Who among us has rendered a mural to the best of our ability which was "thought up" by a designer but bears a strange resemblence to glorified Microsoft Word Clip-Art?

Those metal signs sound like they will long outlive the trend that they started...what a pity. All that time and effort wasted on something that is illegible and will most likely be scrapped once the in-crowd sees the error of their ways.

The old rules are usually the best rules for a reason. They withstood the test of time.
Love....Jill
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