Traveling sign painter?

[Erock]

What was the old slang word for a sign painter who travels from shop to shop?

[Bob Ficucell]

A "Snapper" Bob

[Erock]

Cool, Thanks! You wouldent happen to know how they became to be called "snappers", would you?

[Billy Pickett]

...heard once that they used a string w.chalk on it, that was "snapped" to make layout lines.

...And/or they would have just breezeed into a town, and "snapped" up jobs that a local would have gotten otherwise.

[Roderick Treece]

From the stories I was told "snapper" came from the fact that the sign wrighters would not stay around long enough to let the paint dry so they couldn't wipe off the snap lines,Which if it happened to be in your area it might have been a constant reminder that you didn't get that repaint.As a life long "Snapper" I always try to make a sign look finished when I'm done.

Roderick

[Mike Jackson]

That term may have homoginized from several aspects mentioned above. While not always the case, the top quality sign painters would have made pounce patterns to help with spacing, centering and alignment, creating a higher end product. Their other altrnative would have been a scaled drawing and then using grids to scale it up. (before projectors) The snapper would never dream of that, opting for a quick snapped line top and bottom and a charcoal or chalk layout. In that context, the snapper would have delivered a lesser product with a likely lower price tag.

Just more comments.
Mike Jackson

[Roderick Treece]

Mike,
I beg to deffer.After traveling the country being a "snapper" I can assure you that I and any other snapper I knew did not supply a "Lesser product" but used all the talent that we had via on the spot lay outs and quility brush work.When you learned traditional sign wrighting you had all those skills and being a "snapper" was the perfect setting to use those skills.
I can remember traveling around and seeing signs painted by a guy that lived in the orange county cal. area.He had such a destinctive style that you could always tell it was his work.
I would agree with you that the price might have been lower depending on how hungry you were at the time or if you needed gas money.
Most traveling "snappers would pick up any repaints that were available as well.These days it doesn't even pay to try to do it.
Roderick

[Mike Jackson]

I believe I started my comments "While not always the case". That leaves room for the occasional top quality traveling sign painter who was genuinely interested in delivering the quality signs.

As another point to this thread, not all small towns had (or have) a resident sign maker, so in those cases, the Snapper offered a needed service.

From the way I understand it, many sign people regard the snapper as a slightly lesser skilled craftsman...almost a derogatory term. I believe that is also reflected in most of the responses above.

Mike

[William Holohan]

erock,
second try

interesting site re:/snapper/traveling/itinerant sign painter

http://www.stumpranchonline.com/Savage/JohnW/

[Dave Draper]

My mentors, the guys who trained me my craft, were the Johnson Family in Bloomington, Illinois. Hinie Johnson was the "Snapper" in his younger years, and his son Bud took over the business after World War 2 and took it to bill boards and high rise signs.

Hinie wrote articles for Sign Of The Times after he settled down and his series of articles were called "the Old Pro. He has a spot in the American Sign Museum.

Bud, (my boss and Hinie's son), told me that Hinie painted signs all over the country, and was called a "snapper" by a lot of sign folk. Good sign painters in this country just didn't exist in every small town or community. Plus, no matter where you lived outside of the big cities, there wasn't many businesses that existed to keep a full time sign painter busy.

So Hinie traveled. Sort of like some of the window splash painters do today, seeking out car dealerships and other businesses with huge display windows to letter on.

I was told that "snapping" ment picking up jobs in a community and then moving on to the next, sort of like a Gypsie sign painter. As far as making patterns, Hinie was well equiped to make patterns as he traveled so that may not be an issue.

There may not be a real clear way to define what was ment by a "snapper" as the slang use of the term may have ment different things to differnt people, maybe an insulting term for a traveling sign guy...maybe not.

I don't think of traveling window "splashers" as
'snappers" in a bad context, and they certainly do some awesome work. And they hit the road when the work is done.