Whatever

[Doug Bernhardt]

Recent issue of SignCraft arrived the other day and was struck by Mike Jackson's article on colour use etc. The first example with the red letters and black shade made note of "what a common problem" this sort of layout is. I also was looking through old issues of AMAL as well these past weeks and came across the work (and great work as well) of Joel Denmead in issue #2 of Voulme 3 with Smitty's glass piece on the cover....anywho just to paraphrase he said something like " the business is now being dominated by people who's only apparent skill is typing". That Mike's article was and is even necessary is cause for concern! I guess this is a bit of a rant from another old cogger who seconds both of those views.

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Doug,
Quite a few of my recent articles are directed at the new crop of people in our trade who entered it though a keyboard and a plotter. All you have to do is drive around any town to see an endless supply of problem signs, most of which could be attributed to a group with little background in design, layout, color, and basic sign making techniques. Not to say there aren't any new kids with both the talent and the skills, but they seem to be fewer and farther between now. The Letterhead movement was initialized by a bunch of young whippersnappers who have now matured into season veterans, some of which have moved on to other trades and interests. Still, I saw black shades on red letters when I first started hand lettering. I am sure I even did a few of them because I was seeing them all around, long before the computers hit the streets.

On the flip side, with all the c.r.a.p out there, it doesn't really take that much anymore to make your signs stand out amongst them. So, maybe it only requires a bit of a twist of perspective to see something positive in the current state of the art.

Mike Jackson

[Larry White]

yeah....whatever....