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Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

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

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Mike Jackson
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Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

Post by Mike Jackson »

I don't usually watch Parks and Recreation, but when I turned on the TV yesterday, it was on the tube. Amy Poehler's character saw a campaign poster on the streets that was wrong, so she went to the sign shop to find out what happened. The sign shop was more of an instant shop, or even a print shop vs the traditional hand painted sign shop. Apparently, someone wrote out a full URL on the job ticket for the shop to go to the site to get the photos. But instead, they printed the URL on the sign. The guy was saying he just did what was on the ticket. When they showed the guy at the sign shop the image on their computer, the sign guy said, "Yes, that's a nice sign".

While the people watching were probably laughing at the dumb butte shop owner, I have to laugh at the script writers, The small web image—even if they had gone to their web site to get it—would have been way too small to have blown up on their signs with the necessary resolution.

Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson / co-administrator
Golden Era Studios
Vintage Ornamental Clip art
Jackson Hole, WY

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Robare M. Novou
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Re: Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

Post by Robare M. Novou »

I had turned on the TV, and then headed straight to the Fridge...when I came back to the TV to change the channel, the plot in the episode you just described was on. I had a good laugh, but then realized that some "quick stick" sign stores are like that. Notice how they didn't show a "real" sign shop. Not that "real" sign shops don't make mistakes. I'm glad the writer of that show chose to lampoon a "quick stick" sign store. Still ...it was odd to see a sign company make it into the show, or any show. I think we can count on one hand how many times a sign writer appears in a movie or TV show.

Maybe we should start a list...see how far we get.

I know of that one movie with James Cagney as a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin and all the hi-jinx that went on with East Berlin Russians wanting to buy the formula for Coke, so that they could make and sell the soda in Russia. In one scene, there is a sign painter hanging out of the car window, trying to letter the car door as it speeds down the road. Upside down!

The name of the movie is "One, Two, Three". And was produced in 1961. It's a hoot of a movie, even without the upside down sign painter.

Here's the link to the part in the movie where Mr. Cagney asks for a "Sign Painter"....in a hurry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&featu ... AHKK9izA6Y

And here's the link for that requested "Sign Painter" applying his trade to the vehicle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... 1Smimfr5a0

Wasn't there some mention of a sign needing to be made in "Little House on the Prairie". I think a post was made on this site about that, a very long time ago.

Might even be some Billboard painters in a 3 stooges movie.

That's the most I can remember...any one else got a memory of sign painters in a Movie?

Post it, there might even be a youtube video of it.
What's On Your Book Shelf ?

http://www.milwaukeesignworks.com
Mike Jackson
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Re: Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

Post by Mike Jackson »

"Bound for Glory (1976) - IMDb
www.imdb.com/title/tt0074235/
Rating: 7.3/10 - 2,149 votes
This film is an excellent biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Oklahoma home in the 1930s to find work ...
Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring David Carradine,"....from a Google Search.

Woody Guthrie was a sign painter and singer. In the show, he is seen lettering a sign for some sort of shelter or food bank.

There are a few western movies with a sign shop shown as you go through town. They imitate a famous photo taken in Oklahoma after one of the land rushes.

I've seen them in other movies. It'd take a while to jog the memory cells. I've seen a few in the past few years showing a sign person peeling back the transfer paper on a vinyl sign on a door.

But, it would be nice if people start watching for instances of a sign painter lettering a door, window, billboard or surface sign.

Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson / co-administrator
Golden Era Studios
Vintage Ornamental Clip art
Jackson Hole, WY

Photography site:
Teton Images
Jackson Hole photography blog:
Best of the Tetons
Mike Jackson
Site Admin
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Re: Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

Post by Mike Jackson »

https://handletteringforum.com/forum ... ilit=movie

This thread had quite a few sightings.
Mike Jackson / co-administrator
Golden Era Studios
Vintage Ornamental Clip art
Jackson Hole, WY

Photography site:
Teton Images
Jackson Hole photography blog:
Best of the Tetons
Tyler Tim
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Re: Sign Shop / Print Shop on Parks and Recreation

Post by Tyler Tim »

The first movie I recall seeing a sign painter in a film would have to be Badlands (1973) Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.
Sure I paint thing for my amusement and then offer them for sale. A brushslinger could whither en die from lack of creativity in this plastic town my horse threw a shoe in. :shock:
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