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Help needed with pricing hand lettered signs and trucks.

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

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Tim Bond
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:15 pm

Help needed with pricing hand lettered signs and trucks.

Post by Tim Bond »

I work in a metropolitan area in the Midwest USA. I am an old school sign writer. I am having an issue with pricing on hand lettered signs and trucks. With vinyl market it seems that folks believe hand lettering should be cheaper than vinyl. I would like to know if some in this forum might offer some basic guide line pricing on hand lettered signs. I use to get good prices for brush lettering but am a bit lost with pricing these days. Maybe some rough cost guidelines for a pick-up. 2 doors,
A 4' x 8' MDO sign 1 side
Pricing for glass gilding
Wall lettering minimum and per sq. ft.

I realize this is asking for much information, but I sure could use some basic guide lines! say for an intermediate lettering job.

This would help a lot,

Thanks,

Tim
Tyler Tim
Posts: 209
Joined: Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:12 am

Re: Help needed with pricing hand lettered signs and trucks.

Post by Tyler Tim »

Your question is hard for anyone to really answer to many factors to weigh. I'd say, sell your Quality not cost... that would be my advice. Find out what they have in mind for a budget and see if you can offer something that fits it.

Tim
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:
Doug Bernhardt
Posts: 1077
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 am
Location: Ottawa Canada
Contact:

Re: Help needed with pricing hand lettered signs and trucks.

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Well thats it...sell an upscale product and don't even try to compete with the "Rock'em Sock'em" vinyl business'. That part of our business is SOO price conscience a hand lettering shop can't even step into the arena.
Kent Smith
Posts: 569
Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2004 6:41 pm
Location: Estes Park, CO
Contact:

Re: Help needed with pricing hand lettered signs and trucks.

Post by Kent Smith »

Consider the fact that the distinction for sign painters is more a matter of design ability, not the materials used to complete the project. Having said that, one should be paid for the ability to hand letter as well. When you add those together, the finished product is worth more, not less. There is a significant difference between drawing/designing and entering data into a computer. As an example, there is a significant difference between spending considerable time seeking some specific "font" and putting elements of design together. When I started, a good sign painter had 6-8 letter styles he used and created most designs using variations of those letters with perhaps another element like a cartoon sketch, a digbat, or illustration. Using one's handlettering skills to complete an appropriate design for the customer gives underlying value to the completed sign and makes the materials used somewhat irrelevent. What that means is that a good deisgner can use either vinyl or paint or combinations of both or a myriad of other materials to complete the project and maintain a good value both for a finished price and for what the customer has paid.

To give you a place to begin, there are resources such as Sign Craft's online pricing and the Signwriters Pricing Guide as well as Estimate pricing software. Every resource typically needs to be adjusted for your market and your operational circumstances. If you have access to old editions of Signs of the Times, Judi wrote a column on figuring your costs and developing your own pricing called "Money Matters", I think it started in 2007 and may still be archived on SignWeb.
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