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Chuckle monkey

Store Front Signage question from a newbie.

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I just mess around for the most part in my garage at night.  I make decals for friends and do some shirts and hats for local businesses.  I recently made a few vehicle decals for a local outdoor sporting goods store.  Now they have a laundry list of more things they want me to make.  One is a large say 4'x8' sign for the side of the building.  Very basic with their name and list of items for sale.   Ammo, Guns...Bows...Gunsmith...   The building is old Brick.  I want to hang a sign but not sure what to use?  They dont want anything fancy, just simple and effective.  What would be a good base to start with?  I said something about using old barn wood or old pallet wood to create a rustic sign with vinyl lettering on top.  They loved that idea.   Any input on going that route?

 

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At least it's not Walmart. That would be the end of this industry.

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When did sears get into the sign business

It is not really Sears selling it,  It is a Sears Marketplace Store..   Just like smaller sellers selling on Amazon...  It would be just like you or me putting an ad up in Sears Marketplace and selling the item...Sears. gets their cut...  Mr300s and I read the rules , too complicated...Many times you can be on Ebay and at the bottom of the pages are others ads, that go to Sears Marketplace....

 

 

That Sears store is this person

 

http://www.sears.com/search=?sellerId=1434

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I did not know that. I try to shop with businesses that only sell to the trade. I used to sell chrome taillights and when the economy got bad they started selling on ebay for nearly what I was paying and it left a bad taste with me. I use uscutter.com even though they are public because they have gread service and you just can't beat the prices. Rant over but I really never noticed the marketplace configuration until you pointed it out.

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I just mess around for the most part in my garage at night.  I make decals for friends and do some shirts and hats for local businesses.  I recently made a few vehicle decals for a local outdoor sporting goods store.  Now they have a laundry list of more things they want me to make.  One is a large say 4'x8' sign for the side of the building.  Very basic with their name and list of items for sale.   Ammo, Guns...Bows...Gunsmith...   The building is old Brick.  I want to hang a sign but not sure what to use?  They dont want anything fancy, just simple and effective.  What would be a good base to start with?  I said something about using old barn wood or old pallet wood to create a rustic sign with vinyl lettering on top.  They loved that idea.   Any input on going that route?

 

To answer your question, If you don't have good painting skills, you can use the vinyl as a mask and paint your sign onto the re-purposed palette boards. a few simple techniques and you can create a very good looking, vintage distressed painted wood sign. Might take you a little more time to make, but not much more in materials, and you can charge much more for it than vinyl on aluminum.

 

as far as mounting goes, i would use french cleats top and bottom, blue concrete screws to hold the brace to the wall, and you're done.

 

here is a quick example I did for a friend. Base coat of blue, a little grey and red dry strokes around the edge, then a layer of crackel, placed the vinyl letters down, painted over the whole thing with brown, and removed the vinyl lettering while the paint was still wet. let it dry, then a few more passed with the grey and red dry brush for more depth.

post-3868-0-54770800-1424712315_thumb.jp

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To answer your question, If you don't have good painting skills, you can use the vinyl as a mask and paint your sign onto the re-purposed palette boards. a few simple techniques and you can create a very good looking, vintage distressed painted wood sign. Might take you a little more time to make, but not much more in materials, and you can charge much more for it than vinyl on aluminum.

 

as far as mounting goes, i would use french cleats top and bottom, blue concrete screws to hold the brace to the wall, and you're done.

 

here is a quick example I did for a friend. Base coat of blue, a little grey and red dry strokes around the edge, then a layer of crackel, placed the vinyl letters down, painted over the whole thing with brown, and removed the vinyl lettering while the paint was still wet. let it dry, then a few more passed with the grey and red dry brush for more depth.

Thanks a bunch.  I really like this idea.  I am tossing around the idea of using some kind of lightweight plastic in a 4x8 sheet to apply the decals to.  This would be a very simple approach.  I will give these ideas to them and let them decide what they want.  The husband wants simple and cheap, the Wife wants the wooden sign.  So i assume i will be doing the pallet idea:)

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Thanks a bunch.  I really like this idea.  I am tossing around the idea of using some kind of lightweight plastic in a 4x8 sheet to apply the decals to.  This would be a very simple approach.  I will give these ideas to them and let them decide what they want.  The husband wants simple and cheap, the Wife wants the wooden sign.  So i assume i will be doing the pallet idea:)

 

Be careful with the plastic!  low-energy plastic and regular vinyl dont get along. You'll put up the sign and a week later you have an angry customer asking why the graphics are peeling off the sign.

 

I stick with hi-tack vinyl on plastics.

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The cheap cutters are already so common I could skip a rock and hit two or three on my street. However most of them are for sale.... They buy them and give their products away and wonder why they can't make a profit. The problem is as soon as one guy goes out of business two more open up just long enough to drive prices down. I offer a high quality product at a reasonable price and I still get asked why I'm higher priced than a friend of a friend of someone's cousin who used to cut decals. It makes me feel an assortment of emotions.

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Yep, I get told all the time, Well this guy does for this price.. and then my answer is Then go to them..

and most of the time they come back to me cause the other guy did it all wrong or messed something up and then they end up paying double then they wanted in the first place

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Yep, I get told all the time, Well this guy does for this price.. and then my answer is Then go to them..

and most of the time they come back to me cause the other guy did it all wrong or messed something up and then they end up paying double then they wanted in the first place

 

post-24492-0-90607300-1426022950_thumb.j

 

This guy still comes back to me on a regular basis after his original "low cost" guy didn't do such a great job.

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