The evolution of the signs business.

6000 BC: My great great . . . grandfather, who wasn’t a great fisherman became the local Cave painter and draws an arrow on a rock to point to good hunting grounds.
3000 BC: Sumeria, Egypt, Inca, got creative at headstone incising. Paints last long time as long as you don’t put them out in the sun.
1000 BC: First Pub in England got a pictograph ( no one could read yet) “The Cave Inn”

1400 AD: Signpainters begin their own guild, brushes rediscovered & developed, pounce patterns.
1600s: Decals on gelatin transfer sheets
1850 : Industrial Revolution. Sign Painters really busy. More people can read Them.
1900 : Screen Printing – mass production of signs can happen.
1920s: NEON
1950s: the airbrush; pressure sensitive Vinyl – Mac tac
1960s: further development of Vinyls and reflective markers
1974: My dad paints the sign that goes on top of the CN Tower’s crane. Highest sign in the world.
1979: the Gerber Vinyl cutting plotter – Cuts letters out in minutes. The beginning of the end of Traditional sign painting.
1983: the 8 colour automated airbrush that scales large outdoor walls to do murals;
CNC sheet material letter cutters
1990s: Digital Thermal Printing for mid term outdoor use; Fast vinyl cutters, computer interfaced
2004: Digital printing directly on to sheet material. The beginning of the end of weeding vinyl !
2010: All signs will be made in China for next to nothing and shipped UPS in three days.
2020: What do you mean sign – ‘Painter’ ?
2060: signs become obsolete. Personal gps – direction devices implanted in brain – We will have all information broadcast directly into our skulls.

So Why does anybody still chose to make signs by hand ?
Butt gets sore from sitting in front of a machine.
Huge overhead costs in these modern machines.
Some times, it’s nice to have that traditional Touch.
Satisfaction level for the sign painter high.
Signpainting still 10,000 times more environmentally friendlier.
And there are still, if few, circumstances that a computer cannot do.