Tips & Tricks

Custom signs as gifts

Do you like to make cool 3D signs, hand lettered or faux vintage signs? If you’re not already marketing them as gifts, you may want to get started. In an age where it seems everything is mass produced, an original custommade sign is quite a unique gift.

Ghyslain Grenier, L’Enseignerie, Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse, Quebec, Canada, does quite a few carved and hand lettered signs as gifts, both at Christmas and throughout the year. He sent photos of several done as “last minute Christmas gifts.”

“I do around 10 to 15 plaques each year in the end of the Christmas season,” says Ghyslain. “It’s a good way to help Father Christmas pay for the gifts he buys! I send an e-mail to everyone on my address book that I make them. It’s an excellent reminder, too.”

You can market them online, by putting an example in a local store or restaurant, or through local media. Local newspapers, magazines and even TV are often interested in featuring the work of local artisans, and a sign maker fills the bill.