Jeff Cahill

If your SignCraft collection goes back that far, you’ll find Jeff Cahill on the cover of the Summer 1983 issue, along with a feature on him and his work inside. He had a busy commercial sign shop in Colorado Springs, Colorado, turning out hand lettering, sandblasted and dimensional signs. Over the years, his work was featured numerous times in SignCraft, and today finds him semi-retired but still at it from the shop next to his home in Woodland Park, Colorado. Not long ago, SignCraft asked Jeff to tell us more about his current setup and his work:

Hardware: I use Macintosh computers—one in the house and one in the shop—and MacSign software. I have a Summa plotter, but I don’t have a digital printer. I sub out most of my printing to Signs365.com. They do a wonderful job, and I don’t have to make a payment on equipment or maintain it.

Fonts: There are a couple hundred fonts on my computer, and that’s more than enough for me. I don’t go shopping for more. For the primary copy, I often draw something up or hand letter it, then scan it in and clean it up so that I can cut it in vinyl. Sometimes I find it’s just as fast, in those cases, to cut the mask by hand and roll the paint on. I’m not dependent on the computer. I do a lot of hybrid stuff where I cut and roll the larger, main copy, then use cut vinyl on the smaller copy. For 3-D signs, most often I cut the lettering out on the band saw and jigsaw, then hand carve it. If necessary, I could also outsource the cutting and routing.