Mike Jackson: Five decades in signs and graphics

By signcraft

Posted on Monday, March 4th, 2024

Back in 1981, a packet of photos arrived in the mail at SignCraft from a young Oklahoma sign painter named Mike Jackson. We knew readers would also like to see his great-looking work, so a feature article was soon coming together. Mike was busy learning all he could about making custom signs and willing to share it with others. Before long he was writing articles regularly for SignCraft.

Mike, Raymond Chapman and Noel Weber in Boise, Idaho, 1982

Since 1981, he’s written nearly 150 articles in SignCraft on everything from how to sandblast a sign to selling custom signs successfully—and almost everything between. The work that he and Darla, his wife, have done has been featured in scores of other articles in the magazine.

Over the past 50 years, their work, their business and their location has taken many twists and turns, most recently landing them in Loveland, Colorado, creating digital vintage graphics. Here’s how it unfolded:

SC: When we first met, you were 26 and had your own small commercial sign shop in Moore, Oklahoma. You were doing painted signs and starting to dabble in some 3D projects.

Mike: I started my sign business while attending college in pursuit of a Fine Arts Degree. I had help learning the craft and trade from two longtime sign painters, George Seelander and Glen Newcomer, plus a few books on the subject by EC Matthews. The “state of the art” at that time was charcoal layouts, pounce patterns, and sometimes the use of an opaque projector.

The sign business hadn’t evolved much in decades. The technology changed slightly with the use of an overhead projector and using transparency film from a copier to project layouts on to signs and patterns. In 1983, Gerber Scientific introduced their Signmaker III, the first affordable vinyl cutting computer. I bought one of the first ones in Oklahoma to do the basic lettering, but we were limited to the few fonts they sold.

SC: So Moore was where things got started.

Mike: Yes, and it was where I was introduced to Letterheads. After my first meeting

Most of the original Denver Letterheads: Mike Moore, Joe Tedesco, not known, Carl Rohrs, Noel Weber, Mark Oatis, Bob Mitchell, circa 1982

in Boise in the summer of 1982, things changed quickly. Later that year I hosted the next meeting in my shop in Moore, which brought together around 100 extremely talented sign makers. The Oklahoma Bash was a great event, but more importantly it helped us network with people all around the country.

Names like Noel Weber, Mark Oatis, Bill Hueg, Gary Anderson, Bob Mitchell, Carl Rohrs, Rick Glawson, David Butler, John Stevens, Dave Smith, Bob Behounek, Steven Parrish, Roberto Lavadie, and John Hannukaine come to mind, but there were so many more—too many to list.

Moore, Oklahoma: Shop sign

SC: You were sandblasting redwood signs long before most of the rest of the country. How did that happen?

Mike: While living in Oklahoma, I made several trips to Colorado. In Denver, I stopped in Rick Flores’s shop and he gave me a few sandblasting tips. I met Gaard Moses at Gaard Graphics in Aspen and took a lot of photos of all the dimensional signs. I also bought a booklet by Big John Brassell that explained the sandblasting process.

Moore, Oklahoma: Sandblasted signs in progress

Like the hand lettering side of the business, most everything was done with hand tools, a table saw and a band saw. I bought a used sandblaster and sandblast pot after renting them a few times. I was doing a lot of work for apartments and subdivisions.

SC: What led to the move to Jackson Hole?

Mike: I fell in love with the Rocky Mountains on my visit, but I couldn’t justify a move until the Oklahoma oil boom crashed. Business dropped drastically and we knew it was time for a move.

SC: Did you go straight to Jackson from Moore?

Mike: Oh no. At one of the Florida Letterheads meets I met Jay Cooke. We hit it off immediately. Oklahoma’s economy was in the dumps and New England’s economy was booming. Jay needed help on a couple of large projects, so Darla and I drove to Vermont to work with him for a few months. We stayed in his home and he paid us well, which was important because we were still paying my shop rent back in Oklahoma.

I learned a lot about the importance of being in a destination resort town and the importance of setting up shop on one of the main roads. Darla and I also learned how to do New England style incised carving. That four-month slice of time was so important.

SC: Then it was off to Jackson Hole?

Mike: More or less. We first traveled around the country looking for the right location. We put 23,000 miles on my old GMC Jimmy and passed through 38 of the 48 lower states. Jackson Hole looked like a good spot, but we didn’t make the decision to move there until September of 1986.

We borrowed $15,000 to make the risky move to a town where we didn’t know a single person, didn’t have a house to rent, and didn’t know where we could find a shop. We just loaded a semi with our stuff and went there. It was a huge gamble, or possibly better described as a leap of faith!

SC: Why Jackson Hole?

Mike: Well, the name fit! Jackson Signs in Jackson Hole. But the town is at the southern border of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It draws a lot of people each year. The town had a distinct western feel, perfect for the type of work we wanted to make. The town “needed us.” We found a good location along the main highway and set up shop. We were busy doing dimensional signs almost immediately and stayed busy for the next nine years.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming: Shop sign

Jackson Hole, Wyoming: Shop window

SC: What happened at the end of those nine years?

Mike: We entered Jackson at the very bottom of a slump, then worked through to boom times. We were extremely motivated to help change the face of the town with our signs. At nine years in, we were making good money, but property values and rent was constantly rising. I felt it was time to go somewhere we could work towards owning our own land. We also had a buyer for the shop who wanted us to hang around for a while to help with the transition.

SC: So, you decided to stay?

Mike: Yes. We still loved the area and were busy raising our sons, Tyler and Corey. So we started Golden Studios out of our house, creating vintage digital graphics on my new, high-powered computer. I digitized and sold the clipart for two or three years, then licensed them to Chuck Davis at LetterheadFonts.com. I still get royalty checks from the work I did in 1995 and 1996. After our non-compete agreement with the shop’s buyers expired, we did a few signs out of our house and I continued to write a few articles for SignCraft.

I have always been involved with photography. At first, I took thousands of rolls of film of both signs and the mountains and wildlife. When I bought my first digital camera, it all clicked! I had an art degree and a solid background in digital graphics using programs like Adobe Photoshop. Before long, I started posting my photos on the Internet, hoping to sell prints. Along the way I started a blog and that led to people wanting to take them on photo tours in Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. The park is a huge draw for photographers. I did that for about five years.

SC: What prompted you to leave Jackson Hole?

Mike: Over our 36 years, Jackson had changed a lot. Teton County had become one of the most expensive places to live in the country. It was getting crowded, but then COVID-19 hit. I was doing photography tours in Grand Teton National Park, and the shutdowns caused me to refund deposits for much of the year. It was a tough time for all.

At the same time, out of state buyers were paying high prices for land away from the big cities. Prices for homes and land skyrocketed, along with the taxes. When it was apparent that property taxes were going to run us out of town, we sold our house and got ready for the next move.

SC: Was Wyoming to Colorado a risky move?

Mike: By comparison, the Colorado move was not risky at all. We sold our house for a lot of money, allowing us to buy a nice one here in Loveland and still have some money in the bank. I get a Social Security check each month and Darla will start receiving hers by the end of the year. If we had stayed in Jackson, it would take all of our combined Social Security income just to pay the property taxes next year.

SC: So what will be keeping you busy there?

Mike: I guess you could say we are semi-retired now, but we still need to make some money. I won’t be doing photo tours here, even though the gate to Rocky Mountain National Park is only 30 miles away. I won’t be making signs, even though we still have computer and a plotter and a loaded sign kit with a small can of One Shot of each of their colors. I set up a nice woodworking shop in my garage for whatever kind of project might come up.

Loveland, Colorado: Studio

SC: Do you ever think about doing signs again?

Mike: Good question! Loveland’s old downtown “needs us”, much like Jackson Hole did. I know I could sell high-end dimensional signs in the historic district, but that motivation is fleeting. I just turned 70 years old and wouldn’t want to make that kind of commitment again. I could use the equipment and space at the local Creator Space, but I would still need business licenses and commercial insurance policies, etc. Besides, I am onto something else.

SC: What’s that?

Mike: When we sold our shop in 1995, I started digitizing vintage style clipart. As Yogi Berra might say, it’s “Déjà vu all over again”. I am in my home office, digitizing new collections of Golden Studios clipart to be sold through LetterheadFonts.com. The current set of collections are inspired by the 1890 to 1915 period of Art Nouveau. They are about ready to go to market, and I have several additional collections on the drawing board. Most of them are quite unique, and I am getting excited to see them in use.

Two sample layouts showing the components from Mike’s latest vintage clipart that were used to create them

SC: You could digitize clipart from about anywhere. Why Loveland?

Mike: Winters were long in Jackson Hole. It’s warmer here, but we still get all four seasons. Winter storms usually drop a layer of snow which melts almost immediately. Access to good medical care is important now, and Ft. Collins, Loveland and Longmont have an abundance of top-notch facilities. We are close to Denver where our oldest son, Tyler, lives.

Unlike Jackson, we don’t have to drive 95 miles to get to the big box stores anymore. They’re just a few miles away. Loveland is an “artsy” community, with galleries, art shows and museums. Micro-breweries abound to go with the wide variety of restaurants.

Everything is connected with bike paths and parks. We’ve gone to a variety of college and pro sports events now. I’ve taken a few watercolor classes, mainly for the motivation. After a year and a half of living here, Darla and I both agree that Loveland is a good fit at this time of our life!