Author Archives: Mike Jackson

Back in the day—before the Internet—a few leading-edge sign shop owners created posters to help advertise their creations. The ’70s and ’80s were… Read More

Sharpening and grinding are common tasks in most sign shops, so it makes sense to do that as quickly and easily as possible…. Read More

Not long ago I purchased a bench at Home Depot that checked most of the boxes I would have wanted for a good… Read More

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, clip art is a noun, defined as this: Ready-made pieces of printed or… Read More

I was initially exposed to old sign painting books back in 1982, following my first Letterheads meeting in Boise, Idaho. I saw a… Read More

If you are ever looking for a little vintage inspiration, take a walk through some of the car shows in your area! Auto… Read More

October is the month of monsters, witches, ghouls, goblins and creatures. Whether they came from outer space, out of the caves and caverns,… Read More

Scale—that’s probably the biggest difference in the products commonly referred to as early outdoor advertising and what we now think of as commercial… Read More

Vintage movie posters of the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s often packed powerful punches of both color and expressive lettering. Westerns were the movie… Read More

Training new owners, sales staff and employees led me to evaluate the process of selling a sign. To help them know what to… Read More

 Mike Jackson wrote this article for the September/October 1995 issue of SignCraft—almost 30 years ago. Now retired, Mike and Darla were running a… Read More

In most cases, brush strokes do not show up in a newly lettered sign. But over the years, the rays of the sun… Read More

Maker Spaces, Art Labs, and Creator Spaces dot cities across the United States. Those are just a few of the names for facilities… Read More

In early days, buildings in many of the large cities were made of bricks. Much like the brick house in the children’s story… Read More

A photographer with a sign background probably sees the world differently than an average photographer. That’s especially true if the photographer likes vintage… Read More

George Seelander prepared hand drawn and tempera painted layouts long before people were even dreaming of using computers for their design work. Sketches… Read More