How’s that for refreshing?  A few evenings ago while I was cruising around the interwebs, I found this video interview with Jessica Hische on humblepied.com.  Jessica is a type designer and hand-letterer working in Brooklyn, NY.  One of the things I absolutely love is hand lettering and the state of mind I get in when I’m doing it.  Painting and graphic design have always overlapped for me — probably why I ended up so deeply embedded in the sign industry — and it’s just a total breath of fresh air to find Jessica’s work.

Back to the comment above, however, I think she is making a very important point for all of us.  Every day when we are working, we are doing bread and butter type work that often robs us of our creative spirit.  I think Jessica is absolutely correct that the things we do to “play” — those things that inspire us, bring us happiness and joy, and that we can completely get lost in — are the things we should be focusing on when we ask ourselves, “what am I here to do?”  I know that for me it’s some pretty odd stuff – discovering haml the other day, for example, had me re-doing large sections of the website and really enjoying myself.

In addition to using this as a tool to find what you really should be spending your time on, it’s a great way to relax.  There’s nothing that can compare to the good feelings that come from doing what we love, and when we are stressed, there’s a reason we return to the tasks that make us happiest.

Right now my son Ivan, who is a senior in high school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, is applying to art schools around the country to become an illustrator.  He has always been into comic design, and for awhile last term was so overrun with other projects that he couldn’t spend time doing what he loved.  Fortunately this term he is able to do some of that again, and his stress levels have dropped tremendously — a perfect illustration of what Jessica is talking about.

So, thanks Jessica for the wonderful quote, and the fabulous lettering design! You’re a real inspiration to me and I’m sure you will be to others as well.

P.S. Check out Jessica’s Buttermilk Font — it could be great for boutique signs.

I recently read Jim Hingst’s “No Time To Hunker Down, Part Two” in his column Hingst’s Sign Post in SignBuilder Illustrated.  He presents several powerful strategies for drumming up business in a tough economy, including:

• Following up on old leads
• Sending mailers to your customers
• Networking
• Upselling
• Becoming a consultant
• Constantly closing sales
• Flexibility and leadership

Great reading, everybody.  His points are extremely well made and I would have only one to add: Use good pricing software so when you do close a sale, you’re making sure you don’t leave money on the table.  If you haven’t yet read SignBuilder Illustrated, it’s a great magazine and well worth checking out for articles like Jim’s.

I remember having this dilemma for awhile with one of the guys who helped me install signs several years ago, and learning the basic 3 rules of subcontractors (full IRS details here).  The 3 rules I learned were that they had to perform the work:

• On their own time
• In their own way
• With their own tools

I highly recommend you read the full article which includes lots of advice regarding tax deductions available to you this year.

Finally! Signs Getting The Attention They Deserve.

We need to tip our collective hat to J.D. Iles, author of the Signs Never Sleep online sign magazine and owner of Lincoln Sign Company, for giving sign buyers some insight into the enormous possibilities available to their businesses when choosing sign work.  There’s also serious inspiration for those of us who want to stretch our boundaries in our work.

We’ve all wanted to sell higher end work, to sell our customers something better than the slapped together sign riddled with nephew art, and now there is a super resource to direct them to in Signs Never Sleep.

There’s funny stuff like the zombie signs, drop dead gorgeous work like René Giroux’s dimensional signs, and really intriguing and unique work such as the copper signs from the Copper Sign Shop in Sonoma County.

Signs Never Sleep Is Inspiring For Us Too

What an opportunity for us, to study the quality sign work that’s out there.  J.D. has done a masterful job collecting and organizing this vast library of information, and it’s right at our fingertips.  I strongly recommend you visit his blog each morning.  J.D. tells me that he posts once a day at 1 a.m. (though I’m not holding him to that , which means that every day you’ll wake up with another really cool sign profile while you have your morning cup of coffee.

I’ve subscribed via his RSS feed (it’s not on the site, so you can grab it from this link).

If you’ve never used RSS before, here’s an explanation of RSS on Wikipedia and a good collection of RSS readers.  Then you can wake up to J.D.’s articles in your inbox!  Personally I use Google Reader.

You can also subscribe by email on J.D.’s subscription page.

What’s Next For Signs Never Sleep?

J.D. seems to have some serious plans for 2009, not the least of which seems to be his little black book of sign-makers.  Keep your eyes peeled – this guy has tons of energy and excitement, and it really comes through in his blog.  Thanks J.D.!