Geeking out on the details, shop stuff

So, when I build the new shop I want to get some lettering on my office doors, just for aesthetics. This what I do instead of watching TV...

I have vintage doors ands windows that will be in the wall that separates the house from the shop. This will sort of resemble a 1940's-1950's structure.

Anyway, I have found some places online that do very nice gold leaf vinyl die cut lettering, but, they are expensive.

Example: https://jstypography.com/gold-leaf-vintage/

Now, I get the whole artists need to get paid etc. but, I am doing this for my shop, so I need it to be fairly reasonable.

• The idea is to have doors for the mechanical room that says something like "Dust Bowl Water Treatment Office" but in a more industrial font.

• The fabrication/steel shop will have something that says " Welder on Duty" something cheesy like that.

• The office upstairs will have a gold leaf "Dust Bowl Speed Shop World Headquarters".

My questions are what is a font that would look right for a late 40's - 1950's that I can get in a vinyl die cut letter? I don't mind buying fonts if needed. I know most guys on here are way more creative than I am.

Thanks,

Root

 

one-shot, get brushes from Steve Kafka. But probably not 40s or 50s, more 60s.

 

You don't want me lettering anything. It would look like Ray Charles lettered it.

 

The last time I had the local vinyl shop cut me some stuff I just took a photo in of what I wanted :

along with the part that it needed to fit and they took it from there:



Maybe just find a vintage sign or something with the lettering you like on google, print it out and take it in ?

 

But it will be way better than some welding that people applaud here on some builds............ Can you birdshit One Shot? In reality, I guess anyone can fuck up anything................. I say go for it!

 

This one is on the bathroom door in my shop, it's from an old hospital. It's painted, but I think a good vinyl cutter could make something similar. Every painted lettering thing that I have found has two colors, a main color and a background color to give it the illusion of depth. I think that's the key to making it look old timey and less like a vinyl cut-out.



Either that, or try to find some of those old sticker letters that they used to sell at hardware stores, some were used to put the registration numbers on the front of boats, but they used to have smaller ones that you'd use on like a mailbox or something. I've seen lots of old doors lettered up with those, it's period correct and it doesn't look like you're trying to fake anything. Might be hard to find a stash of unused ones, though.

 

Like these maybe, not even 10 bucks total, and they're actually old. Not sure if I love the color, I was thinking more of the little square ones that were white on a black background. But something like this, is totally the way someone would have done it years ago if they didn't want to pay a sign painter.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1161769378...uyWuZ1/e5YZwhPpnex0GhbNgI=|tkp:Bk9SR5jjlYz1Yw

 

This one is closer, although these are kinda too big and it'd be hard to tell if there's enough of the ones you need. But these really look like the painted ones with the white background.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266746600143?itmmeta=01HYMC5E62GZWN66VE1WCDQR9M&hash=item3e1b561acf:g:w~cAAOSwVh9mCcDq&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA8GH9k3Jj22ivfGdH7hb0zzCvhZdZ+uuitkZOfQkVdbweaRC3Ze23puXrZLpIP+jIFrFMjQoVLDXMHkty9io4K5zfVDxY1PV7a/ZkCnND96QLhqxveWid7LNahKaSi1IcdYwQcs1dAJrEKV6upA7wDTHcxxQcpcwb8sC8OT9El7xHSXu+mz/OqQ5fH+LYXcFN43cymtAuCxgznJBe+cPZEqzHdnOvXySjCTBx5daaa3kq1idlXhkV0BfkXBeHHpt31cAjurs7tMMOAI6rU/dP9XoUp0+GOQo3nzc+sdkuVwd+t0NYP2KUd5a3pfT69IddMg==|tkp:Bk9SR5zjlYz1Yw

Somewhere out there is a pack of cool individual letters you could do this with, that would be way cheaper than having a vinyl cutter make them, and also you'd be using old stock so it would look period correct.

There's also quite a few old stencil kits you can buy cheap NOS and then spray paint through them, that'd give you an old look on the cheap and it'd be paint. Bit more work that way, but might be worth it to get the look.

 

The term you are referring to is a "dropped shadow". You are right, that looks more vintage. The problem is that I like so many different eras, it's hard to find just one. I really dig the Midcentury Modern scripts, but the shop front will be more industrial. I like things to be cohesive. My wife says I am "matchy matchy". I guess that's a word....

 

Just remember, if SWMBO says it, it's true! Even if you know the truth is otherwise. Happy wife, happy life! Well, mostly...