Support a local artist and dying art form. Like toilet paper and condoms, some things are just worth spending a little more on.......
In my opinion, the problem isn't nessesarily vinyl ( although I agree with Jimmy that it has no soul and it's almost too mechanical ), it's that most people that run vinyl aren't signpainters or true signmakers. They have no design sense and just accept what it looks like as-is when the computer spits it out. So when you walk up to a car that has a vinyl job by a hack, it looks off and cheap. If you get an artist behind the controls, it at least looks presentable. I'm not a signpainter or a vinyl jockey, but I know people who do a great job at both.
LOL! Another seven words that say it all! Hey wait a minute. My response is seven words! It's like a haiku or something!
pre 1980 non digitised founts. the 'HAND' was the signpainters own take on a trajan roman 'roman' letter or his take on a one stroke uncial, lower case 'flash', or san-serif 'block' - therfore always unique to the hand of the letter splasher. The very idea of painting lettering 'wonky' or leaving the brush marks so it 'looks more painted' is comical really. Gerber scientific came out in 1988, the machines then were £26,000 the first was the sprint, '4b' then came the super sprint, the cassete - like a atari plug in were £800 a pop. The far eastern plotters for 200 bucks have a cast roller - they call it a grit roller, whereas they are grip rollers, not knurled but spikey. p.s. have you see the price for a book of gold, £50 for a 15 inch square - thats if you don't waste any. so to recap, its due to the price of the cutters coming down to sub £1500 - even for a good one, that any monkey can lash out some graphics with piss-poor typography, spelling mistakes, and all. go and find the signcraft magazine article, where a rookie sign splasher removed a set of new mid fifties doors from a truck and took them hoem to do, its qui9ite funny.
helluva sign painter in Montgomery http://www.markfair.com/flyingbiscuit/ And he can direct you to plenty more.
Vinyl does have it's place, especially on boats. The Jerry Lewis logo is 20+ years old on a Boston Whaler I own. The vinyl decal on our Airstream gives us some personalization that can be removed by the next owner
We have heard all the reasons, easier being the big one, and artists are not as plentiful as in the old days. But at least they are still building old racers. ~sololobo~
The Jalopy Journal
