It's easy to just slap vinyl letters on a substrate, anyone can do that. But to design a sign that communicates and fulfills a need for your sign customer... that separates the true sign making professional from the amateur. And many sign shops are involved with logo designs because our customers tend to be small businesses. So we are always looking for articles, web sites, and magazines that can help sharpen our sign layout design skills.
One of the visual designers that we have admired for decades has a book out that I really like, here is the amazon kindle link: "Before & After How to Design Cool Stuff" This book was an extraction of some Before&After magazine issues. Started by a guy named John McWade, every issue is a delight to read. And every issue is full of ideas on how to communicate better through visual design.
It was available in a variety of formats: print, PDF's, and now some of his ideas are even available in video. Sadly, the magazine is defunct, but John has moved to online tutorials on Lynda.com. These online videos will help to sharpen your design skills. You will see the relationship of type, design, and communications in a new way. If you search for "before and after John McWade PDF", you can see some of the older magazines on line in PDF format. Highly recommended and well worth your time.
