Sign World magazine has a new editor!

[Phill Fenton]

Hi and a very warm welcome to the UK signboards. I’m looking forward to seeing the changes you bring to the magazine. Many here really rate the American magazine “Signcraft” and would love to see something similar in Britain. Congratulations on your appointment, and good luck for the future 😀

[Andy Gorman]

Same here. Welcome to the site. UK sign mags have been a big disappointment in the past: pages upon pages of advertising with no real features or reviews. For this reason I don’t even look at them anymore.

By the way, do you have a real name, or should we just call you ‘New’?

[CG]

Hi Phill, and thanks. I am expecting to see a copy of the US magazine any day now as I have heard very good things about it. I will be considering how best to ’emulate’ some of its popular style of content for UK readers within my pages. Your thoughts will always be welcome and I do look forward to hearing from you in future about how I can improve the publication for the betterment of the sign industry.

[Brian Hays]

You have a BIG job on your hands. I thought Sign World was more of a pamphlet than a magazine these days?

[Guy Burt-Davies]

And a big meeoowww to Brian, you’re right about the magazine but to deflate someone’s ego so cattily!! 😉

[CG]

Big G, my name is Colin Gillman. You can find out more about me by visiting my website at http://www.thegillman.co.uk as this details my ‘other’ career (my full time occupation). New laggisim is a philosophy of mine. A bit like a new lad, only a little more more mature in years. I’m also trying to figure why I can’t seem to post a picture to accompany my posts, so any help with this would be good.
All business to business trade mags need advertising to survive, so you cannot get away from it. However, I can assure you that as from the January issue there will be much more content that is applicable to general sign making and sign makers. Give it a little time and a chance to succeed and I think that you will be pleased with the overall results. You can’t please everybody all of the time, but my aim is to provide content that reflects what the majority might want to see. Let’s face it, after 20 years it won’t be hard to freshen it up a little, and adapting its content will be easy once I can establish myself at its helm. I hope to bring you back into the fold.

[Nigel Pugh]

Just copy an paste straight from the boards, then you will have a sure fire winner.

Nuff said

[Brian Hays]

quote neon wizard:

And a big meeoowww to Brian, you’re right about the magazine but to deflate someone’s ego so cattily!! 😉

Just wishing the feller good luck!

When we 1st started in business it was the biggest mag, has gone down hill a lot in the last 10 years imo 🙂

Anyway I have seen pamplets with more pages. Quality rather than quantity is usually more important though 🙂

[Robert Lambie]

hi Colin
welcome aboard and thank you for taking the time to introduce yourself.

as some, but not many will know by now. i will be helping you with areas of sign world in 2005.

having spent some time with Colin on the phone and exchanging emails. i can only say, i like the fresh approach being taken & will do all i can to bring our side of the trade to his magazine & under our industries noses. its about time it happened, its about time someone took it serious. until now, i have heard many broken promises, so fingers crossed all goes the way it is aimed.

i will be making some posts on the site about ideas for the magazine & your thoughts on this. but until then please feel free to reply with views and ideas.

colin if yu would like to email me your picture i can load it for you.

we are all ears!

[Carrie Brown]

quote Robert Lambie:

we are all ears!

:lol1: In my case Im all ears and hair 😛

Hello Colin,

Welcome, Congratulations & Good Luck!!

Carrie & Stephen 😀

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Hello!
Being from the US, I don’t get to read your publication.
But I will give you my two cents anyway.
A lot of our “big” mags cater to the “big” sign corporations.
They tend to overlook the little guy.
I just skim through them.
That is why my 2 faves are SignCraft and AMAL
(A Magazine About Letterheads)
They feature articles on certain small shops,
and have lots of eye-candy pix of cool signs
as well as how-tos and pricing help.
The UK is so rich in sign history, it seems as if you could have
countless topics on bringing back traditional work,
or adapting it for modern times and machines.
Love….Jill

[CG]

I am VERY interested in historical signs and anything of a craft based perspective because I am a printer by trade. However, I am also very switched on to how modern digital application methods are coming to the fore. I’ve also got a bee in my bonnet about street furniture and road signs too. Especially as I live in London as the situation in our capital is pretty poor. And so it goes on.
I am pleased that Robert has mentioned that he is going to be working alongside me in helping to develop the magazine. I am a great fan of this site and of the things that are posted here, and if I can come close to realising what I want for the magazine, then it will be worth all of the effort. I cannot argue with Brian when he says that Sign World has gone down hill over the past ten years and is currently a pamphlet because I am a new broom sweeping clean, but during the next twelve months it will blossom into a feature packed business publication that will be worth the bother of reading. Change is a constant factor, and I intend to change the magazine to reflect the modern world, the people and the work that they produce. And the only way to do this is to work with the people in the industry that really matter – the sign makers. The trouble is that my only source of feed for good application stories comes from manufacturers and suppliers who (wrongly) believe that if they give me a story about one of their customers, somebody else will poach the account from them. It’s a nightmare! Hopefully by working with Robert and the good people on these boards I can begin to change that perspective. Discuss?

[Steve Broughton]

The big plus with Signcraft is that it was set up by sign people not magazine people, I keep one copy of signupdate the rest I bin yet I have copies of Signcraft going back to 1980, I would welcome a british version of Signcraft and I would pay for it, Signcraft costs me £6 a copy well worth it too, it has the usual 60/40 split with adverts that you usually get from a magazine that you’d be in WHS not the 100% ads, press releases you get in British sign publications, Sign-Link tried but has not been about for a while, even though Sign-Update is only £12 a year the reason I get is because they send it to me for free otherwise I wouldn’t waste my money.
Colin could luck with the mag, you don’t have to wait for Signcraft just go to http://www.signcraft.com and you’ll see what I mean, this site of Roberts does reflect the diversity of businesses in the UK, something that the others don’t, I mean who cares which chubby middle aged salesman won an award at some dinner for a bunch of sycophantic suppliers, all cheery G&T flushed faces with their once in a blue moon dragged out and of to Sketchley DJ’s 🙄 tossers to a man. :lol1:

P.S. you’ll get used to me, I don’t do tact sorry 😕 warts and all oh yeah and I worked in printing too, the BBC next door to broadcasting house, The British Museum and the MOD – camera operating and 4 colour planning back in the old days of dish developing, press operating (4 col SRA2 Solna’s” finishing and a bit of screen printing too.

[Andy Gorman]

I s’pose what I would like to see is real features, as opposed to adverts made to look like features. As for product reviews; is it possible to give honest reviews of equipment in a trade magazine that is probably going to be funded by advertising the products in question?

[Steve Broughton]

quote :

is it possible to give honest reviews of equipment in a trade magazine

good shout on that, all the non trade magazines I read manage that (bike and photograhy) at least we can do that on here (Roland PC-600 anyone :lol1: :lol1: )

[Simon Clayton]

Hi Colin,
Welcome to the board, I used to get Sign world for years, but found it weren’t worth the money, especially as all the other sign mags are free…
Hopefully you will be able to bring some life back in to it, good luck

Simon

[CG]

Signcraft does indeed look good. If this is what floats your boat then provided that you (the sign makers) are willing to assist me in providing me with this type of factual information to produce such articles, then I shall certainly aim to deliver them for you. As I have said, it won’t happen overnight. Our title is aimed at all companies and all people that work within the industry, and I bet I cannot please all of the people all of the time. But I am willing to give it a shot. It’ll take time though. I am going to make the title more ‘people’ friendly and this means suppliers as well as sign makers. I just know more suppliers than I do sign makers at present, but I am trying to change that by posting here and getting to know what makes you guys tick. My first issue is out soon and while it will look different, it will be (for now) similar to what you are used to. But only by working with the market can I make the changes I need to reflect the market. I am currently working on ‘flags and banners’ so would love to hear from anybody that can supply me with some application stories along the lines of ‘how to’ and any issues that surround flag and banner making? Are there any? [/quote]

[Bill Dewison]

Hi and welcome Colin 😀 Good luck with the SignWorld overhaul, it sounds a mammoth task for a new editor.

I agree with what others have said with regards to the current uk sign magazines. I subscribed to one, Sign Update, and admittedly it comes in useful when I’m trying to find an advert/telephone number and the odd occassion when I’ve no toilet paper 😛

Signcraft is a great magazine as others have said, it probably the best signmakers magazine in the world. Another great magazine, which isn’t exactly sign relate, more of a designers mag is Computer Arts by Future Publishing. Its based on computer aided graphics and every single issue is top quality. It could be a useful reference as it manages a balance between industry adverts and excellent content.

Humble opinion, I think there is a way of providing unbiased reviews in your magazine without loosing advertising revenue. Once your magazine is readable and enjoyable to the industry it caters for, ie signmakers/signwriters/etc., you’ll gain a following that will trust what they read in the magazine. You review a product, say a new printer/cutter, and it has flaws/limitations.. surely pointing the flaws/limitations out to both your readers and the industry in general will force the manufacturer of said product to make fixes/improvements. If you don’t point out the flaws, whats the point of a review? 😕 Also, if you’ve made a popular magazine, the manufacturers would be dopes not to put thier adverts in. Works in most other industries anyway 😀

Again, good luck and give me a shout if you want any help with… well.. um.. I can offer some great advice on making coffee! 😀

Cheers, Dewi

[Guy Burt-Davies]

I understand that your magazine is aimed at all of us in the sign industry but can’t help but wonder if that ‘catch all’ approach isn’t already served by the two other existing publications. With the defection of your last editor (I hope I’m right in thinking he’s moved to Sign Directions) to the opposition the lifeblood of any magazine – the advertiser – is going to be spread even thinner than it already is and there are only so many adverts Spandex et al can place.

The area that I (IMHO) feel is underserved is exactly the kind of person that is a member of this forum, the everyday sign maker who works locally using his skills and knowledge to develop good looking well thought out signs for local business. Let the likes of Sign Directions concentrate on the bigger fish, they are too well established to be shifted very far but tend to ignore the smaller signmaker (despite what they may say).

The membership of UKSB is growing and represents the grass roots of signmaking in this country, if you develop a loyal readership amongst them then the advertisers will soon realise that yours is the publication that ‘influences’ them when sourcing new suppliers or equipment and will happily place advertisements with you.

The introduction of knowledge based articles is exactly what is missing in the rival magazines, they are now little more than adverts themselves with a few ‘look what we did and how clever we are’ ‘photos thrown in for good measure – I’d love to learn about some of the craft skills and design ideas that put the industry where it is now rather than read another advertising blurb about the new digitaljet 5000 or the like.

Sorry if this post has turned into a bit of a rant but I just can’t help but think that there is a market for a proper sign magazine and the revamping (if that’s what you intend) of SignWorld gives you the opportunity to deliver what the market wants.

[CG]

quote big G:

I s’pose what I would like to see is real features, as opposed to adverts made to look like features. As for product reviews; is it possible to give honest reviews of equipment in a trade magazine that is probably going to be funded by advertising the products in question?

This is a very good point indeed. The way I see it is that if you want to provide me with ‘user reviews’ of products that you believe are worth others knowing about, then I will publish them. I am also looking to find sign makers that can provide me with bench mark tests for equipment and consumables. The way I see it is that if a product is any good, then it’s worth the bother to report on it.
My features will begin to ‘evolve’ to be more like the real features mentioned, but only time and patience will be the judge of that. I can write them, but first I need to source the editorial material to do them justice.
It is worth mentioning that the reason you get this type of feature is because nobody (in publishing) has thought to reflect the market. The source material actually comes from the manufacturers and suppliers, so it’s a bit one way, and not entirely their fault. I won’t try to change that, there will still be product round up’s etc. and pictures of bevvied-up blokes in dinner suits! but I do intend to provide as many application stories and ‘how to’ articles as space will allow. And this will be my priority from January onwards. I also want to work more with the manufacturers and suppliers to persuade them to supply further application based editorial copy and so forth. Sign World aims to reflect the thoughts of all of the industry, and it’s worth remembering that the people that work on this side of the business still account for a large portion of the sector. People are people in my book and I am interested in what they have to say. My editorial policy is simple: To provide a balanced view of the sign industry – from both sides of the fence.

[Nicola McIntosh]

hi and welcome colin!! 😀 😀

looking forward to the new mag!! 😛 i wish you all the best!! 😀

Nik

[Andrew Bennett]

quote Jillbeans:

That is why my 2 faves are SignCraft and AMAL
(A Magazine About Letterheads)
Love….Jill

Are these mags available in the uk by any chance please?

[Robert Lambie]

yes you can purchase them through as handover in london. they have a website too.. best google it mate.. sorry i dont know it

[Nicola McIntosh]

steve b mentioned one http://www.signcraft.com 😛

don’t know the other one mentioned!! 😀 edit: (wrong again) doing three things at once tonight….. 😳

nik

[Robert Lambie]

well hopefully signworld will be of equal help in the near future mate.
just make sure you get your copies of that too… 😉

[Andy Gorman]

To be absolutely honest, I can’t see any magazine ever getting close to the contribution this site makes. Certainly to a small concern like myself. It has been mentioned that current industry magazines tend to focus on the larger sign outfits with billion pound equipment and resources, and that the smaller companies don’t find a lot to interest them apart from a lot of advertising (not necessarily a bad thing, we all need suppliers). It would be nice to see a mag that covers topics that a smaller businessman/artist/alcoholic Scotsman would be interested in, but I get all that right here. Product reviews, material sources and critiques, tips and ideas, not to mention a real feeling of being amongst mateys. What is going to make me buy a magazine every month?

I’m not dismissing the idea completely, but I don’t have the need for a magazine unless it does something that I don’t already have access to.

Andy G

[Robert Lambie]

i agree mate, but we all need something to read on the bog? 😮 :lol1:
although i spend too much time on here, any time i get to myself i spend it with my head buried in a magazine. whether it be from the states or over here. OK so maybe I’m an exception as i am always looking for more way to better the site. but i do read allot, even stuff I’m not necessarily interested in. i guess I’m maybe swatting up to get a gold anorak? :lol1:

we get sign directions, sign world, sign craft, sign link and a European one. i keep them all. i have piles of them. i don’t keep them for anything other than reference. but when they arrive i do read them and i like to see whats new!
i read signcraft for inspiration & to see new gadgets, machines etc appearing in the states.
many spoke recently about the sign industry awards, and how no small sign companies were involved. the reason is, we have been forgot or pushed aside by some suits not really interested in any company with less than 30 employees.

lets take the mags above and put them altogether. a mag were you can see the big industry moves, the new machines on the go but as well as the small company’s activities, contracts won, recent work completed in a gallery, funny stories, demos tips and more. like you said, we have all grown to be buddies on here. so i think it would also be good to see us all get a bit of recognition amongst the rest of them. who knows, by the next industry awards in 2005 maybe, just maybe someone from here will pick up an award. the thing is.. we have never really been given the chance, so its worth a go.. see how it goes, nothing ventured nothing gained and all that.. 🙄

[Andy Gorman]

I guess it’s a question of balance. Our trade magazines have been way off the mark in the past, in terms of appealing to the whole industry. Whilst I am all in favour of a publication that caters for the interests of self employed layabouts like myself; of course it must cover the larger issues of a very big industry. I’m just trying to comment on why I gave up reading these mags a long time ago. I hope Colin will continue to ask for feedback on what we would like to see covered and not just continue to produce a big catalogue of adverts. I appreciate the fact that he ( I apologise for referring to you in the third person, Colin) has made an encouraging start by acknowledging the UKSIGNBOARDS as a significant voice in the trade. I’ll give it a look. How about a crossword? I love crosswords, me. 🙂

[Beej Curtis]

Welcome Colin and good luck with the new post. 🙂

A lot of interesting things have been said and I just wanted to add that back in the late 80’s early 90’s I was buying the mags too but always favoured the US ones. I now only subscribe to Airbrush Action, Auto Art and Auto Graphics as I’ve gotten more into my roots of airbrushing and pinstriping and these mags cover the old skool really well.

I guess what I’m saying is creativity seems to be missing in a lot of publications, except some that have been mentioned like Computer Arts for example. Sign companies seem to be all based on big RIPS, best printer and most solvent ink these days. If you pick up a magazine and flick through it’s boring, no creativity, no spark, no pics that make you go, ‘Wow, how did you do that!’ I’ve seen more of that in the past 6 months on this board than in most mags. It needs more old skool stuff – or at least new technology with an old skool slant.

If you can do half as good as job as Rob has done bringing all this talent and a wealth of info together then you’re on your way to an interesting magazine. I’d buy it because I think their will always be a future for well designed and creative signs and I’m just interested to see what’s happening out there. Maybe you could do ‘What’s Going On Over the Pond’ section and feature some of the US-styled stuff, that way you will have US-styled features in a UK mag and everyone will be happy! 🙂

You will be seeing a massive influence from the US in the UK over the next few years because the Hot Rod style is coming back into fashion and is hoooge in the States right now. Covering more artistic stuff like airbrushing, pinstriping and even auto art/graphics would be better than seeing just all the ‘typical’ signage stuff I feel.

Beej

[signworxs]

Welcome to the boards. ^^^ What Beej and Steve B and others have said. Promise to include plenty of hands on stuff and you will have my subscription.