The Joe Crumley Tribute Thread
What sets Master Joe (and a few others in here), apart from most,... is not just knowledge and experience with various substrates, but an eye for fine design. Joe Crumley is a sign artist extraordinaire, and one of the best I've ever seen. He's not just a true natural, but a guy that is dedicated to what truly is an art form,... effective sign design and fabrication. He's like the Leonardo Da Vinci of signs and he's even almost as old as Leon. ;-)
A common mistake amongst a lot of folks is to purchase a CNC router table and think, "Ok, now I'll make some signs!" They usually don't make many of them 'em for very long because they have no clue about imaginative and effective design and that's where it all starts,....DESIGN! Just about anyone nowadays can jump on a computer and squeeze some letters into a box and call it a sign and in some instances that's all you need to do if you wanna make "No Trespassing" signs and the like, but that's not what CNC is about and those types of signs are better suited for vinyl plotters and digital printers.
You have to have not just artistic talent, but a certain passion for signs and sign design to get really good at it and command top dollar like Joe does and we are all lucky to have someone like Mr. Crumley that contributes to this forum regularly, shares his vast knowledge and examples of his fine work, and doesn't charge a dime for it. What more can you ask for?
If you wanna be a designer and fabricator of really fine dimensional signs, your job is to study effective design and sound fabrication techniques on all fronts, not just in here. And if you think you've already mastered all of that, you're wrong. Our old friend Joe will be the first to tell you that there's always that next challenge, that next experiment, that next technique, that next idea and design, that will put your work over the top.
So here’s to you, Joe. May you live to be 125 years old. And when you do finally see them pearly gates, I reckon St. Peter will greet you with something like; “Well hi, Joe! We’ve been waiting for you. Say,…I’ve been needing a really nice “WELCOME” sign for like, I dunno, thousands of years. Can you help me out?”
Thanks, Joe,... for all you do and for all you share with all of us.
Mark
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