Interview: James Roy Thomas of Bluejacket Sign Co. Costa Mesa, CA

With a couple years under his belt, James is a relative newcomer to the craft and has a lot of helpful insight for others entering into sign painting.

More info on James and Bluejacket Sign Co. at ⁠http://bluejacketsigncompany.tumblr.com/

Transcription:

Coming to you from Starr Studios in Denison, Texas, this is Coffee with a Signpainter, a weekly podcast hosted by sign painter, Sean Starr, that consists of interviews with other sign painters and some of the customers and characters Sean comes across while running his studio. Okay. Welcome back to Coffee with a Signpainter. In this week's episode, we're gonna mix it up a little. I've I've talked, quite a bit with, some of the veterans of the craft, and, we're gonna talk to one of the newcomers, one of the new kids on the block.

His name is James Roy Thomas. He has Blue Jacket Sign Company in Costa Mesa, California. And, I've got some history with James. He's he's been a sign painter for about two years now where he's actually operated his own business. But, it was a couple years ago, James started hounding me by email.

And I was very reluctant at to, to take to take him on. He was kind of hopeful that I would, kind of mentor and advise him through email, on starting a business as a sign painter and learning some of it. And, I was a little reluctant, as we talk about in the interview, I, I had kind of been not burned, but kinda burnt out on just getting contacted over and over and over by people wanting to get into the trade and spending time with them. And a couple months later, they've dropped out and, you know, there's nowhere to be found. But James is something different.

James has, has stuck with it, and he's toughed it out and he's made his own, mark for himself in the LA market. And it's already done some really high profile jobs and, it's got some good momentum and I'm I'm proud of him. He's he's really worked for it and, I'm I'm, proud to be able to have been a part of that for him. And, hopefully, I didn't do too much damage to his, future career by advising him. But, so let's, let's meet James Roy Thomas, Blue Jacket Sign Company, Costa Mesa, California.

I've got allergies, so I'm, like, totally spaced out, so I'm having some flack today. Seven minute drill? No. I haven't I haven't, I haven't taken anything. I probably should, but I'm, like, super paranoid about all that stuff.

It always makes me doped out and feeling horrible. So but I do take bee pollen. Yeah? Yeah. How's that work for you?

It works awesome. Really? Yeah. We're just in the thick of it. Everything's opening up right now.

Uh-huh. And once it gets to that point, there's not much you can do. But, yeah, the bee pollen, I read about it. If you get the low local Local bee Beekeepers and you get their their pollen, which is these little granules. Yeah.

And you just take a few of those every day and it builds up a somewhat of an immunity to whatever's growing around you. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's funny because, the job I had before, I was working at a juice bar in a health health store down here. We have called Mother's Market and so I started at like in a deli and then juice bar and we were we're making like you know green juices and smoothies and stuff so, and a lot of the it's a nutritional store so we would we would put in bee pollen and and all different kinds of, you know, supplements for these people's smoothies and and drinks and a lot of the times you have leftover from a smoothie and it's got bee pollen or whatever so I started like just taking the the, you know, drinking the the leftovers and, after a while I got allergic to the the bee pollen.

Oh, yeah. It makes your throat itch. Yeah. Well, my lips would get all itchy and swollen. Okay.

And I'm like I'm like, what's going on? Like, I started itching my face and I'm like feeling all weird. And like, oh, you probably just developed an allergy because you're I was eat you know, drinking and consuming it so much that I developed this allergy for it. So now I can't have any two b pollen in it or Oh, wow. Yeah.

God forbid it gets stung by a bee. I don't know what'll happen, but what are you gonna do? Maybe you'll turn into a mutant. Yeah. Well, I hope so.

Okay. So, you let's just talk about your background. How how long have you been painting signs now? I've been painting signs probably a little bit over two years. Okay.

Like as a business, right? Yeah. Right. Well, I've had the business probably for a year and a half or so, I think. And, full time.

You know, like I was working, doing graphic design, full time and then when I would come home I would paint signs practicing stuff like that and then so I would still do work but, it wasn't like my sole income so as far as doing the business full time, I'd say about a year and a half and this is all I do now, so, And you're surviving? And I'm surviving. I made it here alive. Cheats. Now, what was that?

Like, it was probably a year and a half ago. You had started out with this contraption you built for your bike. Right? For your bicycle? That was really cool.

But someone stole it? Someone stole it. Yeah. I had I had this idea, like, thinking, you know, because I when when I got, you know, hooked on the hand painted signs and looking at at the stuff, like, everybody was doing and I'm like, oh, man. That stuff's so rad.

Like, wouldn't it be cool to be able to ride around on your bike, like, in Orange County or a nice, you know condensed neighborhood or city and like and have all your gear on your bike and go buy a storefront you know, pop open the box that I built behind my bike that you would tow all your stuff in and it had an easel built into it and everything and I'm like, that was pretty awesome. Sweet. I saw pictures that you had posted of it. Yeah. It was kinda like this pipe dream.

I just wanted to, like I'm like, I have this idea. Can I do it? And I know system, not have to have a car? Well, yeah. But I just it it's one of those things where you're like, oh, this will be really cool, but it was a kind of like I challenged myself to make it work.

And it's like, how am I gonna, you know, fabricate this thing that I could make it work? And, so I bought I bought that little bicycle frame on, like, Amazon. They shipped it, and then I just started measuring everything out and, you know, buy bought the plywood and then basically built the box so that, like, the lid would come up, and it had a a kickstand out and they had a little easel where you could set cards or signs on it and paint, store all your stuff in it, and then close it down and write off. And, you know, I did all the lettering on it, and I I think I took it to two, like, farmers markets Mhmm. And didn't sell one single sign.

Like, I was doing, like I said, I will paint your name on anything, like, here for $2, like, just to do it. And, like, nobody No one took you off. No one took it. And I had one guy I had made these, like, custom license plate frames that said, like, support your local sign painter, and license plate frames that said like support your local sign painter or whatever and one guy wanted one that says, like Chai Von or something and keep off. It's like five times.

That's terrible. Yeah. And I'm like, okay. And I sold one and it was down. It was probably like a two and a half or three mile bike ride but full of like one shot and signs that I had painted.

The thing was heavy and it's on like a major street just to get home so it was really nerve wracking. But it got stolen out of my carport that one morning and I You never got it back? Never got it back. I slept in the back of my car with a baseball bat to see if the guy would come back and like get more stuff out of our carport and, never did So that's just one of those things. Like, at least I have photos of it.

It was cool. But, now the guys are rolling around with Blue Jacket Sign Company, post on this box and whatever. It was very cool. And, Thank you. I think it was a cool concept.

Yeah. Yeah. Are you gonna try doing that again? I thought about it, but I never really used it when I had it, you know? Yeah.

It was a good advertising gimmick. Yeah. It was cool. You know, I could ride down the street. People would see my name and and see like, oh, that wow.

Sign painter? Like, never seen that before. And like people I thought it would draw some interest. And I was like It draws interest, apparently. Yeah.

It's the wrong kind. Some other person, but, I thought about doing another one, you know? But, I just don't it's not really practical where where we live, you know, to to be able to bike around at your job. And I work now I live in Huntington Beach, which is which is about twenty five minutes from my shop. Okay.

I don't feel like I wanna ride my bike, not tow that thing. So Where is your studio located now? You just moved into one a while back. Right? Yeah.

It's in Costa Mesa, which I I lived, five minutes down the street from from, my shop now. So it's, like, right off the end of the 55 Freeway and dumps right into Costa Mesa, and that's it's about a mile from the freeway there okay so yeah it's it's cool it's actually an artist collective so I have this front unit it's very small it's like under 200 square feet but it's just enough to keep you know, basically paint out of and do things, you know, out of it and then in the back there's a there's a stained glass artist and an interior decorator and another guy that makes like custom iPhone cases with a CNC machine so you can send him vectorized artwork and he'll like burn it into a phone case so you're surrounded by creative people yeah there's people in here all the time and like doing cool stuff. So it's it's kinda neat, you know, that it's, it's open twenty four hours a day and everything, so you can come and go as you please, and it's it's awesome. It's a perfect setup for me. So Cool.

So having been doing this for a comparatively short amount of time, but you're you're succeeding. You're you're you're building your portfolio. You're getting jobs. You're getting referrals. You know, you're doing what everybody entering the trade wants to be doing two years from start.

Yeah. Like, what what have you has your challenges been and, like, what advice would you have for, you know, other people trying to get into it? Like, what mistakes have you made that you could share that they'd learned from? Well, some of the challenges, I guess, is well, just technically with using, you know, the brushes and and the the the mixture of paint and learning, like, how to just, like, as far as physically painting, like, you know, how to turn the brush and, like, how to mix the paint for this kind of surface. And the temperature outside is is hot, so it's gonna slow down, you know, your paint time and your your paint's gonna dry faster.

So you gotta, like, adjust it like a lot of technical things that like you can't just read about and everybody's climate's different so it's gonna totally change. That's that was like a struggle and I remember painting inside my apartment, like practicing casuals. And like just because I didn't know I didn't know what I didn't have an easel. I just like pinned, you know, tracing paper up on the wall and started painting and it was just like the fumes were like overwhelming, you know. I can't do this inside an apartment in Costa Mesa.

So, you know, I just, that was just kinda really hard just trying to figure out, like I mean I didn't know about one shot until I saw it in like Derek McDonald's video like the camera panned around. And you're like what's that? And I'm like I had to read it off the screen and go one okay back it up, you know, like that's one shot. Okay. And so I would look at you know?

And, like, I didn't know anybody that that did sign painting, so I had to kinda, like, really, like, research on the paints and the brushes and where you could get them and stuff like that. And I think a lot of the stuff that you've talked about, you know, like, making sure that you you do stuff, you know, not necessarily for free, but you need more exposure. So you kinda have to do things to get your name out there, you know, whether or not you think it's you're gonna either lose money on it or or make something, you know, at least good that somebody's gonna refer you to to a friend going, Oh, this guy does cool work. Check him out. Yeah.

And to give a little background on that, you you started pestering me a couple of years ago. And I finally gave in to, you know, kind of giving you some tips and ideas through email and we've continued to do that up until even this last week. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, one of the things that I I had mentioned to you, I think even repeatedly, was just get as much work out there as you can.

Yeah. Get pictures of everything, you know. You know, that's one thing I would recommend to anyone entering the trade is, you can't go tell people you're a sign painter. They have to see that you're a sign painter, you know? Yeah.

And, if you can't show them what you can do and and most of this stuff is so rare now that people have never seen it before in some communities. You had sent me a picture, what was that, just yesterday, of that tattoo shop that you had done the copper, silver and gold leaf on. Uh-huh. And, you know, I think most people have come across gold leaf and seen it in a window at some point in some, you know, even if it's not in their town. But like the copper and even the silver leaf, that's just really rare.

And, if you show somebody a picture, then it's like, oh, well, I could picture my name or my logo in that. But if you're just going in and saying, well, hey. I got I got this thing. I can do this really cool copper leaf. They're gonna be you're, like, you know, speaking a foreign language to them.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that that too is, you know, when my I'm getting married in August, and I'm meeting a lot of, my fiancee's family and and and friends of theirs, and they're asking, you know, oh, so what do you do? And I'm like, well, I'm a signing painter.

You You know, I paint signs. And they're like, oh, okay. And, you know, they don't really they don't really get it. And, you know, maybe they're thinking, like, supermarket signs or I don't know. I don't know what they think.

But Right. Once I show them, like, oh, you know, I've done this, and this is kinda like what I do, I think they they kinda get it. You know, like, oh, okay. Like, that's that's really neat, you know? And I I don't know.

Because it's such a a rare thing. And to be able to actually support myself and my family doing this is like, an accomplishment in itself. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

I mean, being able to go, hey. You know, in in in order to, like, tell, you know, a client, you know, we could do gold leaf, and it would look really rad. And I'm like, oh, yeah. Okay. And, like, maybe they don't understand it.

So, yeah, having those photos or at least doing samples in your shop to be able to show, you know, potential clients, like, hey. This is what this looks like. And really, I think educating them on, like, the different effects and looks that, like Gold Leaf, for instance, can can give you, I think really helps them, like you said, visualize and conceptualize their design or their logo or something that they can incorporate in their business or in their home, which I think can help, you know, obviously get more of that kind of work out there. And down here in Orange County, it's like every single business or or strip mall, it's all it all looks the same. You know?

Right. I mean it's it's kind of beating a dead horse is just everybody always says that oh it's the same it's the vinyl and you know it's just it's so like boring and the and the the one little the little places the gems around here that have cool signage or just the building itself is like a free standing building that that's the one I like because it's it's not like cookie cutter. Yeah. It's buildings. It's like just even the architecture, you know?

Like Yeah. And the word I have for that is predictable. You know, when you come upon a strip mall or whatever, you you know exactly what everything's going to look like, including the signage. And I think that's the the excitement that sign painting has always had is because it's so driven by the artist creating it that it it it's unpredictable. You don't know what you're gonna, you know, come across.

So when you go into these older neighborhoods, my wife and I went up last week to, Hot Springs, Arkansas, to visit some friends. And, you know, they still have a lot of those really, really old buildings because back in the, I guess, like the thirties, it was where all the gangsters used to go and chill out and they'd go to these bathhouses and stuff. But they have these really cool buildings and, you know, some of the sign work I saw there was, pretty cool. Some of it was kind of terrible, you know, but it was all old. Yeah.

And it it was just it's that unpredictability of, like, each time, you know, each building you're coming across, you're, like, checking out the signage and you're like, woah, that's really weird. Like, I there was a gift shop in the basement of the Arlington Hotel, which is where we stayed, which is this It's one of Al Capone's regular places he stayed. Okay. And in the basement, they have this gift shop. In the window, they somebody had done gold leaf with matte centers, but the way they did the matte center was with gold one shot.

Oh. And then they laid the gold leaf behind it, which sounds really weird and it kinda was, but it looked really kinda cool. Wow. Weird. It wasn't executed really great, but I could see that if you played with that and and had the right design, it would actually be really neat.

Yeah. That's that's interesting. And I think, you know, it's like I I've already talked about experimenting with different things and different techniques and stuff, and I think that's that's definitely one thing that I'm I'm trying to work on right now just in the shop is doing, different just trying different stuff like in a smaller tangible thing so you're not wasting a whole lot of time or materials on experimenting but you know I heard of you know laying in size and then letting it dry completely and then taking, like some steel wool and just dulling it up over that and like like oh yeah, I don't see what you know just try that and see what happens and it's like two sheets of gold, and you look at it and like, oh, that doesn't really work. So you're not out of a whole bunch of time or money, and at least you, like, you try it. And then you can keep it around and observe and see if it, like, still looks good a year or two later.

You know, another thing, too, some advice I was given over the years that was always helpful to me was, don't put anything up in your shop that you don't want to do. Yeah. You don't think about it. I mean, I think we tend to just kind of like put up stuff that we like that, Oh, I liked this little experiment I did, or here's a copy of a sign I painted, and I'll put this over here. But that's the stuff when people walk in, that's the stuff they're gonna focus in on and be like, oh, well, could you make that?

So Yeah. Yeah. I I I've I think I've hurt myself a couple times. You know, and, I've had clients that would contact me about certain things and would ask me if I'd be interested. I'm like, yeah.

You know, that'd be kinda cool. And then I think about it, you know, a couple days later, and I'm like, I really don't wanna do that. You know? It's like, I I I I try not to do a whole lot of stuff on the computer, like design work or graphics anymore. It's just because I I like to be able to tangibly make something and give it to somebody and potentially, like, drive by it on occasion.

And instead of just sending off a file and going, okay. Yeah. Like, that's it. I'm never gonna see it again except for I pull it up off my computer and, so, yeah, I think that's the one thing that I, I try and I try to catch myself before I commit is, am I really gonna be, like, into this project? Because if I'm not, then I know I'm gonna, like, procrastinate and it's just bad business, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's good to identify, you know, and that evolves, you know, over time, you know, two, three years from now, you know, for whatever reasons, you might be wanting to do more computerized or more design work versus paint work or whatever. And it depends on your environment too, you know, and we had just recently talked about this.

We've always done a lot of wood signs. But in our studio in Denton, once we got it all set up, we realized the way the rafters were, that every time we were cutting wood, you know, we're basically just creating this monstrosity where you couldn't really do clean paint work in there after you cut the wood. Yeah. So I decided to just phase it out and I started subbing out some of it to a wood guy who was doing some of that work for us. But, finally, I just decided, okay, I'm gonna I can't offer wood signs right now.

I just can't do it. And then now that we've relocated here in the train station, the people that maintain the train station have a wood shop. Awesome. They're taking care of the wood cutting and that kind of stuff that's in a totally different area. That's great.

So, yeah, it's You know, you got to just kind of roll with whatever you have that you can work with because that's going to constantly change, I think. Yeah. It's always changed for me anyway. Maybe I'm just unstable. Well, you've been moving around quite a bit.

Yeah. You know, and that that's There's a method to the madness, you know, that's, my wife and I do a lot of volunteer work and that kind of thing. So there's there's other stuff behind the scenes that have dictated a lot of those decisions. I think sometimes people just observe, you know, relocating of a business through the internet and, you know, they're not seeing the the full equation, but, it's been really good. You know, we've we've really enjoyed it.

And I I'm really excited to be in this town because it's like right at that cusp of It's kind of been struggling, I think, for probably the last twenty years and it's finally starting to come together and get some focus. And We're on this, we're on Main Street and Main Street goes, I don't know, maybe eight, ten blocks and it's all just really old buildings. That's cool. And people are start the city changed the zoning. So now you can live in a loft in one of the buildings and run a business downstairs.

That's so rad. And, you know, put this in context with here in California. So Yeah. You can buy some of these buildings on Main Street here for 60 to $70,000 Really? Yeah.

Two to three story building, historical building, and people are converting the upstairs into these really killer lofts, and they're opening up little shops downstairs. It's amazing. I mean, you can't buy that anywhere for that price. No. You can't.

I mean, that that that's just crazy. I've seen a couple of those places, down in, like, San Clemente. It's like a a living workspace, you know, two story kind of a deal. Like, man, that would be so cool. You know, have a sign shot downstairs and a nice, you know, loft upstairs and, I thought that would be perfect.

You know? And, but it's just the pricing down. It's just so ridiculous, you know? And I think, like, if you, like, you know, financially for for California, Southern California, and specifically Orange County, the the housing price, you know, the prices here are just so ridiculous for the smallest thing, you know? Yeah.

That if you can, you know, be successful doing something like this or, in a in a trade that's rare in this economy in this location is that's being successful right there like Oh, yeah. Just to be able to survive and pay your rent doing hand painting signs in Orange County like Yeah, you're beating the odds for sure It's like crazy, you know, and and I think people are surprised that you can make it work, but I work two weeks straight so far, every single day. So it's not like, you know, I'm putting in a little bit of time. It's like I'm here working every day doing something for the business or sending out bids and, you know, prepping signs or going to the store to get paint, doing all this stuff. And it's like a full time business seven days a week.

So, it's not And that's important that you're pointing that out because that's the nature of the beast of not only sign painting, but just owning a business. And I think, you know, I've I've had a lot of like design students. They're, you know, nearing. In fact, when we were in Denton, the one of the professors at UNT approached me about, doing a, intern program, which I did for almost two years. And so, you know, these students would come to me and, you know, I I think that there's such a misconception about how much work is involved not only in running the business, but in sign painting.

You know, carrying around big heavy ladders and climbing up on the side of a building when it's 100 degrees out and all this stuff. It's hard work. Yeah. You know? And I I think that what a lot of design, students are picturing is that you're sitting, you know, with your little artist beret in the corner, you know, taking endless hours painting something.

But you gotta hustle, man. If you're not, like, knocking stuff out Yeah. You know, then You're not gonna survive. No. You will starve to death or or you'll just, like, mismanage everything and you have to close-up, you know, a year later.

Yeah. And then that's the thing too. It's like, we've had conversations about about, that same thing, you know, being able to knock stuff out and hustle and and and I I was very strong, like, focusing on drawing everything out by hand and and giving somebody custom work. And and I'm really I'm still kind of on the fence of that, you know? Like, the last couple signs I did, I used, you know, the computer to kinda lay out the type and everything.

But, it's kinda like you if if you're gonna survive, you kinda have to pick and choose your battles. You know? It's like if I you know, I can knock this thing out but if I if I if I want to draw everything it's gonna take me like three days, you know? Yeah. But if if I use the good design aesthetics that I, you know, I learned in college and apply them tastefully, you can still produce a a good amount of work.

Yeah. And in the end, it's still hand done. Right. You know? And and it's not cheating.

It's not, you know, you're still creating the thing from scratch in your mind and Yeah. You're just using some tools. Now the difference is is when you cross the line where that's no longer a tool, that's just like all you're doing is like type type setting, you know. That's that's a different thing. Yeah.

But like for instance, I I just went over here's my budget sheet for, you know, going into the new year. And like I mentioned in the last podcast, I'm I'm terribly not a businessman, and I should be more focused on how things function financially. And I'm trying to work on that. But, you know, it costs a lot more money just to have the business even open and functioning than I think well, even I realize, you know? Whenever I look at, like, the expenses and all that, I'm like, holy crap.

That's a lot of money. Yeah. You know? I'm afraid to do taxes. Yeah.

Well, we have someone else do them because I can't deal with it. My glove box is full of receipts. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, this will be the time I I I do taxes as a business, you know, solely and, you know, look at my expenses the past year.

And I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to do everything by the book, and and, I'm afraid to see what, you know, everything has cost to keep this thing going. And, I'm crossing my fingers that everything will work out okay and I don't owe too much in taxes, but that's one thing I'm not strong in either. Like, I don't I don't keep the tightest books. Yeah. It's it's hard.

It's like a full time job in itself, you know? Oh, yeah. You're out trying to, like, make signs and make money, and then there's this full time job on the the sidelines of keeping track of the money coming in and going out. And Yeah. I it's it's it's overwhelming.

And that and and and that's the thing that you always put on the back burner. You know, it's like, I gotta do the work and then I'll look at the books later, but, and it's always crunch time right around taxes and you're like, oh, yeah. Let's let's see what, you know, what we did last year and see how I remember, now that we're talking about this, one piece of advice that I'd given you last year is to just keep your overhead as ridiculously low as you can. Yeah. And that that's something still, you know, to this day that I've just we we we've had so many ups and downs and so many dry spells and, you know, feast and famine kind of things over the years that I I just will not, you know, overextend myself with shop rent or any of the expenses, you know.

If you ever lose sight of that when you hit the dry spell, it can wipe you out. Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's it's something that I've I've definitely, you know, I could probably work out of my garage where I live now, but I I feel like I'm more productive in having this this space here.

Yeah. Same here. And I like coming to work and being able to, you know, be away from home and really focus on what I gotta do this week or that day. And, you know, it's it's good because I there's too many distractions at home. But, you know, my my dream would have, you know, a storefront in a in a busy city So, you know, there's tons of eyes on your place, you know daily and having the only like hand painted sign shop in Orange County would be like the best thing, I think.

I've gone that route, too, and I can tell you that that's got its own challenges because Oh, yeah. I know. There's nothing worse than just constant visitors. Yeah. And most of them, because sign painting's so unique and rare now, they're not there to buy a sign.

They just like, woah. What are you doing? How do you do this? How do you do that? And you can blow a lot of time just, you know, being polite to people.

Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's it's I thought about that too. You know?

And, like, our shop here is pretty small. We have occasional people walk in. I mean, there's nothing on the door that would say, oh, there's a sign shop here or, you know, stained glass artists or anything. But you'll get a couple random people looking for another business in here, and then they say, oh, you you paint signs? I'm like, yeah.

And you're in the middle of painting something, you know, and they wanna, you know, you know, talk shop or whatever. And it's you yeah, like you said, you can get stuck there and and being polite and having a conversation and then meanwhile you're, you know, you're stirring your paint so it doesn't you're trying to keep the brush wet so it doesn't like dry up, and then you're like, okay. Well, now this is gone. So now you know, it's just like I couldn't imagine, like, having that distraction on a daily basis unless you have somebody in the front, like, front office or desk going, you know, okay. It's site painter's painting.

You guys can talk to me. Or well, we all run into it even out on-site, you know. But the people are just interested in it and I and I take that into account, you know. I mean, it's it's unique and it's a cool thing and people like to come interact and and check it out and stuff, but I think a lot of times people forget that it's like, Okay, this is how I'm putting gas in the tank and buying groceries and I gotta get this done because if I don't get out of here before 04:40, I'm gonna get stuck in traffic and get home at 08:00 at night and, you know, all that. You know?

Yeah. I had a I had that one guy out in LA, when I was doing that job. And, I was doing I was sitting there working and, like, doing gold leaf and doing the transom, and a a guy had, across the street had saw the my my truck that has, you know, Blue Jackets Sign Company on it and my phone number, and he called me, and I was I was painting, and then he texted me, like, hey, I'm across the street, saw your truck. Can you swing by in, like, five minutes? And I wanna talk to you about some signs.

And I'm like I finally took a break. I called. I'm like, I can't go anywhere. I'm like, I'm in the middle of LA, and I'm laying gold right now. I'm like, I can't.

He's like, it'll only take five minutes. And I'm like, that's a potential client, but Yeah. No way. Like, I've been working scenario before. I told him, like, listen.

I'm sorry. I'm like, I I can refer you to somebody else, but I can't do it right now. I'm, like, in the middle of a really big job. And he was cool about it, but it's just like, yeah, if I'm not if I'm not out of here by 03:30, I won't be home till eight. And Yeah.

It's you kinda you're on a time crunch. And then the next morning, you're shot because you, you know, been working plus running around. And so what's the deal with Blue Jacket Sign County? What's the deal with that name? I've never asked you that.

What what is it? Oh, it's it's kind of a I think it's kind of a cool story. My, my fiancee and I were, you know, dating, and we were discussing the business, you know, like she's been a huge, supporter in in the business and in sign painting. And and, she loves what I do. And she it's been great.

So I remember when I was telling her, you know, I wanna, I wanna quit my day job and do sign painting full time but I you know we need to come up with a name like it's not just gonna be James's signs or whatever and so we were we planned a trip down to San Diego to hang out with some friends and so while we're driving down there, it's about a two hour drive. You know, we're thinking, like, well, what should we call it? Should we call it? And, I'm like, well, I want it to be, like, blue collar, like a sound like you know, some kind of a blue collarist kind of name, and I'm really into like tattoos and and and old, like, Navy stuff, and and so she was like on the phone looking at just something online and she came across this term blue jacket which was what they would call the the new recruits for the Navy because they would give them the blue, you know, suits and Okay. The pea coat or whatever?

Yeah. Pea coat. They would give them and so they along with being you know, getting into the navy, you got this manual. It's called the blue jacket manual, and it told you it showed you everything from, like, how to tie knots to arm your weapon, and it's all this stuff. And I'm like, oh, that sounds really cool.

I like the sound of that. You know? And blue jacket, you know, it's like a navy thing. It kinda has a tattoo kind of thing going on with it, blue collar. I like it.

I was like, ah, that that sounds cool. So then we get down to the hotel and we check-in, and we're waiting, to meet up some friends outside of the lobby, and all these cars pull up in the middle, the hotel and, like, a whole row of them. And, like, everybody gets out of the car in this in these navy suits for a wedding. Mhmm. And that there are dates.

And there was a whole, like, it was an it was a a navy wedding. And I'm like, those that's Bluejacket. Those are the Bluejackets. Like Good. That's exactly, like, that's a sign in itself.

Like, you have to call it Blue Jacket Sign Company. And, so that's, like, how it how it came about and which is kinda sealed the deal right there when those guys came out of the cars for this wedding and dressed to the nines with the medals and everything. It was It's pretty awesome, so, You should put that explanation on your website Yeah, I should I've been meaning to do a lot of things with the website, or just anything, you know, but, like you said, it's being a full time job, and it's one of those things you always put to the side, but it's definitely I think, the term story is a really big attraction to people. Yeah. They want, like, a story behind a lot of things.

And, I think it's that that's a good story. I think especially even more so now that everything is so interspersed and interwoven through the Internet, you know, it's like everybody looks for the story now. Yeah. I think in the past, that story just kind of evolved organically, you know, and people would kind of just spread it around. But now, it's like you gotta let people know, you know, what's behind things, I think.

Yeah. No. It's it's for sure. And I think a lot of the, along with that, like, educating people with, lettering and sign painting and and giving them a little bit of history behind these techniques and the things that you've learned and developed, they they'll feel more attracted to the project or like what you do as for work. Being able to like fill them in on it's not just like a brush and a paint.

We use this kind of paint and these kind of brushes are made from this kind of hair and you know, fill them in on on what it is and I think that story and seeing that, there's a lot of cool stuff that we use as tools and creating the science and drawing things out and and just everything about it. I think people I used to be better at that now I think I'm just kind of I don't know I don't know if I'm heading into old fart status or what but I'm just like yeah just point me to what you want painted yeah no I mean definitely done that a few times too you know and but I think you can if you're a good judgment of character you can tell what people like would might appreciate yeah some people are really tuned in yeah other people don't care there's like oh yeah how much is this and when can you do it then I'm like okay yeah you know no big deal but, there's a couple clients that I have that, really like the stuff, you know, hand painted signs in general and so I tend to, you know, educate them or at least tell them what I know I don't know a whole lot about it, you know, I'm still a young buck.

So, what little I do know, I I I fill them in on it, and I think they, you know, appreciate that. And they feel like they can trust me a little bit more than, than normal, I guess. I don't know. That's a good point. What's that thing that you were doing?

I saw that little time lapse video. What was that? National Geographic or something? Yeah. So what what was that?

That was, in when I was in college, a a friend of mine that, I was I had probably two or three classes with, her name's Amanda Trevella, and she's a a rad designer. We had our last two classes together and doing like package design and, I think I did like a whiskey like a whiskey label and packaging design and she did one, for I think another kind of beverage. I can't really recall, but she's a really good designer and, she works for the creative firm that was hired to do this the intro for, How to Lick Your Elbow which is a new, TV program on National Geographic. And it's I think it's I've only seen, like, one episode, but it's kinda like you can't lick your elbow and this is why. And then they show you, like, all the dynamics of the human body and it's like a lot of anatomy stuff and so she had, I guess the creative agency was looking for talent to do this chalk, drawing of the artwork that they had on these big eight foot walls and, she thought of me.

So she called me up and was like, Hey, you know, would you be interested in doing this? And I was like, Yeah, of course. You know, and I talked with the agency and set up a date and went down there and, they basically projected their artwork on this big wall. And then we just lightly, you know, penciled in all the artwork and then they filmed it and we all went in and just filled in the whole thing, you know, and it was a time lapse little thing so you see everybody running around and filling in the logo and that was the thing. So we did it like, I think three times and, and they're like, okay, thanks.

And, you know, go home. And I kept asking her, I'm like, when is it gonna air? When is it gonna air? And and, she's like, I don't know. It's it's a lot of stuff's going on.

I don't know what's gonna happen. And then, like, a week ago, I was sitting in front of my TV, and I was just clicking through the guide, and I saw the title. And I'm like, hey, I worked on that. So that's how you found out? Yeah.

And I turned it on, and it was in the middle of an episode, but it came on like an hour later. So then I'm I'm telling, my fiancee and like, hey, stay up. I'm like, at at 09:00, I'm like, I might be on TV. And, sure enough, it was like the opening credits is like me, a picture of my face, like drawing this O. And, it's all time lapsed.

And so for a minute there, you can see this profile of my bald head. It was pretty rad. That's exciting stuff Yeah, it was cool. So I got my fifteen seconds of fame I guess you could say but yeah that was a cool project and you know I appreciate them, you know Amanda reaching out to me and you know, considering me for that. So that was very nice.

Very cool. Yeah. Well, it was nice visiting with you. Yeah. You too.

I wanted to thank you again for all the help that you've, given me since I started in answering my email, my initial email. No. I was grouchy about it at but it's actually been pretty rewarding to watch you, you know. Yeah. Well, I know.

I'm I'm sure you get all all the time people wanting advice and stuff like that. And, you know, the time that you've taken Sal to to help me out and answer all the questions and and, you know, give me advice has been a huge help, and I value your opinion and and your wisdom, greatly. So I just wanna say thank you for everything, and and I appreciate it. I appreciate you saying that. You know, around the time I think it was around the time you approached me, I was pretty disgruntled because there were multiple people that I had already invested time into that, you know, they stuck it out for, like, three months or whatever.

And, you know, you know, they they were on to the next millennial interest or whatever. And I was just like, oh, man. You know, come on. Stick with me. Another one.

Another one of these clowns. Yeah. So but, you know, I like, I've I've told you this before. You know, I've I've been really impressed. I mean, you you're you you've you've stuck it past the point where most people quit, which tells me that you'll be doing this ten years from now.

Yeah. I hope so. Most people throw in the towel when things when they get sweaty and they have to be up on a ladder or, you know, it isn't what they thought. And it's actually a lot of work, you know, even running a business. So Well, I love it.

And I, you know, I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now. It's it's awesome. Being in the, you know, working all day on Sunday, it's I never thought I'd want to work on on on the weekends, but, you know, I I got up really stoked to go to work, you know? And a lot of people aren't stoked to do a lot of things, especially work and Most things. Yeah.

Most things. I love doing this, and and it's everybody's been very generous with their time and and and listening to me and and giving me advice. So, you know, I appreciate it. And, yes, Love it. Well, there you go, listeners.

James did it. You can do it too. Thanks, Sean. Alright, man. We'll talk to you soon.

Okay. Thanks. Alright. Thanks, James. I appreciate you, taking the time to talk and, sharing your your vantage point, which I think will be really helpful for a lot of listeners out there who are, trying to enter into the trade.

And I, again, just wanna thank everybody for tuning in. Really, really having a good time doing these and having these discussions and, sharing like this. And, like to put a shout out to my buddy, Hal Bridges. I know he listens to the show and, miss hanging out with him, so I just thought I'd do him a solid and say hello. So we'll see you next week, and, thanks for tuning in.

Today's episode of Coffee with a SignPainter is brought to you by Full City Rooster Coffee Roasters in Dallas, Texas, roasting distinctive coffees from around the world. Sean drinks Full City Rooster coffee every day in the studio. You can order their coffee online at fullcityrooster.com. Thanks for listening to Coffee with a Signpainter, hosted by Sean Starr. You can find all sorts of info about the show and sign painting, including previous episodes at our website, seanstarr.com.