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General => General Discussion and ??? => Topic started by: sportsshoppe on July 13, 2012, 11:49:45 AM
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I know I asked this on the other board but we have some new members on this one and I was just curious to what folks did before getting into the business.
I was a certified Pipe & Boiler Tube Welder for 14 yrs. and was able to travel the USA working different jobs, some good some not so good. I did meet alot of nice people and saw some beautiful sites.
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Besides a little dabbling with rebuilding and selling bicycles, I have always been involved in some sort of graphics art job. I was lucky enough to work camera (back in the stone age) at Rolling Stone as a temp during a few month transition as they were moving from SF tp NY.
I also did that at a flat stock shop, as well as general printing, but then moved to Die Stamping (engraving). When that fizzled after seven years, I returned to screen printing, though this time, apparel.
When I started my own business, I offered signs as well as shirts, but then decided to specialize mostly due to limited space.
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I was a press operator were we made and printed plastic shopping bags.
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Grave Digger/Heavy machine operator
Union Pipefitter
Cabinet Maker
I also did a lot of odd jobs on the side for good cash
Transmitting tower erecting
Mason laborer
Commercial Carpet installing
Carpentry/framing
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Converting machine operator in packaging company
Set-up person in the same Co.
On the side graphic/web design since 2006
Graphic Designer in the same packaging co since 2007-present
Embroidery since 2009
Screen printing since late 2010
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Operations Manager for a local paint store. I really specialized in color matching of residential, industrial and automotive coatings. Did that for about 12 years. Screen Printing for about 3 now.
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last occupation before this one, professional SKYDIVER!
before that, like many others a garden variety of professions. Most of the time spent in the military (navy and army) and as business owner/CEO.
pierre
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Not a surprise that many consider the choice of this industry almost as dumb as voluntarily jumping out of a perfectly good airplane!
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HIGH SCHOOL
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Before my wife and I started this business, she had 14 years in retail management, and I had 20 years in music production, composition, releasing cds, and vinyl. 10 year CBS radio mix show in Tampa, florida, headlining EDM shows nation wide and a few other countries. I figured it was time to grow up and get out of the clubs, ends up, this is what God had in store for me and I as well as my wife couldn't love doing anything else as much as we love this industry that we are now part of!!!
Mike
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Riding freight trains and chasing skirts.
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I have been a nurse since 1995 and have been flying on a helicopter as a nurse since 1999. We only work six 24 hour shifts a month so I had way too much time on my hands and started tinkering with printing tees for fun...... I never thought that it would grow like it did but having a blast doing it.
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I designed computer systems for Fortune 500 manufacturing, retail, medical and investment companies. Had my own consulting firm with 18 employees. The money was awesome but the stress and lifestyle I would not want to return to. Being a small company the CEO/CFO of these large companies didn't want to pay a small company what they did the large consulting firms, but when they couldn't make or ship any product from 40+ plants across North America and the large firm couldn't fix the problem they created guess who they called at 3AM? And then they'd bitch that I billed them but they paid the other company..... so screen printing is so much less stressful.... 8)
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Semper Fi, do or die, all that.
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Commercial and sport fishing crew member for several different boats and companies.
Pizza delivery dude for a few years.
truss building company fork lift operator.
Roofer.
college
Automotive tech
and now a screen printer/graphic artist/business owner/operator and almost as happy as when i work on boats, i don't think ill ever be as happy as i was then.
New goal: get a nice boat and live closer to the ocean.
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worked at a farm doing odd things (age 10 or 11)
picked produce
ran go cart tracks in Wisconsin Dells
Worked at a dessert factory
Waited Tables
Sales at fry's Electronics
Worked at a sign shop
Teachers assistant at Graphic Design school
Designer for Multimedia company
Designer for Accounting firm
Designer for democratic Party
Worked part time at Home Depot (just bought a house an wanted to learn)
Started a Soy based spray foam company
Worked at design firm
Worked at another design firm
Started a Design firm
Bought a $1000 screen printing press off craigslist (Brown Ponyxpress) to print a few shirts for myself.....Now I am here...
I am sure I forgot a few. I never stayed very long at a company. I guess I just got bored.
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Andy, how do you know the plane is perfectly fine? I am working (slowly) on my skydiving license. An absolute total rush!
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Deck builder/ carpenter
Electronics assembly
Circuit board designer and prototyping
Sheet metal fabrication (1 month hated it)
CATV installer then repair tech then manager then
Mmds tvro site Eng and transmissions Eng. (Microwave video) same place I was also the network and phone system Guy
Tower repair and installation.(side gig)
Video engineer
Special services sonet / hicap provisioner (built sonet rings )
Realtor
Outside plant engineer
Screen printer
Screen printing is my start up biz still working for the man for now
Sent from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)
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Worked in my guitar teacher's music store, then moved to screenprinting in '72, been there ever since. I still play too, I just never wanted to play music for a living; the playing is great, the biz sucks.
Steve
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Magician
Juggler
Mime
Actor
Clown
Stand Up Comic
Mentalist
Director
Producer
Co Owner of a major Video production company in Memphis
Beale Street Entertainer
and some time in Warehousing for The dept. of Defense
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Washing dogs. That was my firs job for my families dog grooming business.
Through high school:
Hand painted signs for weekend cash while in high school. + an occasional drawing of someone's house.
Stock boy
Dish washer, catering
Art school
Dish washer
McDonalds
Burger King
Out of art school
Film stripper for a Screen print sign/posters/bus backs shop.
Graphics artist for an ASI glass manufacturer
Owner ASI distributor.
Illustrator at tee shirt shops
re-located and closed the ASI dist. business for another full time job at a tee shirt shop.
from here on out ...to today. Insert various shops along the way.
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last occupation before this one, professional SKYDIVER!
before that, like many others a garden variety of professions. Most of the time spent in the military (navy and army) and as business owner/CEO.
pierre
Get out of here SKYDIVER??? How cool is that!
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AT&T IT Business Analyst
AT&T IT Release Manager
AT&T IT Project Manager
Sometimes, all three at once
Marketing/Sales for a gas/electric company
Screen printing just grew into a full time side business that involves having employees now to run the show while I'm doing the above.
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Dice dealer on Las Vegas Strip - 25 years - 20 years in screenprinting.
Worked for the mob before corporate casino companies took over in Las Vegas.
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Draftsman
designer
product engineer
project manager
sales engineer
cabinetmaker / craftsman
embroidery shop
screen printer
professional bum
crotchety old bastard
grandfather
dreamer
gambler
mooseman
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I delivered auto parts for my dad's store as soon as I got a license.
My first graphics-related job, besides freelance illustration gigs, was layout for Yellow Pages ads on a primitive mainframe computer.
My second graphics-related full time gig was for a screenprinter, Desert Sportswear in Tempe, AZ, run by Steve Mertens in the late '80s.
My last full time gig before going all-in on freelancing was for Steve Mertens's son Craig at Digital Art Solutions. I'd come full circle after almost 20 years and about half a dozen jobs at various screen print shops, ASI outfits, a sign shop darkroom, and even as a survey archaeologist... I still freelance field work for archaeological projects.
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Dice dealer on Las Vegas Strip - 25 years - 20 years in screenprinting.
Worked for the mob before corporate casino companies took over in Las Vegas.
You're saying that there is a difference?
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Navy Corpsman
Bio-Tech Research Manager
The "Dude" at Palomar Printing....
yep...that does it...
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Before SP!
Professional surfer/manufacturer
Composites specialist: FAA/Mil Spec Certified
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Worked in a Mexican Restaurant for 6 years through HS and College.
Worked docks for a vending supplier for 6 years.
Been printing for 15+ years.
Opened my own shop last August.
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All sorts of stuff that had no relation to this trade whatsoever.
But, I've been doing art forever, and was 'commercial' ( haha, yeah right ) since I was 15.
As in..I got paid to do art, so that's always been around since I've been trying to earn a living.
I'm almost an old fart now, so it's been awhile.
Screenprinting ain't no barrel of monkeys, but it's the most ancient of reproduction techniques.
And it's still around!
Refined and full of sh*t, but it's still around, in pretty much the same mechanics as it was created in.
If you're in it for the money, I've got some bad news for you sunshine.
Put that in yer pipe.
Cheers.
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Drumming (for no money)
Grocery stock boy
Carpenter's punching bag
Carpenter's helper
Commercial drywall hanger (ouch)
Screen printing (general shop monkey)
Back to drywall (not for long)
Back to screen printing (full time printer, manual and auto)
Sandwich shop (hey it was free food...)
Back to screen printing (printing, screen room, ink room, shipping, etc)
Drumming (for a little money)
Bike shop mechanic (weekends while screen printing)
Corporate event stage hand (quit printing)
Drumming (for a little more money)
Bike shop mechanic (occasionally when not doing stage hand work)
Corporate event project manager
Corporate event equipment rental manager
Purchasing agent for high-end outdoor clothing and equipment mfr
Bike shop mechanic (weekends)
Started screen printing again on the side with my own equipment (selling my wife's designs)
Grapevine nursery shipping manager
Purchasing agent for high-end outdoor clothing and equipment mfr (different one)
Running my own print shop
Drumming for enough money (finally)
Sold the shop, hit the road (occasionally) and the studio
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Vp of operations for a linen supply company wife and I own. Still implementing the projects over there.
Commercial real estate owner
Party rental company owner
Rental center manager
In younger days did field work, electric motor rewind,garage mechanic, hunt,s Ketchup line mechanic, delivery guy, God humor ice cream man
With am I doing here?
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If I ever find out what I what I was actually into BEFORE screenprinting, I think I should have to fire myself...just on principle. Heck, I'm not sure what I'm actually doing NOW! If I ever do find out some of the stuff I've been pulling on myself lately, I'm gonna get a pink slip from myself for sure... Then who will make all the requisite monetary contributions to our lazy moocher culture... er, wait....investments... which ensure the smooth flow of well paid idiots into government. Idiots who only have one tenth of the life experiences of most anybody I have read about on THIS thread!!
Wow! You guys have had some amazing life experiences!
But I digress.....
Instrumental Music Instructor, Government Schools 15 years. Music is woven into the fabric of my being...the fabric which will soon find its way into the huge bin of Scratch Shirts. Pellons, I guess. (I still direct a church orchestra in Wichita.)
Full time Farmer, for 10+ years. Wheat, primarily. I started at the worst possible time and couldn't survive full time. Learned a whole bunch of stuff. I just had to. Carpenter, General Mechanic, Diesel Mechanic, Plumber, General Repair-handyman style, Salvage Yard Scrounger, Welder (pretty good, actually...for a part timer. REAL WELDERS are artists!!!) and Heavy Equipment Operator. Wife's brother, with our middle son operate the family's farm in Oklahoma.
Full Time Sign Shop Owner/operator for 17 years. Full Service, including electric signage, all done in house with the exception of vacuum forming of our panned plastic faces. We never had an oven. I grew up in my fathers sign shop and learned sooooo much from him. Wife and I took over after his decline, and my resignation from public school teaching and continued until we sold the shop, sign cranes, welders and sheet metal shop. We retained very little of the equipment we would need to run the screenprinting and embroidery shop, which we bought soon after selling the signshop.
Oil & Gas Landman 6 months. Now there's a story! But I'll skip most of it. It helped with the transition from Signman to Garment Decorator. Might still be doing it, except the price of hydrocarbons is just whackadoodle. My wife intended to run the garment decoration biz, with me buying mineral leases....but I got laid off at the end of 08, when our group went from 30+ landmen to just 3 (three) after the 2008 crash. Unemployed(!) for the first time since 7th grade. We had this garment decoration business, so I was actually unimployed no more than about 15 seconds. Okay...maybe and hour, but that's it.
I hired myself as a full time screenprinter/separator immediately, and I can fire myself just as fast. So watch it, Mister Schizophrenia... okay?
Yessir...
I have to wear so many different hats in a day, when I leave my office--which doubles as the vinyl cutter room--to go fix the Tajima, or photograph a Van for decals, or to fix somebody's computer or printer, I often wind up asking "now, why am I up here?" "Ummm.... We dunno...., but you have emulsion on your hat."
"No problem, I'll just grab another hat." We have lots of hats, most of them are flubbed up anyways.
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Pumped gas
Pumped gas and turned wrenches
Shipping/ receiving in a factory
Drove a truck
Drove a limo(for two whole days)
Laborer
Firefighter(part-time)
Firefighter/Paramedic(full time)
Drove Charter buses(part-time)
There are probably more that I did but I am getting old and can't remember. I am still doing the fighting full time (only because I need to come to the firehouse to get some rest) and the embroidery/screen printing on my off days. We have been in business for 6 years.
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Punched a time clock, and had hobbies.......
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After college, worked in a photo processing lab retouching the zits off of sailors, sailorettes, and army dudes from their basic training graduation photos. Did freelance for a Penney's Portrait Studio making old bags look like 16 year-olds.
Started freelancing for a banking association magazine, doing the occasional illustration, mechanical art, and photo development and printing.
Got a job at a financial software company in the publications division, doing flowcharts, input forms, and user and DP manual mechanical art for offset printing.
Got a job at an in-house ad agency doing illustration with rapidogoraph pens and newspaper ad production and design, plus a bit of typesetting. This was actually the best job I've ever had.
Got a job at an advertising agency as "graphics coordinator", whatever the hell that meant, doing design, layout and a bit of typesetting. The woman whose name was on the shingle wasn't there much, but was loathe to let go the "art director" title.
Took a job at an offset printshop because the ad agency (above) was too cheap to buy a Mac system and software and I knew where things were going. Stayed there for 2-1/2 years until the fat old bitch that lorded over the place drove me nuts.
Started working for myself. Did all of the pre-press as a consultant for a medium-sized offset shop whose owner didn't want to get into the computer end. Actually made good money at this.
Bought a tee shirt in 1999 at The Last Resort in Port Orange, FL (the bar where Aileen Wournos was picked up), and, not finding a better one for a few years, decided I could do better. I still haven't found a better one at all of the events I've wasted my time at. I found out there was a little bit of money to be made printing for OTHER people, though. Paid for my first press with my first job.
Biggest mistake I ever made was not following through on a graduate degree in fine art. Was all set to go to U of South Florida/Tampa, but decided to get married instead. There's no reason I couldn't have done both, but I was a dumbshit at 22. As Johnny said, "Old too soon, smart too late."
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Restaurant waiter & manager for 13 years
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Army 4 years
pizza delivery,
plumbers assistant
theater projectionist
UPS delivery driver for 10 years
Owner/operator and operator of Windshield repair and replacement shop and also tinted windows
I helped my dad run a sign/tshirt printing shop for about 5 years "he taught me plenty" sometimes I wished I would've paid a little more attention
Now, I'm the owner/operator of the same shop except with some upgraded equipment.
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Before screenprining? Didn't know there was anything else!
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Lets see, farm laborer
electronics assembly
mobile home industry
truck driver (till my daughter was born)
heavy equipment operator
screen printer
welder
cematary (?) plot salesman
millwright
tool & die maker
toolroom and maintinance supervisor
machinist, millwright, welder
opened my screen bus.
backto school for graphics and web design( just signed up for fall semester)
prison gaurd (for the beni's 2 days on 2 days off not a bad gig except you can trust the prisoners more than the other gaurds)
machinist agian till we get our shop going how we want it
Not to hijack thread but I couldn't beleive the screen printing set up they had to make prison uniforms.
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Elefctronics Officer Royal Australian Air Force
Electronics Engineer NASA
Computer Programmer Australian Dept. of Defence
Computer Trainer Fujitsu
Owned my own Computer shop for 10 years
Manager Samsung Qld
Manager Alstom Qld
Got made redundant and considered too old for the Computer Industry so started this in 1995