LEARN SIGN DESIGN
by Matt Charboneau
LEARN SIGN DESIGN
by Matt Charboneau
Helping Graphic Artists
LEARN SIGN DESIGN
Live, Interactive, Mentor-Styled Training!
WHO USES THIS TRAINING?
CLASSES OFFERED
Sign Design
101A
One 4-Hour session
Learn the disciplines of sign face layout
Q: What is the role of the sign?
Q: What are the 5 sign types?
Q: What is read time?
Q: What is kerning?
Q: What is typography?
...and why it all matters in sign face design!
click here for email to request more information and course syllabus
The Electric Sign Design Training Course (ESDTC)
Twelve 1-Hour sessions
Designers are introduced to the planning process that successful electric sign design requires.
Parts, pieces, charts, graphics and section views are provided for consistency in future design references. The most common ROI for designers has been their newly gained knowledge now provides confidence for them to defend their designs with fabricators during pre-fab meetings.
This course provides designers with the missing puzzle pieces needed to raise their confidence level for both creative design, and for defending their choices in mechanical, materials and attachment recommendations. This knowledge is key for the designer's ability to keep fabrication costs under budget on the more challenging electric sign design projects.
click here for email to request more information and course syllabus
Sign Survey Class
One 1-Hour session
for 4 or more attendees (up to 8)
Learn how to perform a survey correctly!
Q: What is the objective?
Q: What are the restrictions?
Q: What is the read time?
Q: Where are the utilities located?
Q: What are the neighboring signs like?
...and why it all matters for the designer!
click here for email to request more information and course syllabus
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR
MATT CHARBONEAU
(shar-bo-no)
This guy....
It was February of 1985, it was a frozen cold Sunday morning when I was flat out on the couch listening to Dr. Robert Schuler share his weekly message when God nudged me upside my head and made it very clear to me that I was supposed to shift careers and teach myself the monumental task of sign painting.
Not knowing what else to do, I did what I was told and taught myself how to hand-letter signs and how to thrive in the sign business.
Sales were easy, but I also had to grasp and get real good at design, engineering, permitting, estimating, fabrication and installation...
I had no choice but to learn how all of it was done as training for the sign industry simply did not exist.
The designing of cleaver logos and graphics for the restaurant and service industries were door openers for getting on the bid list for those larger sign projects... and I got real busy really fast. That God-given gift was doing it's job and bringing me lots of business.
Soon, I graduated away from the stresses and deadlines of the retail sign market and focused on providing wholesale design services for other electric sign shops in different cities and states around the U.S.
Over the years, my solution-provider approach to sign design elevated me to the status of providing design and fabrication consulting. I was soon providing creative electric sign and standards packets for larger, more challenging design projects.
Then in 2017 I started to shift my focus from consulting to helping other designers expand their sign designer skill sets, and the training platform of LEARN SIGN DESIGN.com
was born.
In 2022 I was commissioned by Graphics Pro Expo to develop and present two 90-minute live training seminars which were presented at six different regional trade shows.
Those reviews reflected a 98% positive and feedback score with lots of great compliments from those in attendance.
And in the spring of 2023 I was asked to develop a live, technical training session for the designers who belong to this nation's largest sign franchise organization. That agreement is on-going - and I am fortunate enough to present live 4-hour classes on a weekly basis.
40 YEARS OF SIGN MAKING
In 1987, only 2 years after hitting the streets as a sign painter, I took a leap of faith and donated my talents with the painting of two CSU logo's onto a washer and dryer pair that was being donated to CSU's athletic department. The set was raffled off as part of their annual fund-raising campaign.
I suggested it might help bring more attention to the auction if I painted the logos right there, inside of Sears at the Foothills Fashion Mall in Fort Collins, Colorado.
... and whoodathunk it... a photographer
showed up to take a quick photo for the paper.
It was an awesome feel-good pay-it-forward opportunity and a profitable fundraiser for CSU!
Other notable experience:
Contributing Writer to Graphics Pro Magazine (since 2007 for S&DG Mag).
Technical Advisor to Monument Signs for GPM (formerly S&DG Magazine).
Trainer/Presenter for
the Graphics Pro Expo 2022 season.
Award Winning monument sign designer and illustrator.
Publisher of the Pre-Sale Sign Survey Field Guide - A pocket guide for the sign industry.
Very well experienced in all aspects of the electric sign design, estimating, permitting, fabricating and installation process (as utilized by most electric sign shops with 10 to 75 team members).
Trained in sales by the Life Insurance Industry on the art and science of intangible solution/needs-based selling. (and selling intangibly)
I successfully applied the training to reach sales objectives that qualified me for MDRT, NSA, NQA and a host of other agency awards as a Life and Health Agent for American Amicable/General Life.
The achievements and successes in life insurance sales continued throughout my last year as an agent, prior to entering the sign industry in 1985.
SAMPLES OF CLASS MATERIALS
SURVEY CLASS EXAMPLES
PORTFOLIO SAMPLING
