Sign painting and glass gilding in New York City (USA)
I’m Camille Weber, an independent sign painter and graphic designer, based in Lyon (France). When I discovered the EYE’s program, during a talk show for entrepreneurs, it came out as a real opportunity to improve my project to create a sign painting business.
Sign painting in France is an old craft profession and the revival of this market in France is in its « infancy ». It exist a very few training courses to learn sign painting in France and the older generation’s brushes are mostly stowed. That’s why a large majority of french sign painters are young and try to maintain the tradition in learning by themselves and by meeting abroad others sign painters, especially from the USA and the Great Britain, because these countries are the cradles of the western sign painting and continue to preserve and carry on the tradition. In the past, I worked abroad in collaboration with several professionals in the same field of activity than me and we shared our different approaches to work. From that time on, i know that is the best way to understand different parts of a trade and enrich the work of each other. That’s why I decided to apply to the EYE program.
Preparing my application was already an important and constructive step to define and clarify my project. After the acceptance of my application to the program, it took several months to find an host entrepreneur who was fitting with my expectations and was interested to do the exchange and organise the stay.
Finally, I spent one month in New York City (USA) doing an peer-to-peer collaboration with Noble Signs, a sign painting company based in Brooklyn. Noble signs provide hand-painted, gilded and neon signs. I took part to the different steps of the organization of the company and the creation of a signs, from the design to the delivery. I learned about drafting the functional and technical specifications, evaluating the cost of a service, creating and painting a sign. We also had discussions about the global organisation to run our company (task’s organisation and schedule, cost of material, etc.), the sales and our marketing strategy and the cost of each services comparatively with the market of sign painting in NYC. The competitiveness, the offers and the demand, also the specifications about the law regarding the sign landscape and the negotiation of price to fit with the client’s budget.
Finally, this experience helped me to improve my skills, learn more techniques of sign painting and empowered my entrepreneurial mindset. Furthermore, I met very nice people and construct professional and friendly relationships.
Camille Weber (FR)
Camille Weber, French, 29 yrs, sign painter, EYE GLOBAL in NYC, USA.
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