My first job was as a sign maker and engraver in Somerset. The archaic factory even included an old-style letterpress hand operated press with wooden characters for one off posters – in imperial sizes of course. We used an ancient machine to cut out each letter for perspex signs by hand for a well known dairy firm after they changed their name – a welcome and continuing source of income for sign-makers everywhere. And as for technology – the factory didn't even have a fax machine. The industry has changed dramatically since then – along with the artwork required for those signs. In the early 1980s I became a graphic designer when artworks were still cut and pasted together with glue - who remembers all that Spray Mount and Cow Gum?

Colour separations were on film overlays each flapping onto the base CS10 artboard. Art studios were equipped with several essential low-tech pieces of equipment: the PMT machine, a plan chest, sheets of Letraset and drawing boards – and just about everyone smoked Benson & Hedges – even in the darkroom.
That was then and this is now – since then I've moved into journalism. Some three decades on most  offices have a colour printer, the internet has transformed publishing and 3D printing has arrived. Sign-making in particular has dramatically altered with the most stunning visuals cloaking entire buildings or lighting up the night sky – and even the most modest firm can have brilliant livery on their vans.

Despite all the technological changes there's something that's still timeless about sign making. Price and quality remain as those two uneasy bedfellows and customer service will always be the clincher in the long run for sign making firms. At SignLink I'll be charting the continuing transformation of the industry as we move forward into a new era of technology – a far cry from my formative years as a sign-maker in Somerset.