In more than 250 full-color photos, this book covers, in step-by-step format, the techniques used by the world's leading signmaking experts to fabricate the kinds of signs commercial signshops make every ...
Bill DeBekker recounts his shop
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By Steve Aust
In the eyes of some (probably signshop owners in urban areas who see greener grass), small-town signmakers enjoy an easy racket. Ostensibly, competition is less keen, and clients’ rustic inclination creates a deep reservoir of patience and appreciation for the signmaking craft.
“Bogus,” according to Bill DeBekker, proprietor of the Third Dimension Sign Co. (Canon City, CO). Although many local customers appreciate his talents and grant him his desired autonomy, DeBekker must still contend with backseat-driver customers and need-it-yesterday deadlines. Moreover, amidst a lingering economic downturn in a town largely dependent on tourism, he must increasingly ply his trade with utilitarian signage that pays the bills rather than stoke his creative juices.
How’d I get here?
DeBekker was born in NYC, and although his family moved to Canon City at age six, he said he never lost that “Big Apple” mentality: “I may have lost the accent, but never the attitude. I still believe in accomplishing tasks in an efficient and thorough manner.”
His ambitions steered him to Phoenix and a professional modelmaking career, for which he frequently traveled to Los Angeles to design and paint model aircraft, boats and spaceships. His portfolio includes several prototypes he developed for Estes, a model-rocket purveyor, that were ultimately used in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
DeBekker returned to his childhood home, and his sign career happened “by accident” – he walked into a signshop, looking for painting work, and ended up with a new job.
“This was a radical departure for me,” DeBekker said. “Even in the early ’90s, signmaking had already become highly automated, but I had no idea this technology could be used to make signage.”
After his indoctrination, he partnered with this signmaker and founded Rush Signs in 1995. Although DeBekker received some instruction from K.C. Evans, a veteran local signpainter, personal trail-and-error comprised most of professional development.
“Probably the best advice [K.C.] gave me was to purchase [Mike Stevens’ book] Mastering Layout,” he said. That book and Signs of the Times were the most valuable resources in developing my signmaking career.”
Mastering his market
As often happens with partnerships, DeBekker and his former associate severed ties somewhat acrimoniously in 2001. After having taken time to marshal sufficient resources and capacity, he opened Third Dimension the following year.
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