1984 - Number Plates

I started in the sign business more by accident than design. For ten years up to 1984 my business was the supply of auto parts to the motor trade. Plastic vehicle number plates with adhesive markings happened to be a very small part of that business. When a few customers surprisingly requested lettering instead of numbers on the plates for basic wall signs such as PRIVATE and NO PARKING it occurred to me there was a market for simple signs on demand. At that time signs could only be made by hand painting and stencils, mostly on wood and metal. Because of material preparation time and a shortage of signwriters it was not uncommon for people to wait weeks for a basic sign.