Shop name:
All Signs & Graphics
Shop size: 2500 sq. ft.
Graphics equipment:
Mimaki CJV print/cut
Roland Vp-540
Gerber plotter
Gerber Edge
店铺名称
All Signs & Graphics
规模
230平米（2500 sq. ft.）
制作设备
Mimaki CJV 喷刻一体机
Roland Vp-540 大幅打印机
Gerber plotter 绘图机
Gerber Edge 热转印打印机
Tim Bauman’s roots are in the fertile sign design soil of the Chicago area, where he served a union apprenticeship at the legendary Foster & Kleiser outdoor advertising company. He attended the union sign school, Washburn Trade School, in the same program that trained Bob Behounek and many other young Chicagoland sign painters who went on to inspire and influence the trade. SignCraft talked with him about his 40-year career, which has landed him in California’s wine country:
蒂姆·鲍曼出身于芝加哥地区，那里有着美国标识行业最肥沃的土壤，他最早在传奇的Foster&Kleiser户外广告公司担任工会学徒，就读于沃什博恩贸易学校的工会标识学院，该学院以相同的课程曾培养出鲍勃·贝霍内克等一批知名的、能够代表芝加哥标识界的年轻设计师，他们在日后一直影响着当地的贸易市场。
蒂姆·鲍曼40年的职业生涯就从这里开始了，最终他来到加利福尼亚的葡萄酒之乡，拥有了属于自己的事业：
It’s been an interesting adventure. My background is in fine arts and graphic design, and I’ve built my career around those interests. Though I started off as an apprentice at Foster & Kleiser, I was more interested in commercial and custom work, so I eventually moved from billboard work to commercial signs.
蒂姆将这40年的经历描述成“一场有趣的大冒险”，虽然最开始是在Foster&Kleiser做学徒从事美术和平面设计工作，但他对商业化的定制工作更感兴趣，于是他的职业生涯一直围绕着爱好发展，最后成功转入商业标识行业。
From Chicago, Emily, my wife, and I went to Portland, Oregon, in 1989. We lived there for 15 years. I worked as a journeyman for several shops there and was then recruited by an environmental graphics firm. They designed signage and wayfinding programs, and I worked as a designer there for a couple years.
1989年后，蒂姆和妻子艾米莉从芝加哥搬到俄勒冈州的波特兰市，并在那儿生活了15年之久，最初他曾在几家商店当过导购，然后被一家当地的标识公司招募，有了数年稳定的工作，主要工作是设计标牌和导视标识。
Then it was on to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where we opened a bed and breakfast. Emily has a background in food service and is an amazing cook, and we soon had a very good reputation. We did that until 2012 when that market changed and I got back into signs, working at a few shops there.
之后他们还在新墨西哥圣达菲开了一家小旅馆兼营早餐，艾米莉曾经从事过餐饮行业，并且是一位手艺很好的厨师，很快就在当地获得了很好的声誉，一直到2012年，餐饮业市场变得不太景气，于是蒂姆重新做回标识行业，在当地的一些作坊里上班。
When we learned this shop in this beautiful area of California was available in 2014, we bought the business. Emily and I have always worked really well together, and this has worked out well for us. We are pretty efficient, so we can turn out quite a volume of work.
2014年时，他们得知加利福尼亚州阿塔斯卡德罗将开设一处商业区，就立刻在这个美丽的地方购买了一间商铺，专心从事标识行业，夫妻两人的默契令人羡慕，效率非常之高，可以在短时间内就完成大量工作。
Dividing the roles Emily handles much of the production along with all the office work. She is an artist, so she is my critical eye when it comes to design. She can tell when something is a little off in a layout, and we can bounce ideas around.I handle all the sales and do the larger design projects and logo work.
划分工作 蒂姆的妻子艾米莉负责制作中小型标识以及全部的办公室工作，蒂姆则揽下所有销售环节，以及大型的设计项目和标识制作。此外，艾米莉作为一名艺术家在设计方面可以对蒂姆提出非常有用的建议，两人经常共同讨论标识设计和布局方面的一些想法。
We have a third person here full-time from March through November, then part-time the rest of the year. They handle the everyday sign design work and some of the production. We work with colleagues in the area on large installations and big graphics projects.
每年的3月到11月，蒂姆和艾米莉的工作室都会招聘全职的设计师帮忙，在其余的几个月里只招聘兼职，这些设计师负责日常零售的标识设计和生产工作。
另外，蒂姆的工作室还常与区域内的同行进行合作，从事大型标识项目的设计和安装
Sign design vs. graphic design There’s a lot of classism between the graphic design and sign design worlds. Many of us have run into this, and it’s unfortunate. Some graphic designers are very condescending towards sign people. They seem to think that you have to have a college degree to be successful at design. That’s simply not so and you need only look at the work of creative sign designers to see that.
标识设计与平面设计 一直以来，在标识设计和平面设计之间都仿佛有“阶级差距”，蒂姆认为这是非常不合理的，但很多人确实会遇到这种情况，平面设计师往往会以居高临下的态度对待标识设计师，认为标识设计师都是野狐禅，真正的设计师必须拥有相关专业高的学历才能进行好的设计，幸运的是事实并非如此，蒂姆说：“您只需要去看看创意标识设计师的作品就知道了。”
The shop and the work Our shop is half office, design and print area, then the other half is for production, including a 25-ft. bay where we do our vehicle work. We do a lot of vehicles— mostly cut vinyl and partial wraps along with the occasional full wrap. Emily has done the Roland wrap installation training.
工作室和工作 蒂姆的工作室里一半是办公室作为设计和印刷区域，另一半则用于生产，在生产区域中单独开辟了一处8米长（25英尺）的车位用来从事汽车包装工作，工作室会接到大量的车辆订单，大部分是切割乙烯基和局部包裹，偶尔也有全包裹，艾米莉甚至专门为此完成了Roland开办的汽车包装安装培训。
We also do a lot of aluminum pan faced signs. We partner a lot with other businesses in the area, and work with a sheet metal fabricator on those. We also have a nearby woodworking company to do our CNC work. I prep the CNC files and they handle the router work. For a small shop like ours, it’s great to have craftsmen like this to work with.
蒂姆的工作室与区域内的许多公司成为合作伙伴，并于钣金加工商合作，大量制作铝制表面的标识；同时还联系了一家木材加工公司，由蒂姆提供数控文件，他们提供雕刻机，蒂姆说：“这些大的加工企业愿意与我们这样的小工作室合作，我觉得还是很幸运的。”
We do brochure designs and flyers and postcards as well. We’re looking forward to getting back into more hand-lettered work. We have a good market for that, and the interest in hand-lettered signs is growing.
蒂姆和艾米莉也附带会涉及一些宣传单、宣传册和明信片的设计，他们很期待可以从事更多的手工工作，一方面是市场前景好，更重要的是对于手工标识的兴趣，让他们享受制作的过程。
Sign making in wine country Within a 25-mile radius of our shop there are 325 vineyards and wineries, from small one-person facilities who buy grapes from other vineyards, to multimillion dollar operations. The wine industry is really the area’s main economic engine.
在葡萄酒之乡制作标识 以蒂姆工作室为圆心，半径40公里的范围内，共有325个葡萄园和酿酒厂，从个人采摘与零售业务到价值数百万美元的大生意应有尽有，葡萄酒行业是阿塔斯卡德罗地区经济的主要引擎。
The wine industry is very image-conscious and marketing driven. Some of our best work is for the wineries, because they’re so insistent that their signage reflect the quality and uniqueness of their product. There are always at least a half-dozen projects in the shop that have some connection to the wineries.
葡萄酒行业是市场导向型的业务，非常注重外在形象，蒂姆工作室最出色的几款标识设计都是为酿酒厂做的，这都因为酿酒厂坚持要求制作出的标识得体现出产品的质量和独特性。
酿酒厂是蒂姆工作室业务来源的大头，占到全部工作的一半左右。
Many of the wineries already have a logo in place, and they need help with getting a creative sign that uses that design. Other small wineries come to us very early in the project, and we get involved with their logo design as well. We do some rebranding, too, as folks upgrade their ../images.
一些小酒厂在标识设计的初期就找到蒂姆来制作；而更多的厂家之前已有自己的标识，需要蒂姆将其变得更富创意并做一些品牌重塑的工作。
The signs need to be appealing and also very legible, since most of the traffic is on twolane roads rolling by at 45 miles an hour. The wineries depend on their signs to lure traffic in, so the designs have to be clean and simple, yet appealing.
每个酒厂的标识虽然不同，都有一个共同的要求：必须足够吸引人且清晰易读，因为这些标识旨在吸引公路上的过往车流，而大多数车辆的时速都不会低于70码，这个要求是必须具备的。
The wine industry also brings in a lot of people who tour the wineries then head for the galleries, shops, restaurants and bars. We do a lot of work there, too.
葡萄酒产业促进了区域内旅游业务的发展，为周边的画廊、商店、饭店和酒吧带去了巨大的人流量，蒂姆的工作室在这些店铺上也接到了不少生意。
We also have the advantage of seeing a lot of inspiring sign work here. We have several colleagues nearby who do outstanding work, folks like Southpaw Signs and Avila Signs. Seeing such impressive work pushes you to do your best.
在蒂姆工作室的周边也有几位同样从事标识行业的设计师开办的工作室，比如Southpaw Signs和Avila Signs，他们都很出色，蒂姆认为这是非常鼓舞人心的优势，看到同行们的优秀作品会督促他更好地工作。
Ramping up sign structure design We plan to move up a few notches on our design of sign structures. As sign designers, I think we often focus on the sign and overlook the potential appeal of its mounting. We want to work on that.
加强标识结构的设计 蒂姆经常反思，自己作为一个标识设计者，是否太过注重标识本身而忽略了标识的安装以及整体结构，这些同样可以增加标识吸引力，他想在这方面多加努力。
Peter Poanessa [Keene Signworx, Swanzey, New Hampshire] is a friend of mine, and I really admire how the structures that he designs to hold his signs are as beautiful as the sign itself. That adds a lot of appeal to the sign. To do that I need a little more woodworking equipment in-house.
蒂姆的朋友皮特·波内萨，在新罕不什尔州的斯旺西开办了一家Keene Signworx标识工作室，他所设计的标识安装结构和标识本身一样美丽，大大增加了标识整体的吸引力，蒂姆非常佩服他，因此决定在自己的工作室增加一些木工设备，专攻这个方面。
Market challenges Ironically this has historically been a low-wage area, yet the cost of living is quite high. When they factor in average wages, our county is considered the most expensive place to live in California. That makes it hard for working people to live here, and hard for employers—including sign shops—to find good people. And there’s also the inevitable hassle of sign prices varying a lot due to inexperienced people in the trade.
市场挑战 阿塔斯卡德罗被认为是加利福尼亚州生活成本最高的地区，但具有讽刺意味的是，它同时也是工资最低的地区，上班族很难在这里生活，也使包括标识工作室在内的公司很难招聘到优秀的员工。
同时，由于区域相对的封闭性，许多从业者往往没有太多的交易经验，给当地标识市场的价格带来许多麻烦。
But overall it’s a great community here and a great place to live, and we appreciate that. We get to do a lot of creative sign work for interesting clients. We stay busy trying to keep up with the demand and pay the bills, doing what we do best and keeping the lights on.
但蒂姆觉得，这里总体还是不错的，拥有很棒的社区，环境适宜居住，还可以为有趣的客户做很多创造性的标识，他说：“我们一直在尽最大的努力，跟上客户的需求，支付我们的账单，维持整个店铺的生存。 |
