June 2012 - Trade Magazines

Erik Sine · June 2, 2012

The winner is Signs of The Times again!

Signs of the Times #1

What a nice change. I've enjoyed, and have enjoyed reading this magazine once again. Not perfect by any means but much better for the electric sign trade than the others. Neon's not being shit on, and neither are fluorescent lamps and their writing in a way that's showing exactly how these light sources should be used.

Wade's digging a little deeper, and in the right areas. He's calling the right people these days, and if those people answer the call then you'll be reading a much better unbiased magazine in the months to come. In turn, Signs of The Times will have new discovery and they will serve this trade much better, and repair what's been broken if this path continues.

The most important aspect or part to all this is, the reporting on the "little" things. The little things is what make a big difference, because perception alone can make change, and bring back what's been missing.

Hopefully that Discovery will come through and become a regular game changer, for that reason alone, I'm very, VERY interested to read what comes in July.

Sign Builder Illustrated has some nice articles on other aspects of the trade and it's nice to hear from Sharon Toji. When it comes to the Electric Sign trade, their going in the wrong direction, and they need to get a new advisory/support staff, their trusting those that they obtain information from and it's misleading this industry in a bad way :help:

Sign Builder was the very first trade magazine that I picked up in the early 90's when I entered this trade. It fell short and got better again when I wrote/contributed to a few articles when the others were doing god awful. Hopefully this is a passing cycle, but they need to figure out what the advantages and disadvantages are to all light sources i.e. Neon & Fluorescent, LED lamps and base/throw out submissions that don't report the right facts. Stop reporting LED's as a "wonder" light source for all phases, it's mis-information to the readers and mis-characterization of light source manufacturers

Signs & Digital something, the name escapes me right now, it honestly does & I'm not trying to be cute or funny. My minds drawing a blank on this Friday. Read it, again, not impressed in anyway, it's still a brochure mag and they have no business asking people to pay to be a subscriber the bill of circulation should be fitted on the advertising alone. At one time they had a decent magazine Ken, fire your staff and start anew.

If one of these magazines can dig deep into some controversial topics as they should if they want to call themselves "Journalists" that affect our Industry, that magazine will outshine (in sign terms) their competition. We should always count on competition to make the world a better place, it's how we advance ourselves.