Signwriter
What the work is
Designs, fabricates, paints and wraps signs for displays, buildings, hoardings, boats and structures.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Consults with clients and responds to proposals, sketches and written instructions to determine composition of signs
- Designs and creates signs and illustrations using computer software and signmaking machines
- Designs and creates murals, screen prints, gold leaf work and vinyl sign writing
- Applies vinyl wrapping to a variety of media
- Prints and plots on laminate and other paper types
- Measures and calculates letter size, prepares the surface, and applies background paint using brushes, sprays and rollers
- Paints signs and letters using lacquers, varnishes, paints and other materials on brick, metal, timber, glass, plastic and other surfaces
- May make three-dimensional signs
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a sign workshop that designs, paints, cuts and installs signs for shops, vehicles, buildings and boats. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A hand-painted shopfront sign goes up and passers-by stop to stare at it
- A van wrap goes on smoothly and the business owner cannot stop grinning
- Your first letter on a long sign is perfect, and you relax into the rest
Hard days
- A sign installed high up on a windy day with a customer watching
- A client who sends a tiny blurry logo and wants it on a billboard
- Realising a spelling mistake was in the artwork you were given and nobody checked
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 391531, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.