Jeff's Lettering

02/14/2026

This is the start of our 39th year in business.

We somewhat recently stumbled on to a "old" ledger that my wife used to use to keep track of our jobs.

Although I have been doing lettering since 1980. Our 15th job after "officially" going into business for our selves, was lettering and pin-striping a stock trailer for Larry Fowler in 1987.

Fast forward nearly 39 years, we recently lettered a semi for Larry. I think that's a reasonable length of longevity on both our parts.

I haven't looked at the entire ledger, but it sure is an interesting taking a trip down memory lane.🙂

12/25/2025

11/29/2025

Ok, so this post isn’t really that important, read it if you’re bored. Carry on if you have better things to do.😃

Recently we have had inquiries about how many “big rocks” we have and where do we keep them all.

We have two vinyl balls, Sticky and Scrappy, that people think are big rocks on our property. “What is a vinyl ball?” Scrappy has a page that explains it very well. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1952358298384364/

Sticky, our first born🙄 (vinyl ball), was started in the early 2000’s; Scrappy in 2010. Through the years, usually after they start showing some age, they will receive some sort of facelift.

This fall Sticky (he lives down by the road, our driveway marker) received such a facelift. He was transformed to look like a pumpkin. Last weekend we changed him again to his current look, the snowman head. Kind of fitting based on the pending weather this weekend.

They will likely stay the way they are until spring. I have an idea for Sticky in the spring . . . stay tuned . . . if you want.🤓

11/27/2025

Happy Thanksgiving 😊

We give thanks to having so much work to do, we are working on Thanksgiving. 🙄😎

10/01/2025

We are massively backed up with work right now, but we had to squeeze this job in late yesterday. Brain and Dave want to use it to help with hauling grain for their family farm this fall harvest.

This is truck number 100 for Gallano Trucking.

It is a 1985 International Cabover.

It’s a simplistic lettering job compared to most Gallano trucks, but it fits the nostalgic era.

Keep an eye out, you might see this relic hauling grain around our county this fall.

05/19/2025

Downtown Belvidere.

Another out with the old . . . in with the new 6' x 30' billboard.

We did the Crime Stoppers one 17 years ago.

05/13/2025

Today I had a customer say to me “You have probably lettered most of Boone County.”

That’s obviously an overstatement, but this is my 45th year of doing lettering. I can probably go back farther, but I know in 1980 at 15 - 16 years old I did my first paying lettering job.

These are photos of some of my earliest hand lettering jobs.

A lot has changed in the lettering business. I started out hand lettering, airbrushing, and freehand pinstriping. I haven’t done any of that in many years now. It’s all computer-generated vinyl lettering and / or digital printed now. One thing that hasn’t changed is me doing my absolute best to produce the best product possible.

Which leads me to a recent question from another customer. “Why do you think you are so busy?” My answer: “I’m good. I have been doing this for a long time, and I have a large customer base.”

We (my wife and I) are very overwhelmed with work and life and have been for some time now. We just can’t get done what we used to in a day. I do apologize to those customers that have to wait longer than they used to.

Ok, back to work.

04/12/2025

SPECIAL ALERT ! ! ! !

My "old white car" is out of winter storage. If you see me and it out and about, I might not just be cruising. I actually use it as a work vehicle. SEE PHOTO . . . or, just mind your own business !

01/06/2025

We haven't posted our updated job photos since October 2023, so here they are.

We REALLY need to do this more often. Great . . . yet another New Year's resolution to try to keep up with.😁

01/06/2025