FEATURE NAME EDUCATION BY JEFF AUTHOR WOOTEN
SCHOOL SIGNAGE O ne can make the case that education has played a significant role in shaping the career of Thomas Lamont. He studied auto body work at a vocational school and then learned painting, hand lettering, and airbrushing at the famed Butera School of Art in Boston where he was able to later focus these skills at various sign shops and even his own start-up sign company in pre-vinyl application days. Eventually Lamont adopted skill sets related to the burgeoning inkjet printing and vinyl cutting and found himself installing graphics for retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshall’s. He has even externed at other sign shops training their employees in vinyl applications. Today Lamont is successfully teaching students about the art and technologies of the sign trade (among other things) at the U.S. Blackstone Valley Regional Vocation16
Sign Builder Illustrated
January 2021
al Technical High School (Valley Tech) in Upton, Massachusetts, and opening their eyes to possible careers in the industry that they never knew existed before. Lamont first started with Valley Tech in 2014, after his son was accepted as a student there. He learned that the school was looking for someone to enhance and transform their curriculum and technical offerings in the Painting & Design Technology program with an infusion of interior decorating and more modern equipment and techniques. In essence, Lamont found himself going “full circle” back to his beginnings. (Note: Lamont has a co-teacher helping him with implementation of this program.) The Painting & Design Technology curriculum encompasses a wide range of segments related to interior design and interior and exterior painting. One of these fields is “signs and graphics,” which
has helped increase the program’s popularity. “The sign industry allows us to add more technologies, like being able to buy more printers,” says Lamont. “Now the students are designing their own graphics in Illustrator and producing them on our state-of-the-art machinery.” Accepted students start the program after exploring various fields of study they want to pursue. Lamont uses the analogy of the variety found at a grocery store to describe the four-year Painting & Technology curriculum at Valley Tech. “There are interior designers, painters, graphics artists, architects, sign makers, installers, etc.,” he says. “ADA and wayfinding even tie into the program. We’re showing students that, if they want to be an interior designer, the sign industry works hand-in-hand with that. They can see how it all marries together.” signshop.com
All Photos: Thomas Lamont.
A vocational school teacher finds success teaching signs and graphics.