Inspired by neon sign, Michael Doret makes a font, and gets hired by the neon sign owners

AIGA Los Angeles has a great story from Michael Doret, on how a neon sign helped him break a font-funk, and then got him hired by the great-granddaughter of the original neon sign owner! "When I started my Deliscript project I couldn’t have forseen how it could have triggered this series of serendipitous events. What started out as my source of inspiration spun around, did a 360, and found me as their source. "

What was interesting about this whole thing was that by blogging about the font and my inspirations for it, I had set wheels in motion that would eventually bring my work to the attention of one of the yougest and most creative members of the Canter family. She and her sister Dena had Googled “Canter’s Deli” and “Font” hoping to find an interesting font that they could use to design their truck. What they found was my blog where I had written about Deliscript and how their restaurant’s neon sign had served as my initial inspiration. But she realized that rather than just purchasing Deliscript and trying to design the truck themselves, that they might achieve better results by actually hiring the designer who had found inpiration in their signage. This actually went counter to the usual route taken by Canter’s in the past, which was more of a do-it-yourself attitude (as evidenced by the multiple competing signs in front of the restaurant). Bonnie didn’t go along with the conventional wisdom that anybody with a PC could now be a designer, and that there actually is value to hiring a professional.