Dawn VanDerwarker
Whitehall,NY
Summary
Designing Signs for Visionary Minds
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Artist/Owner
Self-employed - Creative D-SIGNS & Concepts
Whitehall, NY
01.2024 - Current
- In 2019 I purchased a three story Brick Building with a storefront in Whitehall, NY. I needed Larger space and a better location to expand my per-existing hobby like sign making business that I was doing out of my two car garage in Kingsbury, NY.
- At this new location I offer a small retail space out front that concentrates on unique retro advertising and military items which acts as a draw to foot traffic and those passing through.
- In the rear of this shop is my workspace where I do everything from vinyl signs and banners to fully dimensional 3-d Signage. All my hard work over the years trying to build the 3-Dimensional part of the sign business paid off. To this day the bulk of my business is the unique hand carved signs. From this location I have done multiple Large out of state jobs.
Artist/Small Business Owner
Self-employed
North Hudson, NY
02.2006 - 11.2011
- At this location, I took the leap and rented a storefront in a small town with the population of 240 people. Because the town was small and the shop was big, I decided to have a consignment shop in the front to draw people in, and had the sign shop in the back, where there was plenty of space.
- I had purchased a vinyl cutter and did a lot of Truck lettering, Banners and Vinyl signage. At the time, vinyl was primarily the bulk of my business, but my interest was getting into hand carved dimensional signage.
- To break into the dimensional sign field - I offered discounted prices to make these laborious signs affordable just so I could start Building my portfolio - to which I did.
- In 2011 My family made the decision to relocate closer to my husbands work, so I closed down this shops location and decided to work out of my two car garage at my new home in Kingsbury NY. Work followed me from the storefront location and the jobs kept getting bigger
Artist-Model Maker
Dunham's Studio
Pottersville , NY
01.1999 - 01.2006
- Here I built Museum grade custom made models and scenery for a model railroader. We built layouts that went all around the United States. Some of these jobs were for private clients but most of them were for Museums or themed based venues.
- For this job I would be given a photo of an existing structure and I had to recreate it in whatever scale the project was being built in. To build these structures we would have to build pieces by scratch and make molds to reproduce them or we would kit bash using pre-existing pieces to get the desired result.
- There were times due to the lack of work we would get laid off, I took the opportunity during one of layoffs to make the leap and start a business of my own.
Education
Associate of Arts - Advertising
Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, FL06-1994
Skills
- From Concept to Creation and everything in-between
Timeline
Artist/Owner
Self-employed - Creative D-SIGNS & Concepts
01.2024 - Current
Artist/Small Business Owner
Self-employed
02.2006 - 11.2011
Artist-Model Maker
Dunham's Studio
01.1999 - 01.2006
Associate of Arts - Advertising
Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale
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