HOLIDAY LIGHTS MAKE up a major part of the holiday season. That signature glow during the darkest evenings of the year helps to warm everyone’s hearts, to dream of sugarplum fairies … but what a hassle — actually putting them up, taking them down … amiright?
Enter The Jackson Lighting Crew: a family of eight led by owner of Bryans Signs & High Impact Graphics (Eastland, TX), Daniel Jackson and his wife, Ashley Jackson. With their six children — Zaiden, Landon, Ella, Madelyn, Ian and Taryn — the Jacksons, who’ve been in action since 2020, work not only at Christmas time, but year-round. “We also do wedding/backyard lighting,” Daniel says. “Everyone loves Christmas [but] everyone gets tired of putting lights up.”
To advertise this labor of love, Daniel wrapped the family pickup and trailer with graphics featuring Mr. Twinkle, the logo-mascot for this crew. Designing anything for yourself makes the project tougher than usual, Daniel says, “as you are not only showcasing your business but also your own sign and graphics shop.”
After poring through hundreds of logos with Ashley, the Jacksons settled on a light bulb for their logo. The first iteration had no arms, legs, not even eyes. “He was just a bulb with a green butt!” Daniel recalls. After battling it out with his better half, Daniel decided, “I need to make this more kid friendly, so I added the legs, arms, eyes, etc., and bam, Mr. Twinkle was born!”
Having produced the design in SAi Flexi, Daniel imaged the wrap on ORAFOL ORAJET 3651RA film using the shop’s Roland SOLJET PRO4 XR-640, then applied ORAGUARD 210 gloss laminate. Daniel allowed two days for the prints to outgas completely. With the help of Ricky Rodriguez, he installed the wraps in a day. “This job took three weeks from design to install and is for sure making a huge statement,” Daniel says.
When kids see this truck and trailer, they are immediately drawn to Mr. Twinkle; they want to discover more and ask what The Jackson Lighting Crew is doing, Daniel relates. “They already know it’s Christmas-something, so they have to know more!” Night visits bring even more excitement as the truck and trailer feature color-changing lights underneath.
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Last summer we reported on sign pros with side hustles (see signsofthetimes.com/112307) but this one seems extra special. Daniel credits his family and faith to not only make this part-time work possible, but to create the opportunity for him to spend more time with Ashley and their children, doing what they love. Plus, not simply along for the ride, the kids normally do a lot of behind-the-scenes jobs, from getting rolls of lights and screwing the bulbs in, to helping to load the trailer and making sure plenty of clips to attach the lights to houses are at hand.
With Bryans Signs producing them during its first year in operation, The Jackson Lighting Crew placed signs in their clients’ yards or business fronts, as many services do — “just getting our name out there,” Daniel says, “but it got to where we were having so many calls, HA!” Now they operate on word of mouth and a Facebook page only, and no longer use the signs. “We are more about our customers’ houses or business looking good,” Daniel says, “and we don’t want these signs taking away from [them].”
While the holidays obviously constitute the crew’s busiest season, Bryan states, “You may think you don’t need lights in the middle of July, but trust me you will find something sooner or later.”
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