I'll (hopefully very soon) be getting my initial license in New York, and I've always been partial to their stamps:
Excelsior!
Pennsylvania isn't too shabby, either:
And I think Washington gets the prize for being the weirdest:
This guy Marcus L. Jones really gets around.
What are your favorites?
chigurh
Sep 14, 15 12:13 pm
C.C.C.P.
gruen
Sep 14, 15 12:19 pm
washington's the best, hands down.
shellarchitect
Sep 14, 15 12:24 pm
self inking or regular?
gruen
Sep 14, 15 12:24 pm
Oh yeah - and before you buy your stamp from some online stamp place, be VERY sure that the stamp design exactly matches the state requirements.
In one of my states, I purchased an online stamp that was NOT the same - in fact the state has given a monopoly to a single vendor of stamps and I had to spend twice the money to get the correct stamp.
Some states require that you send a copy of your stamp in for approval and filing after you've gotten the stamp - this is where I got dinged, my stamp didn't match.
gruen
Sep 14, 15 12:27 pm
Get regular, and scan it to insert into your drawings. If you can, just skip getting the stamp and draw it in CAD. A couple of my states I do not have a physical stamp, just the CAD stamp. Obviously, in the state w/the strict requirements, I have a physical stamp. But I never am physically stamping anything, I have it in CAD and jpg and PDF stamp.
JeromeS
Sep 14, 15 12:57 pm
NY allows digital. I have an AutoCAD version of the same; no need to scan. It can be found via a simple web search.
I'll save my $100 for something else. Thank you.
Sep 14, 15 2:07 pm
I have seen one of the New York architect stamp embossed on a book "Architect & Builders Handbook" by Frank Kidder / etc. The book was given to me by a good friend. I keep that book for personal reasons.
If I was getting an architect stamp, I would prefer to wet stamp it with wet signature vs. a CAD stamp because of actual prints would possess the stamp and they are done so deliberately. It also indicates that the plans were before me and under my control because the stamp would be that. Under my responsible control. The ink is different between that used in printers and that used in wet stamps. It provides some proof of authenticity.
Sep 14, 15 2:08 pm
JeromeS,
I wonder if it is considered a tax deduction?
poop876
Sep 14, 15 2:14 pm
Richard,
obviously you haven't dealt with large sets of drawings. I review one set but when submitting, digital stamp is VERY helpful instead of wasting time wet stamping each sheet.
gruen
Sep 14, 15 2:27 pm
and to echo poop (LOL). Sometimes worth it to find out if EACH sheet needs to be stamped and signed, or just the cover. Even in a small set, the time to stamp and sign each page can be difficult. Give me the digital stamp every time and I'll sign with a blue pen, still shows I was there and did it.
3tk
Sep 14, 15 2:44 pm
Some place in NJ wanted the seal embossed on each set and every sheet - nothing like getting a phone call to change the submission date after you've gone through each set with the embosser...
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 2:47 pm
It isn't always feasible to wet stamp large sets, especially for public projects in states where the set is required to be issued by a particular print house that is hours from our office. It wouldn't make much sense to print a 1000 sheet set in-house, stamp every page, drive it hours to the printer, just so they could scan it back in - nor would it make sense to transmit the drawings electronically to the printer but then waste the principal's time driving to the printer to stamp them just so they could scan them back in.
This is not to say you shouldn't own a stamp - there are times when it comes in useful. Check your state's regs - one of mine doesn't allow an embosser, only a rubber stamp.
And yes, of course it's a tax deduction. It's supplies for the business.
Sep 14, 15 3:06 pm
gruen,
The traditional standard of care is to review through each sheet and do a final review of each sheet for any corrections, make any corrections all before stamping them and approving them.
However, some practices changes over time. The argument isn't about what practice is right or wrong, anyway.
In this case, I think it is more a personal preference to some degree.
If I was designing the stamp, I can prepare it in CAD or something and then send the vector file and such to the stamp company. I also would have the digital file anyway. Therefore, I would have the option.
They are good points. Remember, you stamp each sheet as you review the sheet with a thorough and critical review. In which case, there is a little bit of time between each sheet. Sometimes you have to go back and forth a few times. Either way, it isn't like you are stamping and signing sheets at a rate of a sheet every 5 second.
I suppose you could do it after you done the thorough review and then go through the sheets but there is no legitimate rationale to rush... ever.
You have good points but digital stamps can be easy utilized by staff getting access to the digital file which can be a problem.
A physical stamp can be locked away so you have exclusive control.
Donna Sink
Sep 14, 15 3:23 pm
I once had a chart showing all 50 states' architect stamps that I showed to my Pro Practice class, can't find it now. As I recall there is one state with a very boring rectangle of text, but almost all of them have a circle.
Except Idaho's. which is similar to Washington's:
(Marcus, seriously!! The annual renewal fees must be stratospheric!)
My initial registration was in Pennsylvania, which is a nice-looking stamp. I still have it, just not allowed to use it as I let my licensure lapse.
Sep 14, 15 3:23 pm
JBeaumont,
Good point.
In that situation, I'd print the original and stamp it (hypothetically speaking) and then send that to the print house via registered mail. (It gets incorporated into the billing)
If the print house is close to them to pick up then when the digital scans are made and emailed or otherwise to me and the client and the print copies are made and ready, they can notify the client to schedule a pick up of the plans otherwise, it is mailed via registered mail to the client.
If they chosen an inconvenient print house and they don't like the slow pace of registered mail then they can suck a big willy.
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 3:25 pm
There aren't all that many cases of people using a stamp without an architect's permission, and when that has happened it's usually been a former employee using a dead architect's stamp. Locking up a stamp is no protection against this anyway, if somebody really wants to do it. There's no ID or proof of license required to order a stamp - anybody can order the stamp of anyone else, or of a fictitious architect, or of someone who isn't an architect at all (i.e. there's nothing stopping you Richard, or me JBeaumont from ordering a "Richard Balkins, Licensed Architect" stamp.)
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 3:29 pm
Richard it would be impractical to print a large set in-house, stamp it, and mail it. And a total waste of time - the state allows (and expects) a digital signature and stamp, and we're not going to be competitive if we have to bill clients for the time to print 1000 sheets, the paper and ink, the time to stamp the 1000 sheets, to package and mail them, and the postage. The drawing review and redlining happens almost entirely in pdfs - they might as well stay in that form for stamping.
Donna Sink
Sep 14, 15 3:33 pm
No conversation about stamping can happen without reference to one of the best Archinect threads of all time: Arch Stamp or Butt Plug???
JeromeS
Sep 14, 15 3:33 pm
I echo the blue pen. Make mine a Sharpie.
NJ is different. No digital / no wet stamp. Embossing stamp issued by the State- you pay them directly for it.
Sep 14, 15 3:39 pm
.
Sep 14, 15 3:50 pm
JBeaumont,
I can see where the competitive point comes in. If they are expecting digital submission and everything, they will need that stamp. Biggest concern with digital stamp and signature is that when you're in what would likely be a corporate firm of considerable size, you would likely be on shared network with the other people in the office. Most if not all states expect stamp being under exclusive control of the architect who is issued the stamp and their digital signature as well be under digital signature being under exclusive control.
This can get problematic if the stamp or digital signature in any way can be applied by anyone in the office if they somehow gained access to the digital stamp or digital signature.
Solvable to a point but for every method to protect and secure digital content there are methods of circumventing them.
Yes, I further agree with the post where I could in fact obtain such a stamp but doing so would be more vanity than anything unless I become truly licensed and is therefore legally allowed to stamp. I would get in trouble if I were using the stamp on plans being submitted without the actual architect stamp.
I don't do that kind of shenanigans for respect of the law and the profession.
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 3:58 pm
Anybody could do that with a wet stamp too - they can just scan one impression of it from any stamped drawing and then use it digitally, or as I already described just order themselves a copy of the stamp. Somebody who really wants to impersonate the principal isn't going to balk at mail ordering themselves a $16 stamp.
Sep 14, 15 5:36 pm
However, no printer will match the ink of a wet stamp. They are different ink formula. That is why a scanned copy and print will often look a little different but it also doesn't print and effect the paper the same way. Ink chemistry is different between printer ink and ink used in a wet stamp or even a pen signature. All three are different chemistry formulas.
Then again the B.O. isn't brilliant enough to distinguish between a fake printer printed wet stamp from the real McCoy.
However, mail ordering a stamp is true. I may do further things to distinguish my own issued plans from something that a client could xerox. This would not exactly be the most 'competitive' in terms of cheapness but is something you just can't print and be the same.... that is cyanotype print making and the other being manual diazo prints. A diazo machine would make the task faster for diazo process but if I can get a hold of one, I would use it in a proper location.
There is no faking my diazo prints with a plotted copies.
Cyanotype is also something you can't do the same with add to the fact I can actually use tracing cloth of the right kind.
However, doing that on a large 1000+ sheet set(s) would be very difficult to do without a work team to go through the process. Diazo would be faster than cyanotype especially when using a diazo machine. The manual method is a little more time because I have to manually do steps that would otherwise be automated. The cyanotype is a slower process and wet process at that. The good thing with diazo is I can get the pre-coated paper if I look around. Cyanotype is a little harder but I can get the chemicals and they are typically less toxic.
Either way, you can't exactly fake them with plots or xerox machines.
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 6:53 pm
Our public projects are bid and the state requires that all the sets come from a particular printer - the print house may issue 50 or more of the bid set, which will usually become the final construction sets for the winning GC and selected subs. There's no way to know who those will be when the sets are first issued. The winning GC is the one who goes after the permit. So unless the architect wet stamps every set issued - which is completely impractical - the set that goes to the BO is never going to have a wet stamp, even if the original did.
Unless you're in one of the few remaining states that require a wet stamp, this isn't going to be an issue with a BO. I don't understand why you'd mess around with cyanotype or diazo printing at this point - it wouldn't meet the requirements for public projects where I am, and certainly isn't time or cost effective even for very small projects. Particularly in a 1-person operation there's little if any reason to worry about anyone submitting "fake" stamped/signed drawings. Unless you're operating some sort of Colonial Williamsburg equivalent of an anachronistic working architect's office from days of yore as a local tourist attraction I can't see any advantage, appeal, or sanity in that method in 2015.
Everyday Intern
Sep 14, 15 7:04 pm
I worked for a firm where the principal was licensed in something like 42 of the 54 jurisdictions. He did a lot of work for a national chain and actively used the majority of them. He had them all lined up on a bookshelf alphabetically. I can't even imagine what it took for him to keep them all renewed and current. It seemed like every other week he was getting a different renewal notice in the mail.
I'm in favor of more stamps being less circular (following WA and ID). That said, Washington's is a little too simplistic of a representation in my opinion.
Although circular, I do like WA's landscape architect stamp ... just look at the hearts in that tree.
"The stamp must be of a 1" minimum–2" maximum diameter circular shape. The design of the circle may include solid lines (thin or thick) or broken lines, such as dashes or dots. Other possibilities include a rope or beaded effect or words forming the circle. Embellishments (stars, graphic designs) are also acceptable as long as the stamp is legible. "
David Cole, AIA
Sep 14, 15 7:19 pm
^ So that's the prize for having to pass an extra exam division. Interesting.
Not only is our friend Marcus L. Jones a registered architect in all fifty states, he's also a registered sex offender in Kansas and Florida. This guy has quite the back story.
null pointer
Sep 14, 15 7:25 pm
holy fucking balkins.
the lack of practical experience is just showing through.
your goal, to keep every party involved happy, is to minimize the amount of bitchwork involved in your process. in all likelihood, the architect stamping the drawings is going to have seen the drawings two hundred and fifty times prior to issuing them. it takes a certain kind of idiot to think that stamping out 3 75-sheet sets by hand is a good way to spend your time or even an intern's time. time spent doing shit like that is time you don't get to spend refining your business systems, and time your intern doesn't get to spend working on a building.
anyways.
what i am trying to say is: you have no fucking clue about what you're talking about. please refrain from addressing issues of process in practice when your experience in practice is limited to having read the 2008 edition of the professional practice handbook.
null pointer
Sep 14, 15 7:29 pm
also, drafting the new york stamp would have taken me an hour and a half.and at my billing rate, that's a couple of hundred bucks.
in contrast, i charged my client the time it took for me to order the goddamn cad stamp and saved him like 200+ bucks in hourly billing. if you're drafting your stamp yourself, you're a dick .
JeromeS
Sep 14, 15 7:44 pm
remember when Google would list how many fractions of a second a search took? Do they still do that?
diazo wtf? all those steps is the equivalent of spending thousands of dollars on deadbolts for a door that's surrounded by windows to protect a vacant house.
seriously, how often does someone fake a stamp? i'd love to hear stories about that. perhaps a new thread is in order?
poop876
Sep 14, 15 9:04 pm
Null pointer, you beat me to it! Completed about 70 jobs this year using a digital stamp and nobody said a thing. Client is happy and I'm happy when I get paid. Just get the shit done!
Sep 14, 15 9:10 pm
Null,
Drafting the stamp would be something one would do ONCE to make a good clean vector drawing with vector fonts. For example: Lets say I get licensed in California, I may design the stamp but I want to rope pattern on the outer ring for example. Just as an example. I wouldn't charge the client for that. My time gets compensated over profits over time. It's one of those 'unbilled time investment' that doesn't cost me per se because its done on personal time. The billable cost is the physical stamp. Not the design. Using a shitty bitmap is puke. CAD is a vector format so making it isn't a problem.
I would send the vector drawing (CAD .dwg) to the stamp maker to make the physical stamp from clean vector drawing. That's how I would look it.
shellarchitect
Sep 14, 15 9:14 pm
that butt plug thread is great - the philip johnson line made me choke
awaiting_deletion
Sep 14, 15 9:16 pm
try 'trace' in Adobe illustrator, done in seconds....vector based CAD stamp.
David Cole, AIA
Sep 14, 15 9:39 pm
Um, many stamp makers give you the vector format for free when you order a rubber stamp. They already have the approved design for each state on file, and you just give them your name and registration number. Anybody who drafts an architectural stamp from scratch is an idiot.
David Cole, I suppose if they have that. In some places, you have some variability which is permitted like California,... do they provide the customization for those options. It depends.
Donna Sink
Sep 14, 15 10:24 pm
I think designing your own stamp could be fun. Look at this one, and look very, very closely at the outer circle (or read down the thread to find out what I am referring to...)
JBeaumont
Sep 14, 15 11:22 pm
Eh. Customizing the stamp seems like the licensed architect version of the M.Arch applicants who agonize over their custom-designed portfolio cover hinges. Just seems unnecessary and not the best priority in areas in which to show off one's cleverness. The stamp companies have the digital files for almost every state. The digital files were $3 extra when I bought my stamps, so: worth it unless I could do it in CAD or Illustrator in less than 3 minutes.
Sep 15, 15 12:05 am
JBeaumont,
Since we are talking hypothetical. I probably would have a Wet & Digital stamp in reality. If I were doing cyanotype official prints, I would likely have the digital seal (and digital signature if allowed otherwise wet signature on the cyanotypes copies). That way, it minimizes delivery impact. I can speed up the development time on cyanotypes by using hydrogen peroxide.
The negative is the drying time but it can be timed so there is minimal impact on schedule as the building departments are not open on weekends so it doesn't matter.
But a day or so to dry the prints isn't a bad use of a weekend because the paper would be drying at that time which otherwise would not be needed.
Doing the exposure and development on a friday and hang to dry. Visit clients for whatever stuff needs to be done on a weekend. Saturday site visits or meeting clients on an earlier phase of the project.
You can always be doing stuff while the plans dry.
It is possible to do this on the weekend. Preparing the emulsion and coating the sheets on other days are also doable in a fairly quick time frame.
Coating sheets on one day and exposing a day or two later and developing on the next day then let dry for the next day or two after that.
Wednesday/Thursday, Friday and then dry over the weekend for example. Deliver plans Monday or Tuesday. If you got multiple UV emitting lamps at multiple light tables for exposure, multiple sheets can be exposed at the same time and light deactivated at timed set intervals, then you take it to the 'bathing' station and do the development. Then you hang to dry. Hiring someone at minimum wage to do just that can be fine. Once they know the art of the process, it isn't rocket science. With light lamps, one can do some of this in the evening or at night.
It's all doable in practice.
A little timing optimization can be done for all this. The key is once exposure is made, the key is to get it into the wash to develop the prints.
Everyday Intern
Sep 15, 15 12:29 am
"Once they know the art of the process, it isn't rocket science."
I think the art and the rocket science is in taking a perfectly straightforward thread and derailing it by talking about diazo prints. Life must move at a different pace out there in Oregon.
I think you should get a stamp to place on any thread once it has been Balkanized. Digital is fine, wet stamping might leave marks on your monitor.
Sep 15, 15 12:34 am
Ever heard of the saying, NOTHING positively has to happen today.
Since we covered that, back to regularly schedule programming.
JBeaumont
Sep 15, 15 2:43 am
Hypothetically you could chisel all your drawings into stone tablets and/or inscribe them on Ukrainian Easter eggs with a tiny stylus dipped in wax. Either makes about as much sense as building a room for your toxic chemicals, hiring someone at minimum wage, and drying drawings under lights all night when you can send a pdf to a print house and get as many stamped and signed Arch D copies on plotter paper as you need in under 20 minutes for 65 cents each.
But I really think this living-history pretend architecture firm from the turn of the 20th century might be just the niche for you. You'll need another minimum wage guy to shuttle the tourists from the Greyhound station to your basement via the Balkins Reality Bus. And some pizza bagels.
Sep 15, 15 4:00 am
Cyanotype chemicals isn't that toxic any more than most household chemicals. As for diazo, the only chemical stored would be ammonia.
Sure, everything is toxic if you are crazily stupid and try to drink the stuff in gallon jugs. Maybe, you have a serious problem if you do that.
Aside from your comedy by the way, for a more regular size set of drawings that are 15-25 sheets not 75 sheets or 1000 sheets unless you are designing the world's biggest and tallest erected penis in the world or something. Most of us works on more modest projects than that.
Two chemicals.
Iron(III) Ammonium Citrate
Potassium Ferricyanide
Bottom line: The chemicals aren't the most toxic stuff out there. It's chemicals so most basic safety of handling and you'll be fine.
They are available from Sargent Welch.
It isn't even like you have to really deal with high toxic stuff. In diazo, concentrated Ammonia would be a tad problematic but you wouldn't even need to use pure concentrated Ammonia. Household ammonia will do.
Even if you mixed 1 part contrated ammonia to 5 part household ammonia, you'll be fine. Might want to ventilate and wear a respirator with chemical cartridges that are current. Aside from that, it isn't like you need to do that with cyanotype stuff which doesn't even call for a respirator as being mandatory to use. Just don't consume it and you'd be okay and where gloves so you don't become a blue smurf.
null pointer
Sep 15, 15 7:25 am
yet another derail.
surprise!
awaiting_deletion
Sep 15, 15 8:01 am
stamp stamp stamp.......I have seen napkin sketches (essentially) professionally certified. i have stamped sketches on site to give the sketch authority, let me guess not legal use - tell me something that matters.........i just find the NJ state owned embosser annoying. took me a few tries to realize you sign first and then emboss, doh......the seals with state shapes look unnoffical to me. NYS winner.
shellarchitect
Sep 15, 15 8:17 am
I think I got lost, is there an advantage to cyanotype printing over whatever the normal process is called?
x-jla
Sep 15, 15 10:12 am
^ I think he is trying to tell us not to drink cyanotype chemicals? Good thing, I was just about to pour myself a glass...
I'll (hopefully very soon) be getting my initial license in New York, and I've always been partial to their stamps:
Excelsior!
Pennsylvania isn't too shabby, either:
And I think Washington gets the prize for being the weirdest:
This guy Marcus L. Jones really gets around.
What are your favorites?
C.C.C.P.
washington's the best, hands down.
self inking or regular?
Oh yeah - and before you buy your stamp from some online stamp place, be VERY sure that the stamp design exactly matches the state requirements.
In one of my states, I purchased an online stamp that was NOT the same - in fact the state has given a monopoly to a single vendor of stamps and I had to spend twice the money to get the correct stamp.
Some states require that you send a copy of your stamp in for approval and filing after you've gotten the stamp - this is where I got dinged, my stamp didn't match.
Get regular, and scan it to insert into your drawings. If you can, just skip getting the stamp and draw it in CAD. A couple of my states I do not have a physical stamp, just the CAD stamp. Obviously, in the state w/the strict requirements, I have a physical stamp. But I never am physically stamping anything, I have it in CAD and jpg and PDF stamp.
NY allows digital. I have an AutoCAD version of the same; no need to scan. It can be found via a simple web search.
I'll save my $100 for something else. Thank you.
I have seen one of the New York architect stamp embossed on a book "Architect & Builders Handbook" by Frank Kidder / etc. The book was given to me by a good friend. I keep that book for personal reasons.
If I was getting an architect stamp, I would prefer to wet stamp it with wet signature vs. a CAD stamp because of actual prints would possess the stamp and they are done so deliberately. It also indicates that the plans were before me and under my control because the stamp would be that. Under my responsible control. The ink is different between that used in printers and that used in wet stamps. It provides some proof of authenticity.
JeromeS,
I wonder if it is considered a tax deduction?
Richard,
obviously you haven't dealt with large sets of drawings. I review one set but when submitting, digital stamp is VERY helpful instead of wasting time wet stamping each sheet.
and to echo poop (LOL). Sometimes worth it to find out if EACH sheet needs to be stamped and signed, or just the cover. Even in a small set, the time to stamp and sign each page can be difficult. Give me the digital stamp every time and I'll sign with a blue pen, still shows I was there and did it.
Some place in NJ wanted the seal embossed on each set and every sheet - nothing like getting a phone call to change the submission date after you've gone through each set with the embosser...
It isn't always feasible to wet stamp large sets, especially for public projects in states where the set is required to be issued by a particular print house that is hours from our office. It wouldn't make much sense to print a 1000 sheet set in-house, stamp every page, drive it hours to the printer, just so they could scan it back in - nor would it make sense to transmit the drawings electronically to the printer but then waste the principal's time driving to the printer to stamp them just so they could scan them back in.
This is not to say you shouldn't own a stamp - there are times when it comes in useful. Check your state's regs - one of mine doesn't allow an embosser, only a rubber stamp.
And yes, of course it's a tax deduction. It's supplies for the business.
gruen,
The traditional standard of care is to review through each sheet and do a final review of each sheet for any corrections, make any corrections all before stamping them and approving them.
However, some practices changes over time. The argument isn't about what practice is right or wrong, anyway.
In this case, I think it is more a personal preference to some degree.
If I was designing the stamp, I can prepare it in CAD or something and then send the vector file and such to the stamp company. I also would have the digital file anyway. Therefore, I would have the option.
They are good points. Remember, you stamp each sheet as you review the sheet with a thorough and critical review. In which case, there is a little bit of time between each sheet. Sometimes you have to go back and forth a few times. Either way, it isn't like you are stamping and signing sheets at a rate of a sheet every 5 second.
I suppose you could do it after you done the thorough review and then go through the sheets but there is no legitimate rationale to rush... ever.
You have good points but digital stamps can be easy utilized by staff getting access to the digital file which can be a problem.
A physical stamp can be locked away so you have exclusive control.
I once had a chart showing all 50 states' architect stamps that I showed to my Pro Practice class, can't find it now. As I recall there is one state with a very boring rectangle of text, but almost all of them have a circle.
Except Idaho's. which is similar to Washington's:
(Marcus, seriously!! The annual renewal fees must be stratospheric!)
My initial registration was in Pennsylvania, which is a nice-looking stamp. I still have it, just not allowed to use it as I let my licensure lapse.
JBeaumont,
Good point.
In that situation, I'd print the original and stamp it (hypothetically speaking) and then send that to the print house via registered mail. (It gets incorporated into the billing)
If the print house is close to them to pick up then when the digital scans are made and emailed or otherwise to me and the client and the print copies are made and ready, they can notify the client to schedule a pick up of the plans otherwise, it is mailed via registered mail to the client.
If they chosen an inconvenient print house and they don't like the slow pace of registered mail then they can suck a big willy.
There aren't all that many cases of people using a stamp without an architect's permission, and when that has happened it's usually been a former employee using a dead architect's stamp. Locking up a stamp is no protection against this anyway, if somebody really wants to do it. There's no ID or proof of license required to order a stamp - anybody can order the stamp of anyone else, or of a fictitious architect, or of someone who isn't an architect at all (i.e. there's nothing stopping you Richard, or me JBeaumont from ordering a "Richard Balkins, Licensed Architect" stamp.)
Richard it would be impractical to print a large set in-house, stamp it, and mail it. And a total waste of time - the state allows (and expects) a digital signature and stamp, and we're not going to be competitive if we have to bill clients for the time to print 1000 sheets, the paper and ink, the time to stamp the 1000 sheets, to package and mail them, and the postage. The drawing review and redlining happens almost entirely in pdfs - they might as well stay in that form for stamping.
No conversation about stamping can happen without reference to one of the best Archinect threads of all time: Arch Stamp or Butt Plug???
I echo the blue pen. Make mine a Sharpie.
NJ is different. No digital / no wet stamp. Embossing stamp issued by the State- you pay them directly for it.
.
JBeaumont,
I can see where the competitive point comes in. If they are expecting digital submission and everything, they will need that stamp. Biggest concern with digital stamp and signature is that when you're in what would likely be a corporate firm of considerable size, you would likely be on shared network with the other people in the office. Most if not all states expect stamp being under exclusive control of the architect who is issued the stamp and their digital signature as well be under digital signature being under exclusive control.
This can get problematic if the stamp or digital signature in any way can be applied by anyone in the office if they somehow gained access to the digital stamp or digital signature.
Solvable to a point but for every method to protect and secure digital content there are methods of circumventing them.
Yes, I further agree with the post where I could in fact obtain such a stamp but doing so would be more vanity than anything unless I become truly licensed and is therefore legally allowed to stamp. I would get in trouble if I were using the stamp on plans being submitted without the actual architect stamp.
I don't do that kind of shenanigans for respect of the law and the profession.
Anybody could do that with a wet stamp too - they can just scan one impression of it from any stamped drawing and then use it digitally, or as I already described just order themselves a copy of the stamp. Somebody who really wants to impersonate the principal isn't going to balk at mail ordering themselves a $16 stamp.
However, no printer will match the ink of a wet stamp. They are different ink formula. That is why a scanned copy and print will often look a little different but it also doesn't print and effect the paper the same way. Ink chemistry is different between printer ink and ink used in a wet stamp or even a pen signature. All three are different chemistry formulas.
Then again the B.O. isn't brilliant enough to distinguish between a fake printer printed wet stamp from the real McCoy.
However, mail ordering a stamp is true. I may do further things to distinguish my own issued plans from something that a client could xerox. This would not exactly be the most 'competitive' in terms of cheapness but is something you just can't print and be the same.... that is cyanotype print making and the other being manual diazo prints. A diazo machine would make the task faster for diazo process but if I can get a hold of one, I would use it in a proper location.
There is no faking my diazo prints with a plotted copies.
Cyanotype is also something you can't do the same with add to the fact I can actually use tracing cloth of the right kind.
However, doing that on a large 1000+ sheet set(s) would be very difficult to do without a work team to go through the process. Diazo would be faster than cyanotype especially when using a diazo machine. The manual method is a little more time because I have to manually do steps that would otherwise be automated. The cyanotype is a slower process and wet process at that. The good thing with diazo is I can get the pre-coated paper if I look around. Cyanotype is a little harder but I can get the chemicals and they are typically less toxic.
Either way, you can't exactly fake them with plots or xerox machines.
Our public projects are bid and the state requires that all the sets come from a particular printer - the print house may issue 50 or more of the bid set, which will usually become the final construction sets for the winning GC and selected subs. There's no way to know who those will be when the sets are first issued. The winning GC is the one who goes after the permit. So unless the architect wet stamps every set issued - which is completely impractical - the set that goes to the BO is never going to have a wet stamp, even if the original did.
Unless you're in one of the few remaining states that require a wet stamp, this isn't going to be an issue with a BO. I don't understand why you'd mess around with cyanotype or diazo printing at this point - it wouldn't meet the requirements for public projects where I am, and certainly isn't time or cost effective even for very small projects. Particularly in a 1-person operation there's little if any reason to worry about anyone submitting "fake" stamped/signed drawings. Unless you're operating some sort of Colonial Williamsburg equivalent of an anachronistic working architect's office from days of yore as a local tourist attraction I can't see any advantage, appeal, or sanity in that method in 2015.
I worked for a firm where the principal was licensed in something like 42 of the 54 jurisdictions. He did a lot of work for a national chain and actively used the majority of them. He had them all lined up on a bookshelf alphabetically. I can't even imagine what it took for him to keep them all renewed and current. It seemed like every other week he was getting a different renewal notice in the mail.
I'm in favor of more stamps being less circular (following WA and ID). That said, Washington's is a little too simplistic of a representation in my opinion.
Although circular, I do like WA's landscape architect stamp ... just look at the hearts in that tree.
CA lets you design your own...
http://www.cab.ca.gov/licensees/stamp/
"The stamp must be of a 1" minimum–2" maximum diameter circular shape. The design of the circle may include solid lines (thin or thick) or broken lines, such as dashes or dots. Other possibilities include a rope or beaded effect or words forming the circle. Embellishments (stars, graphic designs) are also acceptable as long as the stamp is legible. "
^ So that's the prize for having to pass an extra exam division. Interesting.
Not only is our friend Marcus L. Jones a registered architect in all fifty states, he's also a registered sex offender in Kansas and Florida. This guy has quite the back story.
holy fucking balkins.
the lack of practical experience is just showing through.
your goal, to keep every party involved happy, is to minimize the amount of bitchwork involved in your process. in all likelihood, the architect stamping the drawings is going to have seen the drawings two hundred and fifty times prior to issuing them. it takes a certain kind of idiot to think that stamping out 3 75-sheet sets by hand is a good way to spend your time or even an intern's time. time spent doing shit like that is time you don't get to spend refining your business systems, and time your intern doesn't get to spend working on a building.
anyways.
what i am trying to say is: you have no fucking clue about what you're talking about. please refrain from addressing issues of process in practice when your experience in practice is limited to having read the 2008 edition of the professional practice handbook.
also, drafting the new york stamp would have taken me an hour and a half.and at my billing rate, that's a couple of hundred bucks.
in contrast, i charged my client the time it took for me to order the goddamn cad stamp and saved him like 200+ bucks in hourly billing. if you're drafting your stamp yourself, you're a dick .
remember when Google would list how many fractions of a second a search took? Do they still do that?
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?88682-State-Seals
Why draft it when its already done?
my favorite stamp!
diazo wtf? all those steps is the equivalent of spending thousands of dollars on deadbolts for a door that's surrounded by windows to protect a vacant house.
seriously, how often does someone fake a stamp? i'd love to hear stories about that. perhaps a new thread is in order?
Null pointer, you beat me to it! Completed about 70 jobs this year using a digital stamp and nobody said a thing. Client is happy and I'm happy when I get paid. Just get the shit done!
Null,
Drafting the stamp would be something one would do ONCE to make a good clean vector drawing with vector fonts. For example: Lets say I get licensed in California, I may design the stamp but I want to rope pattern on the outer ring for example. Just as an example. I wouldn't charge the client for that. My time gets compensated over profits over time. It's one of those 'unbilled time investment' that doesn't cost me per se because its done on personal time. The billable cost is the physical stamp. Not the design. Using a shitty bitmap is puke. CAD is a vector format so making it isn't a problem.
I would send the vector drawing (CAD .dwg) to the stamp maker to make the physical stamp from clean vector drawing. That's how I would look it.
that butt plug thread is great - the philip johnson line made me choke
try 'trace' in Adobe illustrator, done in seconds....vector based CAD stamp.
Um, many stamp makers give you the vector format for free when you order a rubber stamp. They already have the approved design for each state on file, and you just give them your name and registration number. Anybody who drafts an architectural stamp from scratch is an idiot.
Example
.
David Cole, I suppose if they have that. In some places, you have some variability which is permitted like California,... do they provide the customization for those options. It depends.
I think designing your own stamp could be fun. Look at this one, and look very, very closely at the outer circle (or read down the thread to find out what I am referring to...)
Eh. Customizing the stamp seems like the licensed architect version of the M.Arch applicants who agonize over their custom-designed portfolio cover hinges. Just seems unnecessary and not the best priority in areas in which to show off one's cleverness. The stamp companies have the digital files for almost every state. The digital files were $3 extra when I bought my stamps, so: worth it unless I could do it in CAD or Illustrator in less than 3 minutes.
JBeaumont,
Since we are talking hypothetical. I probably would have a Wet & Digital stamp in reality. If I were doing cyanotype official prints, I would likely have the digital seal (and digital signature if allowed otherwise wet signature on the cyanotypes copies). That way, it minimizes delivery impact. I can speed up the development time on cyanotypes by using hydrogen peroxide.
The negative is the drying time but it can be timed so there is minimal impact on schedule as the building departments are not open on weekends so it doesn't matter.
But a day or so to dry the prints isn't a bad use of a weekend because the paper would be drying at that time which otherwise would not be needed.
Doing the exposure and development on a friday and hang to dry. Visit clients for whatever stuff needs to be done on a weekend. Saturday site visits or meeting clients on an earlier phase of the project.
You can always be doing stuff while the plans dry.
It is possible to do this on the weekend. Preparing the emulsion and coating the sheets on other days are also doable in a fairly quick time frame.
Coating sheets on one day and exposing a day or two later and developing on the next day then let dry for the next day or two after that.
Wednesday/Thursday, Friday and then dry over the weekend for example. Deliver plans Monday or Tuesday. If you got multiple UV emitting lamps at multiple light tables for exposure, multiple sheets can be exposed at the same time and light deactivated at timed set intervals, then you take it to the 'bathing' station and do the development. Then you hang to dry. Hiring someone at minimum wage to do just that can be fine. Once they know the art of the process, it isn't rocket science. With light lamps, one can do some of this in the evening or at night.
It's all doable in practice.
A little timing optimization can be done for all this. The key is once exposure is made, the key is to get it into the wash to develop the prints.
"Once they know the art of the process, it isn't rocket science."
I think the art and the rocket science is in taking a perfectly straightforward thread and derailing it by talking about diazo prints. Life must move at a different pace out there in Oregon.
I think you should get a stamp to place on any thread once it has been Balkanized. Digital is fine, wet stamping might leave marks on your monitor.
Ever heard of the saying, NOTHING positively has to happen today.
Since we covered that, back to regularly schedule programming.
Hypothetically you could chisel all your drawings into stone tablets and/or inscribe them on Ukrainian Easter eggs with a tiny stylus dipped in wax. Either makes about as much sense as building a room for your toxic chemicals, hiring someone at minimum wage, and drying drawings under lights all night when you can send a pdf to a print house and get as many stamped and signed Arch D copies on plotter paper as you need in under 20 minutes for 65 cents each.
But I really think this living-history pretend architecture firm from the turn of the 20th century might be just the niche for you. You'll need another minimum wage guy to shuttle the tourists from the Greyhound station to your basement via the Balkins Reality Bus. And some pizza bagels.
Cyanotype chemicals isn't that toxic any more than most household chemicals. As for diazo, the only chemical stored would be ammonia.
Sure, everything is toxic if you are crazily stupid and try to drink the stuff in gallon jugs. Maybe, you have a serious problem if you do that.
Aside from your comedy by the way, for a more regular size set of drawings that are 15-25 sheets not 75 sheets or 1000 sheets unless you are designing the world's biggest and tallest erected penis in the world or something. Most of us works on more modest projects than that.
Two chemicals.
Iron(III) Ammonium Citrate
Potassium Ferricyanide
Bottom line: The chemicals aren't the most toxic stuff out there. It's chemicals so most basic safety of handling and you'll be fine.
They are available from Sargent Welch.
It isn't even like you have to really deal with high toxic stuff. In diazo, concentrated Ammonia would be a tad problematic but you wouldn't even need to use pure concentrated Ammonia. Household ammonia will do.
Even if you mixed 1 part contrated ammonia to 5 part household ammonia, you'll be fine. Might want to ventilate and wear a respirator with chemical cartridges that are current. Aside from that, it isn't like you need to do that with cyanotype stuff which doesn't even call for a respirator as being mandatory to use. Just don't consume it and you'd be okay and where gloves so you don't become a blue smurf.
yet another derail.
surprise!
stamp stamp stamp.......I have seen napkin sketches (essentially) professionally certified. i have stamped sketches on site to give the sketch authority, let me guess not legal use - tell me something that matters.........i just find the NJ state owned embosser annoying. took me a few tries to realize you sign first and then emboss, doh......the seals with state shapes look unnoffical to me. NYS winner.
I think I got lost, is there an advantage to cyanotype printing over whatever the normal process is called?
^ I think he is trying to tell us not to drink cyanotype chemicals? Good thing, I was just about to pour myself a glass...