As a teenager, sign artist Steve Greer, owner and operaton of Ayr, Ontario, Canada-based Abracadabra Signs and Design, realized his talents.

He said, "I've always had a love for art, and I excelled in it throughout high school. I've always been good at cartooning and creating off-the-wall stuff."

While working as a bar doorman, Steve was asked to paint some murals for a new establishment. He accepted the job and embarked on a new career. In business for nine years, Abracadabra Signs and Designs employs four full-time cartoonists, and specializes in the design and fabrication of unique signs and creative murals, including chalkboards, menus, banners, car decals, lawn ads, foam sculptures and window splashes.

From Steve's experience, businesses employ window splashes for advertising and decorative purposes. He notes that splashes - whether they're used to advertise a specific brand or service, or observe a holiday - are fun and noticeable. Early in his career, Steve worked as a "travelling artist" and painted numerous windows. However, he soon realized he could earn more money by fabricating signage components in-house. Today, window splashes comprise 10% of his business.

Not surprisingly, business near busy intersections benefit the most from window splashes. To make splashes stand out, Steve usually applies a white primer to the window, because, over the years he's learned that bright colours against a white background - as opposed to a transparent one - are more visible. Using a china marker, he typically hand draws a decorative or advertising sign onto the glass. Then, using lettering quills, standard-sized brushes and/or small rollers, he paints his artwork - the brighter the colours, the better.

Although he draws much of his artwork freehand, Steve notes that, when dealing with oversized letters, he prefers to plot the letters on a computer and then pounce the paper patterns onto a window.