Sign Painters

Faythe Levine, Sam Macon

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781616890834
• eBook ISBN: 9781616891985
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Popular Culture in Art

There was a time—as recently as the 1980s—when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our visual landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade. In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine, coauthor of Handmade Nation, and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features stories and photographs of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States.

_______________

Mazeppa, Minnesota

_______________

____

Concentrate

and paint the sign

the best that

you can. There’s

enough work

for everybody.

____

My dad owned a barbershop and painted signs on the side. This was in the small town of Mazeppa, Minnesota, where I grew up. I still live and work here today. When I was a kid he painted one sign that I’ll never forget. It taught me what a sign can accomplish. Our road was three blocks from Main Street. It was a gravel road and never maintained properly. My dad put up a sign that read, this street maintained? by city of mazeppa. The mayor came into the barbershop one day and said, “George, you’ve got to take that sign down.” My dad just ignored him, so the mayor repeated, “George. I mean it. Take the sign down.” My dad looked at him and told him, “Fix the damn road and I’ll take the sign down.” So the guys came from the city and filled the potholes, and he took the sign down.

There was another defining moment for me when I was in eighth grade. My dad and I were putting lettering down on the Mazeppa Town Hall. I was painting the part that read, town hall, and the W looked like a V and should have been wider. I remember him saying, “That’s wrong. Don’t do it that way.” I walked away thinking, “Well, I’m not going to do this ever again. This sucks.” Then I went home and I realized why he said that. I thought, I’m going to go back and fix it. I’ve never forgotten that.

I went to school in Northern Minnesota at the Detroit Lakes Vocational and Technical School, which had a sign- lettering and design program. I think it closed down three or four years ago. They were trying to keep up with technology. They should’ve had just one computer and kept teaching students how to letter by hand. Learning is boring, but once you get those basic strokes down you just start doing it, and when you finally paint a letter, it’s heaven.

When I was in sign school, students had to learn everything. Then you figured out what was comfortable for you. For example, I don’t use a maulstick (a common sign-painting tool that looks like a long stick with a ball on the end) to support my hand. I’ve always used the pinky-down technique, which gives me more control and doesn’t block my view as much when I paint. One of the things I really like about sign painting is how everything is done out of survival and ingenuity. If I need to draw a circle and I don’t have a fancy compass, I’ll use a can for an outline. Sometimes the simplest objects around you are all that you need to get a job done.

Somebody told me a long time ago to think about myself 99 percent of the time and the competition 1 percent of the time. If you’re always thinking about the competition then you’re going to be thrown off your game—just like in sports. Concentrate and paint the sign the best that you can. There’s enough work for everybody.

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Iowa City, Iowa

______________

____

You don’t outline a signpainter’s letter and then fill it in with a Q-tip—that isn’t really sign painting. You use the appropriate sizebrush and do it in three strokes. Who can do that? My computer can’t.

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I came to Iowa in 1973 to attend graduate school in painting at the University of Iowa. I’d finished my sign-painting apprenticeship in Des Moines prior to coming to Iowa City. I have been an Iowa City resident since 1973—except for a five-year hiatus in San Francisco when I pursued a type-design commission. That’s where I learned how to create typefaces on a Macintosh.

Drawing and spacing are one in the same job. I design type and digitized characters that compose a larger character set. I never gave up sign painting or lost my appreciation for brush-lettered forms. However, I am thankful that the Macintosh came along, as well as Fontographer software, because both enabled me to increase my production. I could do six iterations of a single letter in an hour, whereas before it would take me a day with pencil on paper.

People are often confused by terms, and they misappropriate terminology. For example, I have been asked what font I use when I sign my name. A font is a reference to a collection of characters in a particular style and weight. A typeface can include many different fonts. Roman is one font, italic is another, bold is a third, and bold italic is a fourth.

Reverse glass gilt sign with burnished outlines, tinted varnish matte centers, multicolored close shade, and roller-blended background

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Drawing and spacing are one in the same job.

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Terminology in the type trade is slightly different from terminology in the printing trade. In the printing trade or ...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• The Sign Painters
• Mike Meyer
• Appendix