Comments on: Documentary about skilled sign painters looks fantastic

By: Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:21:00 +0000

My dad had a sign painter, when I was growing up, in the 1960s. In Massapequa, on Long Island. Lived near us. He used to provide signs for my dad’s TV repair shop. His name was Sol. Sol Seinfeld. Seinfeld Signs. He had a kid around my age, name of Jerry. Wonder whatever happened to him…

By: bluheron

bluheron — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:34:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to apprentice to some of those old fashioned sign painters way back in the day, and learned the craft for a good six years or so before I left for the digital design world and the internet. I consider those days to be my degree in graphic design, and they have helped inform everything I have done since then.The first job I got was when my future boss set me up with a big rectangle of paper and a brush to see how I handled them.

By: James Agenbroad

James Agenbroad — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:47:00 +0000

“Surrender Dorothy” doesn’t have nearly the craftmanship.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:30:00 +0000

I used to do that all the time back in my revolutionary days, except on muslin. There was an endless need for banners. You get pretty good at it when you do it regularly.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Back in the dark ages, when I was in high school, I took commercial art classes (that’s what they called design back then). One day, my instructor, an older man with a head of gray hair, unrolled a 6-foot x 1-foot length of paper on the floor. He then took a straightedge and pencil, and lightly drew guidelines down the length of the paper. Then, he opened a pot of tempera paint and, with a 2″ flat brush, proceeded to hand-letter a quote of some sort. I can’t recall the quote, but I will remember forever how amazed we all were that he just lettered this thing as perfectly and easily as you wish. Pretty impressive.

By: dejoh

dejoh — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:43:00 +0000

I too knew many “brothers of the brush” who are long gone. No wanna be’s in the hand lettering trade. either you had talent or you did’nt. When you applied for work at a sign co. they would have you letter a simple “for sale” sign on card stock or paper. That way they could see how you handled a S and O The hardest letter to produce.

By: Jeff Ritzmann

Jeff Ritzmann — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 19:47:00 +0000

I was taught show-card lettering from Al Zlatin – one of the masters who painted old vaudeville signs, movie placards, and hand decorated Blaze Starr’s legs on occasion. He was a God of the brush, and could out letter a p.o.s. Gerber sign cutter any day of the week. After Al retired I started my own sign shop, where I did nearly nothing but hand lettered signs for 11 years. It was good til “Signs by Tomorrow” and their ilk fucked it all up.

The world lost one of it’s finest lettermen when Al passed away in October at the age of 90, and the world seems less without him around. He taught me more about art than anyone ever has.

By: Timothy Ferlito

Timothy Ferlito — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:54:00 +0000

Those “Summer Waits” and “Winter Longs” signs are in my hometown of Syracuse, NY. They are beautiful and bring smiles every day.

By: leiris

leiris — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:25:00 +0000

The podcast 99% Invisible just did an episode on this: http://99percentinvisible.org/post/44844339579/episode-74-hand-painted-signs

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:34:00 +0000

They could always use “Hall of the Mountain Grill”

http://youtu.be/WQQfBTIfKvU

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:32:00 +0000

1960, wow. That took guts. And it’s a handsome sign!

By: Commodore Crush

Commodore Crush — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:48:00 +0000

One of the greatest things you’ll learn from sign painters is the correct use of kerning and leading. When I was first starting out working in a digital sign shop in 2000, the manager (and his father) were both ex-sign/window painters and the guidance that he gave (even working with vinyl plotters) was amazing. Still use a lot of those same skills with my digital designs… As a side note I still run into my signs that I made at car washes all over the country to this day.

By: DJBudSonic

DJBudSonic — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:20:00 +0000

One Shot is the whip – I still have many old lead-based cans and that paint is still good in there. I remember going to the Autorama shows in the 70′s when all the brush guys were there and you could get things striped at their booths if you brought them in. Also, airbrush artists, somewhere I have a shirt with an airbrush design and my name on it. They had just released a roller-based pinstriper (Bugler?) and they had a car hood they would let you try it on and then wipe it off, over and over.

By: DreamboatSkanky

DreamboatSkanky — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:31:00 +0000

“Gonna paint a ’9′.”

By: Anthony Irwin

Anthony Irwin — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:04:00 +0000

Sign Painting is a lost art. My Great Grandfather and Grandfather were professional sign painters in Chicago. My grandfather started a sign shop that employed 40 people…. it was all done by hand…Then computers made the whole trade obsolete..

By: TheMudshark

TheMudshark — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:58:00 +0000

This is bound to be better than that documentary about unskilled sign painters I saw recently.

Seriously though, I love sign painting.

By: Ivor Williams

Ivor Williams — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:41:00 +0000

The irony of badly kerned type in the film titles on a film about lettering.

By: Tara Nelson

Tara Nelson — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:03:00 +0000

Ha! As a signwriter’s kid (and sometime signwriter myself) I will have to watch this. It’s hard these days, though – very very few people want to pay for this kind of work any more. Actually they never did, but they didn’t have a choice! Alas for the old days of the sign shop where I grew up helping my Dad. These days he mostly works in films/tv. You can’t use vinyl on a 1890 saloon door, that’s for sure.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:02:00 +0000

That man went on to become the Jeffersons’ wacky neighbor and the “I am just as God made me, sir!” guy in Spinal Tap.

By: Jambe

Jambe — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:00:00 +0000

And it's not even played at the correct tempo! (but I think it's fine as backing music, tbh)

By: Timothy Jeffries

Timothy Jeffries — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:59:00 +0000

This amazing sign maker named David A. Smith made the album cover for John Mayer’s new one, “Born and Raised”. If you dig this sign doc you’ll love the mini doc about the “Making of” the artwork. The glass work is brilliant! http://vimeo.com/60647216#at=0

By: colin gardner

colin gardner — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:23:00 +0000

looks very interesting, but Hall of the Mountain King is such a cliched piece of music. Documentaries can be interesting without soundtracks which try to evoke a sense of panicked action.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:05:00 +0000

Sounds like every typographer I’ve met, or librarian, or audio engineer, , ,

Looks pretty sweet though.

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 02:36:00 +0000

those letters are masterful

By: Pip_R_Lagenta

Pip_R_Lagenta — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:30:00 +0000

I look froward to seeing this documentary. I wonder if my father would like to see it too. Before I was born, my father was a professional sign painter. During my life, he was a draftsman. He had an amazing lettering skill. I watched him paint signs for anti-war demonstrations in the 1960′s. Here is a photo of my father with a sign he did for his political work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pip_r_lagenta/3137287437/
My sister and I are in that photo, too.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:25:00 +0000

I want to see a documentary about unskilled sign painters.

By: jimh

jimh — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:13:00 +0000

This is a must see for me!
I think my obsession with type and my career as a graphic designer was inspired by signs and sign painting. There was a running thing on Sesame Street where a man would paint a letter or number perfectly, and then in the end it would get smeared. As a kid, I liked that more than the muppets, to be honest!

By: Danor Quinteros

Danor Quinteros — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:57:00 +0000

this music again…? it’s really becoming the default documental music…

other than that. I’m looking forward to watch this!

By: Mark_Frauenfelder

Mark_Frauenfelder — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:41:00 +0000

Coop did a painting of Frankenstein’s monster with lead-based One Shot. It’s beautiful.

By: dejoh

dejoh — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:17:00 +0000

You should have used One Shot before they removed to lead base from the paint. The stir stick stood straight up in the can.