The Blog

Anyone who has any appreciation for design must never overlook the artistry and craftmanship behind hand painted signs. A lot of the digital typefaces that we use today trace their roots back to these writings on the wall. Unfortunately, it seems to be a dying artform so I want to document, or atleast take the time to notice them, as much as I can.
Personally, I’d love to incorporate more letter styles into my own illustration but it can be frustrating when the smallest thing like keeping your handy steady prevents you from anything satisfactory. I’ll hopefully be adding more pics to this as I go along, but here are two that I’ve found in my phone:

This one was in Dowtown Portland. I know I have more coming out of this city but I can’t seem to locate them at the moment. I love the control in these letterforms, especially in the ‘G’ and the ‘O’. I can’t really place it but I guess it sort of resembles Avenir in ways. The color palette is also a favorite of mine – classic vintage.

This building is incredible. Found this guy in Sacramento, sort of between downtown and West Sac. What’s really striking about this is the ‘Stoves & Refrigerators’. If ‘Stoves’ isn’t the true precursor of the ever so popular Candy Script (without the swashes) than I don’t know what is! And then ‘Refrigerators’ has a nice upright stance, resembling the SignPainter typeface. Imagine that.

I wish this sort of thing still brought in business for those who still utilize it. As a realist, I can’t see these store owners resorting to hand-painted lettering because they think it’s cool – more because it’s cheap.  Ah man. And the world turns…