Mark Grotjahn (pronounced Groat-john) is widely recognized for his painting prowess. Since the mid-1990s, he’s made radiating butterfly-wing-like bursts of rainbow color that create schisms in vision; ...

Installation view of The Pre-Vinylette Society: An International Showcase of Women Sign Painters at Chicago Art Department (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) CHICAGO — In 2012, people ...

In an increasingly digital world, where design software can turn anyone into an instant Leonardo da Vinci, it’s easy to forget that signs were once lettered by hand using sable brushes, mineral ...

“I thought that some day either someone needs to do a film about me, or I have to write about this,” said Phil Vandervaart. He was explaining how his work as a sign painter has been for love, rather ...

As recently as the 1980s, when someone needed a storefront, mural, banner, billboard, or street sign, the first person he would call was a sign painter, a skilled tradesman who would do the work by ...

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Share on X (Opens in new window) Copy this page's address to your clipboard Link copied to clipboard Imagine, if you would, a world without signs— no doubt a ...

The best signs, according to Seth Vargas, a sign painter and the owner of Sleight of Hands in Oakland, are the most visible ones. Bright colors and a well-designed script can help, but they're only ...

We meet the makers and painters continuing the aesthetic legacy of their cities, creating and preserving signs with gold leaf, ochre-white paint and neon tubes. The letters that are emblazoned onto ...

Sean Starr coats his angled Fitch brush in the white, oil-based 1 Shot paint. With a steady hand, he slowly rounds the brush to perfectly line the outside of an uppercase O. The sign reads “MORRISSEY ...

Andrew and Kelsey McClellan have revived the delicate, nearly-lost art of gold-leaf sign painting. One of Chicago’s last gold-leaf sign painters, Robert Frese, shared gilders’ guarded secrets with ...