“Sign painters, historically, are pretty badass,” says Best Dressed Signs founder, Josh Luke. “They used to just travel around with their sign kits and just kindof smoke and drink and paint signs.”
It’s a romantic notion, really, the rogue sign painters of yore. And despite their almost-extinction at the advent of the vinyl sign, the trade is finding it’s way back into today’s society with a group casually dubbed the “Pre-Vinylites.”
“I think people have always been in love with letters and lettering,” Luke says, moving through the Extension gallery at Orchard Skateshop where he’s curated an exhibit called Hand Painted Signs: The Pre-Vinylite Society. The place is filled with sundry hand painted signs by artists across the globe– signs on saws, signs on records, signs on cracked glass, signs that don’t look like signs at all.
This afternoon at Orchard, Luke will hold a free, all-ages demonstration in the trade with a focus on letter strokes, pattern making, pinstriping and gold leaf.
A recent West Coast transplant, Luke got his start in 2005 at New Bohemia Signs in San Francisco. Since relocating to Boston, he founded Best Dressed Signs out of his home in Jamaica Plain and started painting signs for places like The Garage in Harvard Square, Good Faith, Follow the Honey and, predictably, Orchard Skateshop.
Recently, he started cultivating an online community of sign painters through a Facebook group called The Pre-Vinylite Society.
“I started noticing all these young, up and coming sign painters around on the Internet,” Luke explains. “So I created this page, Pre-Vinylite Society, to encourage people to post their signs and now there’s one place where everyone can kindof feed off one another.”
This Facebook group was the overarching inspiration for the Extension show. With just 182 “likes” it’s not a huge community, but sign painters from across the globe have been posting their signs, inspiration and tips. Luke got in touch with some of his favorites and requested that they send in their stuff. The exhibit acts as a sort of tangible incarnation of this discussion happening online.
Turned out, Jeff Meadows, who Luke knew through the web, was actually an old skate buddy from childhood– “I used to roll around and skate with this kid when I was 12,” he laughs.
Through the exhibit, Luke creates a diverse landscape of signage– there’s Gary Martin, one of the classics from Austin, TX who was painting signs before vinyl even came into the mix. Chris Dobell from Australia paints signs on records. Kenji Nakayama from Boston paints signs on old saws. Then there’s Luke, himself, whose signature piece called “Look Into the Eye” consists of sinage painted on layered glass and mirrors– playing with reflection alters the narrative so that different angles reveal different images.
Ultimately, Luke wants to show the public that sign painting is a viable business.
“If people have an option and it’s in their price range often they’d rather have a hand painted sign than a vinyl sign. That’s what we’re trying to promote. Part of this exhibit is sort of announcing that sign painting is not dead and it’s a viable craft.”
The message is a relevant one, as the Butera School of Art, (now a part of Fisher College) known for its sign painting program, plans to eliminate the department at the end of this school year. Four of Butera’s graduates– Janelle Felix, Kenji Nakayama, Gregory Rubin, and Joe Nitche–contributed works to the exhibit.
Luke hopes that through this exhibit and tomorrow’s demonstration an age-old trade can be preserved, not just as a novelty, but as a viable occupation. Hand painted signs, he argues, are often much less expensive than the vinyl option. And upkeep is simple too, perhaps an extra coat of paint every five or ten years. People simply aren’t aware of their options.
“It looks better if it’s handmade,” he says. “It looks like it has a little more warmth. It’s not as cold, not as mechanized. There’s that uniqueness that sets your business apart from every one else on your block.”
[Sign Painting Demonstration. 11.19 2 p.m.-5 p.m. all ages. Extension Gallery @ Orchard Skateshop. 156 Harvard Ave., Allston. Hand Painted Signs: Pre-Vinylite Society runs through mid-December. orchardshop.com]
All photos by Elieen Clynes
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