I'm a huge fan of hand-painted signs. From sandwich boards to circus signs to elegant establishments.
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| Painting in gold leaf on interior of window. Gorgeous! |
A completely different set of wheels have to turn in the illustrator's head when he/she works on this scale. Planning is more crucial.
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| More gold leaf and interior glass painting. Huge happiness! |
Costly in both time and supplies - especially when a mistake's made. And it's a challenge to figure out what method and paint is best used for each surface and exposure. Working in all kinds of weather - you must consider how to protect your paints in freezing or even very hot weather, and it changes how fast or slow you can execute the design- (learned that the hard way.)
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| Very pretty use of lettering on the awkward upper panels of glass. |
Working upside down, backwards, bending low, contending w/ wind, brushing aside insects, contending w/ pedestrians, twisting awkwardly around plants, climbing ladders ladden w/ bucket and brushes.
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| So clever -- painted house numbers on stucco. |
But what great satisfaction to see something that is so utilitarian, executed by hand. It just really strikes a personal chord these days.
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| They also painted a wood sign that hangs over front door. |
These images are signs done by a company out of San Francisco,
New Bohemia Signs (great name!). They do all their work by hand, from the smallest menu to the sides of buildings. I really like what they have to say ...
"this is what we do here. Whether it's on a window, a wall, a board, or a car, the process involves wielding a brush in hand, and dipping it in paint. It doesn't get much more complicated than that. Or simpler. But it's a craft as old as commerce, and an art indelibly linked to human scale and mass appeal."
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| Love how they made those upper initials look 3-D. CLEVER. Crisp. Concise. |
Anthropologie website: Spring 2012 Illustration I like the idea SO MUCH, but the just-off placement of photo makes it look blurry, wh...