The Age of Stencils, Paint and Dirty Fingers

The design industry has come a long way in 20 years. Heck, it’s come a long way in 10 years. On holidays this summer I noticed something while whiling away the miles on the Trans Canada. We seem to think only computers can render type these days – its a rare thing to write a letter, particularly in business, and the world ceases to exist when an email server goes down. The only thing average people actually write anymore is a grocery list. But there was an age where sign painters created an awful lot of marketing by hand and brush. I’m a little young to really have lived in this era – when a skilled calligrapher could hand letter in various fonts and sizes with accuracy – but somedays I’m jealous of their craft. The last remaining thread of this line of craftspeople is perhaps the window painters that appear around Red Deer on Westerner Days and Christmas.

There was an age where sign painters created an awful lot of marketing by hand and brush. I’m jealous of their craft.

So we thought about this at the studio, and Kayla and I went out and photographed some samples of hand painted signs in August. Here are some samples of the original graphic design: hand created signs:

Cut wood sign, built from a hand lettered logo at Buchart Gardens, Vancouver Island. «I suspect this sign was machine cut»

Hand Cut Steel Sign, Argyl Manor, Condo Sign, Sidney BC

Hand Painted Outdoor Piano, Downtown Red Deer

Hand Painted Wood Sign, Enchanted Forest, Revelstoke BC

Painted Brick Exterior, Red Deer AB

Hand Cut Wood Sign, The Epic Runway, Red Deer AB

Inked Sandwich Board, The Swollen Goat, Red Deer, AB

Hand Painted Window, La Petite Jaune Fleur, Red Deer AB