Profile: Ken Sowinski

For me, this all started with a trip to a car show at the Chicago Amphitheater in 1964. A neighbor who was involved with promoting the show took me along. I was 14. I walked in and saw a brand spanking new red 1964 Ford that Art Dexter [see SignCraft, March/April 2009] had lettered for Speed Weeks. It knocked me completely out and I had to know how they did that. When I asked about the lettering, my neighbor told me all about this Art Dexter guy.

I knew then I wanted to be a sign painter. There was an autoparts store in my neighborhood and Art did all of their work. I made sure to be there whenever he was coming to letter a truck or a window.

At the time there were a lot of small storefront sign shops around Chicago. The Good Brothers sign shop was on my way home from school. I would stop by there and eventually started cleaning brushes and sweeping up. Later I began doing paper signs and other lettering. I learned the basics there.