Lettering and striping are essential to a restoration project

Long before I began my apprenticeship in the sign industry, visual communications were seen all over town. I’m sure most were hand-painted. They were seen and read without the viewer understanding how they were produced. During that era, the handmade aspect of things in our surroundings was the rule and not the exception. Worldwide we communicated with each other in a unique way—person-to-person, using our penmanship to create personal connections in an emotional way.

In a subconscious kinda way, these messages were moving us to like or dislike products by how they were presented graphically. I have to say all this cool stuff was inspiring to say the least. At that young age, I really did not have a clue about how or what I had seen was going to affect me down the road. My interest was there, though, and the opportunities seemed endless.