By signcraft
Posted on Friday, May 5th, 2023
What does a sign maker do on vacation? At least one we know picks an area he would like to visit, then tours it, looking for signs—old ones, funny ones, cool ones, classic ones, creative ones. Redgie and Jeannie Adams have taken quite a few “sign vacations” over the past 36 years. The signs here are just a few of the hundreds of photos Redgie took when they visited Maine a while back.
“They’re from everywhere along the way,” says Redgie, “Portland to Kennebunk to Bar Harbor to Bethel. I really enjoy finding and photographing interesting signs and old signs. We like to just go to an area and get lost. We stay off the main highways and get on the back roads through the small towns. There’s a lot to see, and you never know what you’re going to come across.”
Besides Maine, their travels have taken them all over the South; the Portland, Oregon, area; and most recently, around Lake Michigan. He’s accumulated thousands of photos and found plenty of ideas and inspiration along the way.
“We can be rolling along at 60mph,” says Redgie, “and then I’m on the brake. ‘Oh, no,’ Jeannie will say, ‘Now what did you see?’ I know I drive her crazy with that, but it’s amazing how much interesting sign work there is out there once you start watching for it.”
Redgie Adams’s shop, Adams Signs, is in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
This appeared in the July/August 2010 issue of SignCraft.
When we’re traveling, I can’t pass an antique shop—if only to take a photo.
