By signcraft
Posted on Friday, February 9th, 2024
Back in the mid-1990s, Rob Cooper began spending almost every summer with his friend Russ Mowry, who at the time had Vintage Sign, in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. Rob is a native of New Zealand who was living in the US at the time. He looked after things at the shop while Russ hit the road, working the motorcycle-rally pinstriping circuit.
They did a variety of work from vehicles to carved signs and bounced ideas off each other for layouts, colors and effects. Sometimes Rob would start with a quick sketch that Russ had done and go with it from there. In other cases, Russ would give Rob the copy and say, “Just get it done!” The synergy created a lot of beautiful, highly effective signs.
The annual summertime event went on for about 11 years. Today the two friends live on opposite sides of the globe: Rob makes his home in Koh Tao, Thailand, and Russ is in Candia, New Hampshire.
That creative alliance had a big influence on Rob’s work, and it shows in this sampling of signs from those busy summers. They’re packed with ideas and inspiration you can use to fuel your own brand of appealing, attractive signs.
These photos appeared in the November/December 2004 issue of SignCraft.