Sign Painters

Synopsis

With the advent of contemporary advertising came a new American craft: hand-painted signs. The sign painter wasn't an artist, but a one man ad agency adhering to the laws of type and design with the sole intention of creating a work that would endure on a wall long after a product had launched. Scaling buildings for one client after the next, these counter-cultural painters developed the style of our cities before the creation of a cheap, tech-driven advancement in vinyl lettering nearly shut them out of business. Sign Painters examines the select few painters who stuck around in the midst of dwindling demand and catalyzed a resurgence of sign painting and street art in advertising today. The film is recommended for College and University courses in Art + Design, Art History, Advertising, Urbanization as well as for trade schools.