Some times when I tell people about my work as a sign painter, I’m met with a blank stare and quizzical follow up questions about what exactly I mean by that. I understand their confusion: signs are so ubiquitous in our daily lives that it can be easy to overlook them without a second thought. They are so omnipresent that we may read them, take in their message, and respond to them all without ever wondering how that sign got to be in front of us in the first place.
Furthermore, a lot of the signs we interact with on a daily basis have the appearance of being totally machine made: picture a computer generated graphic printed out on adhesive vinyl by a large format printer and stuck to a piece of machine-routed metal for instance. But even these signs require the human touch throughout their creation. Someone of course creates that initial design that’s sent to the printer and then another person takes that product and affixes it to the chosen substrate and then a whole other group of folks might be required to install it in place. Even the “machine-made” products that surround us require a whole group of people to create the finished pieces we see on display.
In the middle of the last century the nature of sign making began to change considerably with the creation of adhesive vinyl (and plotters, the machines that cut the vinyl to shape). To this day, vinyl remains the most ubiquitous material for most of the signs you see out and about in our modern landscape. And to be completely honest, I love adhesive vinyl. I use it to craft one-of-a-kind stickers as well as whole fine art pieces and I don’t hesitate to use it in my sign work when the job calls for it. But adhesive vinyl has always had its limitations and it never has (and never will) completely replaced the need for painting by hand.
For one thing, paint is more versatile. Vinyl absolutely requires a smooth, clean surface for it to stick properly. Paint, of course, can go anywhere you will it to. Wood grain, brick, cinderblock, stucco, these are just some of the surfaces that can take paint but not vinyl. There continue to be great advancements in adhesive vinyl but properly applied paint will always out perform vinyl, especially on irregular surfaces.
Another thing to consider is durability. Vinyl may be quick and cheap to apply but that’s also a liability over time. You’ve probably seen old sun-baked vinyl somewhere out there. Old vinyl fades and cracks, then starts to peel up before chipping off entirely. Paint of course fades with time too but you won’t see a painted sign missing entire letters because the paint started to curl up like an autumn leaf and blew away. A vinyl sign outside may last you 10 years before it needs complete replacing but a hand painted sign has an almost indeterminable longevity and it can always be touched up to extend its lifespan.
This old vinyl sign has begun to crack and peel from years of exposure to the weather and sun. Paint may fade over time but it won’t fail like this.
This year in fact marks the anniversary of one of my favorite hand painted signs in Knoxville. A few years ago in the process of photographing the many types of signage in Knoxville for my Instagram account Knox Flair (@KnoxFlair), I wondered what is the oldest sign in the city still on display? There were some obvious contenders for the title in the Old City, especially down Jackson avenue, high up on the sides of some of Knoxville’s most beautiful and historic buildings. The faded blue and white sign for the American Clothing Company (on the side of what is now the Daniel apartment building) along with the Haynes-Henson sign a few doors down certainly look like some of the oldest around but how to determine how long they had been there? Fortunately there is photographic evidence that adds some context to these historic landmarks.
“Knoxville’s Million Dollar Shoe House” as the sign at 132 W. Jackson Avenue still clearly reads in 2019. The logo is made up of two “H”s interlocked.
A 100 years ago, construction began on the 100 block of Gay street to raise the street level up where it dipped down before reaching the train yard. It was a massive undertaking that resulted in the former first floors of the buildings on the street becoming basements forever after and creating an “Underground Knoxville” some of which is still accessible to this day. Parts of the construction were documented by the Thompson Brothers (forefathers of the present day Thompson Photo Products on Middlebrook Pike) and in one shot facing east the signs on Jackson avenue are clearly visible. Well some of the signs at least: the Daniel Building is cut out of the shot. But the building and sign for the Haynes-Henson Shoe Co. is clear as day, proving that that hand painted sign has existed in that same spot for no less than a full century! The building itself was built in 1907 and assuming they painted the sign around that same time that would place the age of the sign at 112 years old. So lets take a moment now in 2019 to appreciate the enduring legacy of hand painted signs in Knoxville, TN. A vinyl sign couldn’t do that.
Construction on Gay st. in 1919. Notice the Haynes-Henson sign in the upper left corner.
[Addendum: the Daniel building is actually the older of the two buildings having been built sometime around 1890 but the American Clothing Co. were not the original occupants. Wm. Horne & Company, a liquor distributor, is listed as the first tenant on the Daniel’s current website. One source online listed the founding of the American Clothing Co. as 1904, 3 years before the Haynes Henson building was even built but without photographic proof of the sign being there at that same time it remains uncertain which was painted first.]
The Daniel Building at 118 W. Jackson Ave. with the American Clothing Co.’s sign legible but only just so. Click here to see an older, undated, but clearer picture of the sign from Knox Heritage’s website.
Sources:
*Gay Street Construction (https://knoxvillehistoryproject.org/downtown-gay-street/)
* Gay St. Photo 1919 (http://cmdc.knoxlib.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p265301coll7/id/1712/rec/4)
* Haynes Henson Building History(http://knoxheritage.org/our-work/neighborhood-tours/historic-downtown-knoxville-walking-tour/haynes-henson-building/)
*Vinyl History (https://www.signsofthetimes.com/content/vinyl-a-history)