Intro to Sign Painting Workshop

Discover the enduring craft of sign painting in this immersive workshop. The class includes 18 hours of teaching over three days (two consecutive weekends, Saturday, Nov. 1 and Saturday/Sunday, November 8 and 9), split between Letterform Archive and New Bohemia’s studio in San Francisco.

Begin with a deep dive into the Letterform Archive's unparalleled collection, spending a full day researching historic and contemporary examples of hand-painted signs, and sketching designs of your own. Then, head over to New Bohemia Signs for two intensive days of hands-on practice, mastering fundamental brush strokes and the artistry that brings letterforms to life on a panel.

There will be two 3-hour sections each day with a lunch break in between. At class's end, you will own a lettering quill and small sign of your own design (or of ours, if you wish), and a greater portion of wherewithal and gumption to launch a fulfilling career in sign painting!

Day One (11/1): Gather at Letterform Archive for an informative research session in the morning, where we will view and discuss a variety of historical and contemporary signs drawn from the Archive’s extensive collection. After lunch, you’ll sketch out ideas for your sign using the reference material for inspiration and guidance in preparation for the following week’s hands-on painting instruction.

Day Two (11/8): Meet at New Bohemia for an intro to tools and raw materials, and start to practice the basic strokes of brush lettering and alphabet using poster paint on paper. We'll focus on sign painters' favorite "casual" or "speed" letters before lunch and on single stroke sans-serif letters after with a brief foray into twisting serifs (if we're goaded into it). Toward the end, we'll present a tutorial on preparing a sign board for lettering.

Day Three (11/9): Return to New Bohemia to lay out designs and make patterns to be painted in enamel on a 10”x24” board that we'll have prepared for you. For the purposes of this class, you’ll design for a single color of lettering. We encourage you to start thinking about what you’d like your sign to say now—bearing in mind the value of concise messaging, the size of the board, and the limits of both the assignment and your skill! If you’d rather not design a sign, we’ll have some design sketches here ready for you to use or adapt. Then, you’ll paint your sign! Take them with you at the end of class or leave them here to dry.

After years of artistic stagnation, in the wake of a BFA in Painting conferred by SFAI in 1993, Damon Styer sought to instill in himself a creative work ethic, and entered into an apprenticeship at New Bohemia Signs (a shop established in the year before his SFAI graduation), in summer 1999. Before the year's end, he had become the sign shop's sole proprietor, and in the quarter century since, has sought to both continue his own education in sign painting skills and to provide a place for others to learn and practice the same. He has led introductory brush lettering weekend courses, monthly, for the past 13 years, and came to know Rob Saunders and Letterform Archive while attending their inaugural Typeface Design extended program, in 2016.