Eddie Morin: Veteran, Sign Painter, Author (Part 2 of 2)

The continuation of my interview with Mr. Morin on February 7, 2026, in East Los Angeles. See previous post for part 1 of the interview. 

        Before we get to Part 2 I'd like to invite you to a re-dedication ceremony of Raul Morin Memorial Square this Memorial Day: Monday May 25th, 2026

        Please visit the Valiant Press website https://valiantpress.com/ to learn more and if you're interested in purchasing Among the Valiant by Raul Morin, Valor and Discord by Eddie Morin, El Panadero Daniel by Eddie Morin, or any of the related products available. I'd like to thank Mr. Morin for his time and openness. It is an honor for me to share this interview and images, and I hope it will benefit the sign painting community far and wide.

        Below is one of many paintings by Eddie Morin, showing how he combines lettering, layout, illustration and humor to convey his personal thoughts on the sign painting trade. Enjoy!

Eddie Morin: I learned a lot of lessons the hard way. I never really was highly successful. I made a living out of it; I made ends meet. It’s kinda tough when you're a one-man. You’re the worker, the journeyman, the bill collector, the delivery boy… I just marvel at these guys that have made a lot of money. And I’ve noticed, the most successful sign businesses, they’re run by guys that aren’t that great. The true craftsmen are too busy with their craft to really get involved that much more. The business side is powerful.

AM: It takes a lot of energy… Did you ever pursue other career options?

EM: To get back to my dad, he was very concerned about his ethnicity and all the discrimination we had. There have just been some egregious cases, just outrageous, like one year the policemen, they call it the black Christmas, they went to the jail they took all the Mexicans out and beat the hell out of them. For amusement. You know? A woman was a city councilwoman, she also doubled as a bail bondswoman, she happened to be there and she reported it. Stuff like that went on all the time. When a young Chicano got arrested part of the booking process was to get himself beat up. 

Anyway, my dad was very against this, he was very pro-ethnic and he pointed out that the Mexican-Americans have served honorably in World War Two and Korea, they got more Medal of Honors than any other ethnicity. He wrote the book (Among the Valiant) and it was like a cosmic awakening for a lot of people. They go, Wow I never knew…  He’s the one responsible for this monument here. 

In the old days this was the terminus. This is actually the line between the county (unincorporated) and the city. Across the street you’re in the city. Nobody claimed responsibility for it, it was just an odd piece of land. And there was trash here, broken bottles, rags, you name it. My dad saw it, he was a visionary in a lot of ways, and he said, “This would serve as a memorial.” So he went to city council, he led the charge, it was his idea. And he says, “How about giving us the land as a memorial?” and they said you know what, if that’s your idea we’ll work with it and give you a year. If you can’t do it forget it. But it has to come from the private sector. So he got a bunch of fellow veterans and they approached the Mexican Chamber of Commerce’ wealthiest businessmen and they did it. They had this monument erected in 1947. 

Anyway, a controversy began because somebody suggested that they revamp it and make a traffic circle here. The local residents don’t want it, the merchants don’t want it. It was outsiders, and it has a price tag of like twenty-six million. Who the hell needs it? And they’re even talking about cutting into the cemetery. This (Evergreen) cemetery is the oldest one in Los Angeles so it has historical significance. They want to mar it by putting a huge traffic circle and not just that, they want to put the circle with different islands around it. And I go, you stop, you look, you study, you think, where are they going to hold a Memorial Day observance? There’s no such place. 

At the center of the circle they want to put a huge monument, I call it “The Tower of Babble”. They want to change the name to “All Wars”. There’s so many things wrong - for one thing, it was never meant to be dedicated to war. It was meant to honor the Chicano veterans. And they're changing all that, the tradition, the name. There's a group of people that are outsiders - none of the locals want it. So we were having that controversy, that fight, and part of the clique that wanted it got control of the Memorial Day observance committee and every year they say, “This is the all wars memorial.” Nowhere in the entire park does it say “all wars.” My dad’s monument says “Morin Memorial Square" because as veterans they wanted to acknowledge him and give him the honor of the entire area, north south east west, being named Morin Memorial Square. I have a permanent plaque at my house (with) the certificate signed by all the councilmen. This is councilmatic history, Tom Bradley, Ernani Bernardi, Art Snyder, Gilbert Lindsay, on and on. All these famous councilmen, they signed it. I was here when they dedicated it, there were prayers said over it, there were two senators here, a representative from the mayor’s office, so it is a big deal. It’s the family legacy and we’re very proud of it. I was shocked, aghast that somebody would try to change it. In no even manner too. They denied me access to their meetings. They forcibly expelled me from their meetings. It’s supposed to be an open forum but they don’t want me putting in my two cents’. But they can’t suppress the truth. 

AM: It sounds like you found the support to stop it.

EM: I do, there’s people that are on my side, I would say the majority! But these guys are vocal. And they know some politicians. I don’t know if you're familiar with this guy that was in office, (Jose) Huizar, he was a councilman several years back. They busted him for corruption and that in itself says a lot because he was in on this caper. It’s not hard to conjure images of kickbacks and bribes. I met with him. 

At one point you know what I did - like I said they wouldn’t allow me in meetings - I had some t-shirts printed up that said “Morin Memorial Square Now and Forever” and about fifty of us showed up here wearing that. The opposition was indignant! “How dare we desecrate the area, that this is not a place to publicize political messages.” They were outraged. But it got me an audience with Huizar, and he told me “Don’t worry Mr. Morin, we're not going to change nothing.” He lied through his teeth. He was just doing that to throw me off the trail. Anyway I found out about the plans and everything. I got help. This woman, she’s an activist - she’s been the answer to my prayers. She said, they’re not going to change it. She’s on my side, she’s an organizer, connected, so I've been having a lot of better results. 

AM: So people who do what your father did and are advocating for the community are still out there. Do you see your legacy as one that is community-oriented?

EM: I’m the opposite of my dad -  I’m the heir-apparent but also the guy least likely. My dad was an extrovert; he’d speak out with confidence you know. He’d say what he thought, there was no misunderstanding (him). Me, I’d rather stay in the background. This has been thrust on me. I didn’t want this publicity, I didn’t want this fight, but it came to me. I like to just stay home and dabble, do a few little art projects, watch TV with my wife, read a book. I’ve been thrust into the limelight, not to my liking either. 

AM: Thank you for sharing. I think your story is important to myself and others who place emphasis on hand lettering, good design and things like that.

EM: I got some questions for you. Did you study your craft at Trade Tech? 

AM: Yes. 

EM: Was your instructor Doc Guthrie?

AM: Yes.

EM: I know him. He’s a good man. The instructor before him, he was a hard task master. He’d make people practice their strokes and all that but I don’t think he was as knowledgeable as Doc. Doc was very strong on creativity. He’s gifted, he’s good. We’re friends. How did you find out about Raul Morin being a sign guy?

 

AM: Research. In the shop where I work we make foam replacements for the metal plaques that get stolen. I noticed this one was gone so when the new one was installed I just thought I’d do a little research and that’s how I found the story and I thought it was really cool that a sign painter of such modest beginnings now has a permanent memorial, not just for himself but the people he represents, his brothers and sisters in arms. 

EM: How did I come into the picture?

AM: Through your website Valiant Press. That’s where I learned the history and I thought if his son is around it would be great to talk and get some more info, especially digging deeper into the sign painting side. That’s what I’m really interested in because it’s different. The trade is always evolving and we have social media where people market themselves now. Hand lettering is very conducive for social media so it’s having a real resurgence.

EM: I was working for this company and they sent me out to a lumber yard that had a fleet of trucks. I told them, "I'm not telling you how to run your business, but you can silkscreen these letters on your trucks and it will be cheaper and faster” and he said, “I like a hand-lettered sign.” Some people have the demand, other people are looking for the shortest most pragmatic answer.

You ever see that movie The Apartment, with Jack Lemmon? At one point in the movie he’s in his office and they’ve got a sign painter putting his name on the door. Now there’s another movie with Kevin Bacon called He Said She Said. In his office there's also a sign guy, but he’s applying vinyl to the window.

I had somebody tell me while we were haggling over a price, “Come on, I'll throw in a bottle of wine.” That’s the kind of respect we get. These guys are hardened by trade and by custom and they’re used to chiseling you down. That’s why it’s not a wise idea to argue with them about price, it’s better to just walk away. I hung up a picture of the city to remind me “In the whole city there are more customers who are good customers. You don’t have to put up with bad customers.” I've been desperate a few times where I needed work and I took a job that was substandard and I always regretted it. Tell them, “I know what I got, I know what it’s worth.” 

        One time I did a gold leaf job that was really hard to clean up (the excess), it adhered good. A guy told me to use cigarette ashes. You can’t use cigar ashes because they’re too abrasive. Get your wet cotton and put it on the ashtray, and sure enough it did the trick. I talked to a sign painter from Mexico who told me they do their gold leaf with a banana enzyme. He didn’t explain how it works but I thought that was interesting.

AM: Do you have any friends from your era who are still painting signs?

EM: They're retired. A couple of friends have died. I have a buddy up in Medford Oregon who is super talented. The guy gives his work away too, I tell him, “Rick, you gotta get more money.” He does cartoon graphics on race cars. He does airbrush drawings, hand lettering, and he’s real creative. You give him an idea and he expounds on it and improves it, he’s terrific. Rick Evans. His younger brother is a sign guy. His dad had a body shop and he’s an artist too. He’s got a brother in prison who’s an artist as well. 

AM: I wanted to ask if you know anything about an old sign shop in Montebello that’s boarded up called Forey Signs. 

EM: Yeah, Tony Forey. He was a so-so sign painter, I wouldn’t say he was a maestro; he was more commercial-oriented. He had better business sense. He used to sell cookware too. One time he invited me downtown and we handed out cards. He goes, this is how you solicit business, then he told me to kick in some money for gas. He didn’t mention that before but I gave him a couple of dollars. That’s what I mean by “business sense”. He was very commercial. He was good, he picked up a lot on his own. Like I said, not really a maestro, but a successful sign business owner. 

AM: How did you usually get jobs and solicit business?

EM: People would refer others to me. One time I went to Design-Mart, downtown on Olympic where they have fashion designers. You can’t get in without permission, and I had the card of somebody. I said this woman called me, she wants to see me. It was a lie but I went in and passed some cards out and got a couple calls back. But usually when I’d be painting a sign people would stop and ask for a card or say come and see me later. I had guys who were my contacts and when they were flooded with work they’d give me a call.

AM: Ever done any pinstriping? 

EM: No, that’s one thing that evades me. I tried it and I’m real clumsy at it. I’ve done some loose pinstriping and it was okay but once you start doing a real tight design forget it. I’ve got a nephew, my niece’s son, who’s expressed interest in the sign trade. I gave him a striper and he does a lot of striping. I told him this too, when you get a vinyl banner and you want to letter on it you can’t use enamel, it has to be acrylic enamel. Or you get some t-coat and coat it out. Or you get that Johnson’s floor wax and coat it out - same thing. So he’s been doing stuff and he’s pretty good at design too. He lives up in Indiana so I haven’t seen him in a couple of years. But when he comes around I give him a lot of tricks. I’ve got a whole collection of SignCraft magazines I’m gonna lay on him. He likes the craft. This other kid I met about a month ago, right here on First and State. He did some mural work and he showed me a cafe where he did some other mural work and I told him we gotta get together but he’s always busy. I wanna give him advice, like how to treat your customers, how to demand respect. 

One tip - this happened to me later in my career- A woman sign painter friend of mine gave me a job and the guy was very pleased. He was a commercial artist and he said, “I get work from time to time but the standards are very high.” Well, I said, I consider myself a first-class sign painter. He gave me this job and he said, “Charge whatever you want, but do a good job because they’re very finicky.” I got three hundred dollars for a paper sign. They wanted their logo drawn exactly. You seek out the right market. Another thing I’d do if I was starting out: ad agencies -  I’d seek out all the ad agencies and give them my card. Say “I’m first class, I can do the work, give me a call.” That’s a good lead. 

I worked a couple years in the fashion district downtown - they’re all cheap skates! They chisel you down and not just that, there’s competition. A lot of competition. If you don’t do it somebody else will, you’re like a bunch of dogs fighting for the same bone. I finally got wise after a couple years, I go, there’s no real money here. They don’t appreciate a real nice job, what they want is quick and cheap. I said I’m out of here.

AM: Are any of your signs still down there?

EM: I don’t know, I haven't been down there in years. There's one across from Macarthur park, it’s called El Piojito (now defunct), it’s a 99 cent store, it’s huge. I did the graphics on that one. 

AM: Did you stick to the east side of town mostly?

EM: I had no boundaries. Wherever they called me. 

AM: What about Disneyland, did you ever work with the painters down there? 

EM: I went down there for a job listing once and I was one day too late, they just hired somebody. Dollywood was looking for a sign guy, someone knowledgeable in antique; you know they're trying to create an ambience there. If I wasn't so old, so retired, I think I’d like a job like that. I have books on old typefaces; I could give them exactly what they want.

Eddie Morin: Veteran, Sign Painter, Author (Part 1 of 2)

Eddie Morin interview by Agustin McCord

East Los Angeles - Raul Morin Memorial Square, Indiana Street and Brooklyn Avenue.

February 7, 2026

EM: I’d like to start with my dad. He was a very unusual person and he was one of a kind. He got into a situation where his father died at an early age. My dad was three years old so when his dad died his mother re-married and his step father and his mother had two more children. His mother had him and his older brother named Eddie and in the new family my dad didn’t fit in quite well because his step father was very gruff. My uncles told me he was a “heavy.” His brother Eddie was sent to live with some uncles to ease the situation, leaving my dad with his two younger sisters. 

My dad felt unwelcome, so he stayed out of sight of his step father as much as possible. He grew up on the streets. His mother would leave a plate of food on the stove for him. This was in Texas. He lived out in the country and picked cotton when he was a kid. He grew up kind of rough, but he was very individual in the sense that he was talented. He would do really meticulous drawings and he liked knowledge. He was good in school, so my grandmother, as a stopgap situation to ease the pain and everything, apprenticed him to a sign painter in town. He learned the craft and was pretty good at it. 

The youngest of his three sisters was dying of leukemia. She was fading away and the country was hit with the Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt came out with the CCC camps, and my dad went away to live in Arizona, clearing fire trails in the mountains and building roads and I don't know what else. Meanwhile his older brother was with his uncles, who were tailors. They taught him tailoring and it was there that he met a mercer, someone who sells cloth. He would fill my uncle with ideas of glory and fame, saying “Young man, I advise you to go west. Go to California.” So my Uncle Eddie went to California and he worked part time for a tailor there. He moved to Santa Barbara and met a woman, was very happy and got married. He bought a house in Santa Barbara and it was two thousand dollars. This was back in 1927. 

My dad was coming out of the CCC camps and he didn't want to go home, watching his little sister die and the home life not being very friendly towards him anyway. So he decided to seek out his brother Eddie in Santa Barbara. He traveled west hitchhiking and he’d pick up work where he could. He worked part time as a shoe salesman. He was real good at drawing, he worked at carnivals, drawing caricatures of people and getting paid. Whatever it took, that’s what he did. He hitchhiked and worked his way west and he lived with my Uncle Eddie in Santa Barbara for a year or two.. Then he moved south to Los Angeles and he started his own sign shop. 

He moved a couple of times. At first he didn’t know how to drive so a friend showed him. He told me stories when he didn’t have a shop truck, he’d have a ladder and he and an assistant would get on a streetcar. He’d hand one end to his assistant and then he’d go inside and would lift up the ladder and they’d go that way to a jobsite on the streetcar with a ladder. He told me another time he was painting a sign and the background was black and he ran out of paint. But he needed the money, he wanted to finish the job and collect, so he drove around looking for a store. It was hopeless, then he came across a tire shop. He looked around and he found a bucket of black tire paint, they used to paint the tires black. So he got the bucket and he finished the job with that black paint. He goes, “Years later that was the only part that was still visible!” 

AM: Where was his sign shop?

EM: He started out in south LA, the Coliseum, that area. (The street) was Santa Barbara then, I believe it’s Martin Luther King now. Then he opened a shop on Olvera Street. They were all Latino-based merchants and he got along well there. He did a lot of jobs. He’d take me with him on the jobs and I was impressed. I’d see him do gold leaf jobs and others..  I remember he did a job once for a Chinese restaurant, and he told me, “Their lettering they put the emphasis on like speaking, they put power into the brush swirls. It looks real brushy.” So my dad would do stuff like that and get complimented, “hey nice job” even though he didn’t know what he was writing but he was copying what they wrote. He did the same thing for some Jewish signs, they have their alphabet too. He was working in four languages.

AM: Where were you all living at that time as a young family?

EM: I was born in the Ramona Garden housing projects and we lived there for a while. My dad got active. He was a veteran, he got affected by WWII, he saw action and he saw a lot of discrimination when he came back and he said “This isn’t right. We put our life on the line for the country and we’re treated too shabbily.” He went to buy a house when he saved up some money; he and my mom were trying to buy a house in Alhambra and they were turned away because they were Mexican. The realtor told my folks “We can fudge on this. If you’re willing to say you’re Spanish I might be able to get you in.” But my folks wouldn’t have no part of it, they said “If that’s what it takes we don’t want it.” 

He wrote a letter to the LA Times but the Times was just as racist, they says “We found a place where you can live” and it was in South LA in a rundown area, Watts, you know, and he said “Some help!” He wanted a nice neighborhood, a nice house and that was denied him. He became active at community events and then he started following politics backing up the people that he liked. 

AM: Would you say that those values that he had were instilled in you at home?

EM: To be honest I didn’t understand. It seemed like he spent a lot of time - an excessive amount of time - following this pattern. I didn’t like it, I was jealous, I wanted to see more of my dad. I didn’t understand at the time - now I do. 

AM: He was fighting for a greater cause.

EM: Yeah. When I was a kid I’d see him do some work that’s gone out of vogue. Have you ever heard of a mud job? Okay, they had compressors and spray guns, they would get a metal sign blank, spray it white, and then they would letter (actually with a sho card brush) this material. It was grey, a special mud. They would letter the signs, let it dry, then they would come back and spray over it with black. And (sometimes) they’d put an outline. After it dried good and hard in the hot sun for a day or two they’d get a hose and they’d spray it and the mud didn’t really adhere. It would crumble off and reveal a white letter or a white outline that was really clear, no streaks or brush strokes. It looked real nice. Very good contrast. 

AM: I wonder what kind of mud that was.

EM: I don’t know but it was grey, and it was very fine. Another one was shmaltz - they’d get paint and add linseed oil to it, and they’d sprinkle this crushed material, glass or grain or something like that. It reminded me of roofing material, you know how it sheds that powder? Anyway they would put it on there and it would leave an interesting background. Sometimes they’d do a mud job, sometimes they’d mask off the letter or the part that they wanted nice and legible and that would give the background a matte finish. 

AM: Were you helping on these sorts of jobs?

EM: Mostly observing. He’d have me do simple stuff like put out dropcloths or snap lines, stuff like that. I was about twelve years old when I picked up a sho card brush and my dad started showing me the basic strokes. I liked it and kept going at it. There’d be a lot of jobs - every sign painter comes across this - where somebody wants a freebie. There’s no profit in it, it was just doing a favor… He’d give me that kind of work. He’d put the layout on and I would paint it. At one point on one of these jobs it was not a sho card brush, it was a quill with some enamel, and I just got that confidence. I started making the letters pretty good. I had adapted to it, I got better used to it so from there I took off and started learning more about the sign trade. 

AM: How many employees were there at the shop on Olvera street?

EM: My dad was always a small operation, mostly a one-man operation. He’d take on occasional help - he’d meet guys who needed work and they had things that could help him. He had guys who were good at installation and they’d hang the signs for him. He had guys that were painters; when jobs required a lot of paint and maintenance he’d hire these guys. There were drifters, other sign painters that needed work, and if he was flooded with work he’d share it with them but basically it was a one-man operation. I remember he got this one guy Mario Reda. This guy was from Mexico City and he was an artist and he was very good. He did some sign graphics, dimensional letter effects where the perspective is going into the background. Later Mario Reda taught the class at Trade Tech, pictorial art and design. He was a master. When he was down on his luck my dad gave him work and they helped each other out. He went on to greater things because he was a great artist. 

AM: You mentioned you often wonder how things might have turned out different if your dad had stuck to sign painting instead of pursuing his path in activism.

EM: The trade took a weird turn, especially with the advent of the computer. There’s guys that don’t know nothing about the sign trade but they get a computer and go “Hey I’m a sign guy!” I tell you, I was in Loma Linda and I stopped to have lunch and I saw some guy and on his belt he had a squirt bottle and a brayer and I knew what that was about. So I said “Hey, putting up some vinyl graphics?” and he goes “Yeah” and I say “I’ve been in the trade all my life.. “ I started telling him and you know what he did? He snorted at me! He laughed, like, “Look at this pathetic old wino”, you know? I couldn't answer him, I was dumbfounded. I thought “This young punk doesn’t know. I’ve forgotten more than he could ever learn. I could take over his job right now and do what he’s doing, and he’s scoffing at me!” I’m a Vietnam veteran, I’m used to that kind of humiliation, you know, a rejection of values. That’s where the sign trade went. My dad was good at his craft but he wanted to go into other things. Sign painting is one facet but when it takes off super modern only a few can stay in it and prosper. There’s a lot of little guys that get their own computer but they don’t know the first thing about design, layout, color harmony, none of that stuff. 

AM: Is that what you meant when you said one never fully retires from the trade?

EM: That’s true. Let me get my phone. 

*Eddie Morin, grasping his wooden cane, stands and walks to his white van parked next to the Raul Morin Memorial Square. He returns with his phone and a printout of one of his paintings on computer paper.  

EM: I’m a big fan of Jack Kirby and comic book art…

AM: I love it. The 1shot… the painter’s hat… Is it a sho-card?

EM: That’s an oil painting. It’s like 28 by 40, something like that…

AM: So you started doing more than just lettering obviously.

EM: Yeah I like pictorial. I’m a lightweight in pictorial, I don’t try to pass myself off as an artist. I know what a fine artist is. But I can do some stuff that will amuse you.

AM: Were you ever around any of the Chicano muralists like Paul Botello or Ernesto De La Loza, for example?

EM: I know their work and they’re good. But like I said, I don’t pass myself off as one of them. Mine are more like a comic art, I’m pulling your leg, having a little bit of fun. 

AM: Who were some of your contemporaries who influenced you?

EM: I worked for Ralph’s market for a while and there were two old guys there, Mike Roarty and Dave Kent. They would do sho cards but with flair, I mean they were artistic. Dave Kent told me about Atkinson, you heard of that book, the Atkinson? He was that kind of old school. He had a whole bunch of original ideas he’d lay on some signs and I was really impressed. He was real good. He told me in high school he used to noodle with letters and somebody put him on to the Atkinson book. He took off and started doing that. He worked for years as a painter and then he started doing sign painting.

 

AM: Did you go to LA Trade Tech?

EM: Yes. Not for sign painting, I took Commercial Art. Bill Beynon was the instructor, a pretty knowledgeable guy. He taught me that a lot of artists think about things as simple line drawings but you have to expand your vision and think about colors, shapes, panels. You start thinking in other dimensions, not just simple line drawings. He taught me about layout too. You arrange your copy in certain units, you use devices like panels and apart from those you have what he called functional devices, it might be an illustration that also serves as a panel, or as a pointer. Somehow it points to the next device where you want to lead your eye. It’s a very sophisticated science and a lot of sign painters don’t have the knowledge. 

I did a sign for a restaurant and the owner told me, “I call this guy for a big job and he comes over but when I have a little job he ignores me. He only comes running when I have something that involves money.” Anyway, he wanted a sign done over that said “6 kinds of burritos” and it was all the same size type. Who looks at that? I put a big “6” and then (gesturing a wave) “types of burritos” and then in smaller lettering I listed the types of burritos. Oh, he loved it! He goes, “I like that design better. You gave it some thought.” Here…

*EM begins showing me photos of his work on his iPhone.

EM: See this? This is what’s called a dingbat. In the commercial art trade it’s a filler. It could be a star, a flower, a scroll, a torch you know? Anyway we need four of these, they stole these (from the memorial wall) so we ordered them and we’re going to have them installed for Memorial Day. If you can, show up and give me a supporting hand okay? 

Here’s a secret project I have.. I have a lot of stuff in my mind that I can’t find time to do.

*EM describes a secret project that stuns and amazes me which I will not share because it is secret and will be revealed in due time.

…someday I’m going to paint that. I did this one for my niece, she has this little sign in her bathroom. I bought the shoes right here at the Mercado, they cost me twenty bucks. This lettering right here, I used to do in one pass in the old days. You know what it took? Like seven passes. I’d make an error, wipe it off and you know what else? My hand started cramping on me. I’m 83, I’m getting arthritis.. I noticed too, I used to be able to letter with a sho card brush, three eighths of an inch tall, a pretty decent letter. Now even when I write a check my hands start to shake. It’s gone, I don’t have that anymore.

AM: But your eye is still good.

EM: This is what I have planned for Memorial Day, we’re going to re-dedicate the plaque that was stolen. I’m gonna make a big deal out of it. 

AM: Do you still live in the area?

EM: I live in Lincoln Heights. My daughter saw this in a magazine and she wanted me to do it. The letters sparkle. I got this device, I’ve only used it a couple of times but I love it; it’s a little box with a crank on it and you pour powder in it and you go like that (makes cranking motion) and it sprinkles it out. So you add linseed oil to the paint and the letters come out with sparkles on them. She hung it in her living room for a New Year’s party. Here’s another painting I did. I passed by this lady’s house and she had a beautiful garden. I complimented her on it so I took a photo and anyway I gave her the painting. 

AM: Do you have a dedicated space at home where you work?  

EM: My space is very limited, I have a little shed. (Another painting, depicting an interior of a television studio taping a talk show.) This is a statement I made. I gave it to a friend and she didn’t understand it, she made a comment, “I don’t know what it is but I’ll take it”. 

AM: It's a commentary on entertainment, television…

EM: Yeah it’s phony, I said the only honest person in the whole building is this guy (pointing to the camera operator) he’s doing his job but everybody else is staged actors… I did this one for a church. 

AM: I feel like I’ve seen that..

EM: It’s in Lincoln Heights. What happened - it wasn’t my fault - the paint chipped off. The paint’s not the same. In the old days it’d have lead in it you know, you’d paint a job and it would stay up for years. This one started flaking in two years. 

AM: Is it still there?

EM: The pastor ordered it redone in vinyl. I did this for my grandson, a sho card. 

AM: You're definitely keeping the brushes wet!

EM: This is a little 1 by 6 sign I did for my sister…

AM: So you’re not using any computer, you’re laying all these out by hand?

EM: Yes. You ever seen these Mexican breads? (a dark brown cutout panel of a pig with white lettering) That’s wood, I painted it and lettered it and gave that to my brother for his birthday. Here’s one of my sho cards. A friend of mine’s mom died. I knew the whole family. He told me he wanted to do something for his mom so I said bring me the information, photograph, everything, and give me time. I had two days to do it! I get it but I didn’t appreciate the pressure.

AM: It seems like clients often don’t appreciate the effort that goes into what we do. Do you have any stories about jobs that went awry?

EM: Yeah one time this guy contacted me, he had this high-tech company and they wanted to publicize it. It’s got to be a one-shot deal, it had something to do with.. I’m not even sure. That’s how mysterious it was… an investigation or something. He had this logo of a giant magnifying glass and then the thumbprint underneath. He wanted me to put it on his roof. He had this building in South Pasadena, a five story building, and on the top floor he had a helipad. It was big, it had a hundred and fifty inch circumference. I got a friend who works in a studio because I didn’t have the facility to do it. I paid him money and he made me the pattern. I went down there and coated out the helipad. I rolled it, I lettered it, I even had my wife’s family who were visiting, they helped me. They swept, and helped clean up.. When I was working on it he told me, “This is hush hush.” He says, “It’s gonna be seen from the fly over for the Super Bowl.” 

The Super Bowl was played in Pasadena that year. He goes, “I want the element of surprise.” So I said okay, I understand. I got some dropcloths and rope and I tied them on top. I went the next day to put the finishing touch to polish it off, and my paint’s on the bottom level, the dropcloths are folded up on top, the ropes - it’s all blatantly open. I go, what happened? Who’s messing with me!? 

What happened was they had kidnapped some millionaire’s son in San Marino and the FBI commandeered that helipad for their operations. They were doing surveillance and everything. So they just took everything off and put it down. I got seven thousand for the job and it wasn’t enough you know why? I didn’t figure this out, I did the area, space and everything but, bending down makes it harder. Like twice as hard.

AM: Oh, painting on the floor is the worst. I’ve done a couple. I’ve heard one guy recommend getting one of those big exercise balls and lay over the top of it so it supports your weight. 

EM: Ah yeah. Everybody has a style. I don’t think it would work for me but I can see how it would work for others. I did a boxing ring too, the center of the ring, a logo and the name of the hotel on the corners. The same thing. I go, I should have got more money because I was squatting down to do the work. You have to use a different paint, you can’t use enamel. You have to use that water-based enamel. 

AM: Isn’t that often the case with sign painting, there’s always some unforeseen obstacle that makes you realize you bid too low?

EM: I wrote a bill and I had a friend going over it with me, we wrote down the contracts and everything and that thing actually helped me. But there’s one thing I omitted - any stoppage, any halt of the work that is not your fault, is chargeable, time and charges. One time I painted a sign and the guy wanted me to install it so I show up and he goes, Wait, we’re installing a burglar alarm system, hang on. They had to drill some holes and run some wires and it was a couple hours of waiting time and I thought damn I should have stipulated, my time is worth money you know?

To Be Concluded in Part 2...

Repainting a Sand Blasted Sign

 In my years of sign painting I've learned that business owners often develop a relationship with their sign. Running a business can be tough and the ups and downs take them on an emotional roller coaster. Often they think of their sign as an old friend and reliable employee, who's been with them since the beginning. Customers form emotional bonds with signs as well; how many times have you seen a familiar sign and felt transported back to all the memories of times spent patronizing that particular business? Because of this, businesses in need of a new sign are often reluctant to replace the one they already have, even though it may be faded, chipping away, and damaged. Any sign that sees constant exposure will sustain a lot of wear and I recommend a repaint a minimum of every ten years.

Once you start thinking about repaint opportunities, you will begin to see them everywhere. Offering a repaint is a good way to introduce yourself to a customer and has a higher conversion rate than selling a brand new sign. Once they have your number they'll call you for more. And for sign painters just starting out, it's a great way to gain sales experience and learn some different techniques. Most experienced tradespeople probably take the repaint process for granted as it is relatively straightforward, but I'd like to run through it and share some techniques that will increase speed, and therefore make you mo' money!

The project was to repaint a sandblasted high density urethane (HDU) foam sign. Graffiti aside, it had taken a beating and was losing paint chips - a repaint was overdue. Sandblasted signs become high rise condos for spiders so the first step is to use a stiff bristle cleaning brush to remove the dust and debris from all the crevices and faces. Then, sand the face of all the letters with medium grit sand paper (100-200 grit) to remove loose paint and roughness. 

Next it's time to coat the entire board with background latex paint. First, mask off anything adjacent to the sign so you can work fast and not worry about stray paint getting anywhere you don't want it. Then, thoroughly coat the entire sign with your choice of background paint. I use exterior water based paint through a Graco airless electric hand sprayer but you can do it almost as fast with a decent three-inch cutter brush (see Wooster, Purdy, etc). Don't worry about avoiding the face of the letters, you just want everything to have an even coat.  

The next step is to put a coat of oil-based enamel on the letters. This sign has a medium-dark background so I used 1 Shot Chromatic Fast-dry block out enamel, which only comes in white. Using a 3-inch cotton roller for smooth surfaces, carefully coat the letters with vertical strokes and then diagonal strokes. It's okay if the coat seems transparent. Once all the raised areas have a first coat go back to where you began and immediately start applying a second coat the same way. If you see the first coat lifting off it's too tacky, wait fifteen minutes then try applying the second coat again. Go slow, you will probably hit the background accidentally with the roller once or twice but just keep going, you will clean that up at the end. I also needed a 1/4" fitch to paint white in gaps where the foam had broken away.

The fast dry chromatic only needs 1-2 hours to dry, so that gives you time to paint the border using a slightly darker shade of water based latex than the background. Use a decent two inch cutter and give it two coats; make sure you jam the loaded brush into any dents and chips in the substrate. You want to seal it really well.

Lettering and outlining is done with 1 Shot enamel and a fitch. Since we primed all the raised surfaces with white block out enamel the colors will go on smooth and appear very vibrant. A single coat was sufficient for the lemon yellow and fire red I used. Once that's done, return to the background: using a rag with a little bit of mineral spirits, wipe away stray block out enamel and then with your 2" cutter touch those up and wherever else needs it. Give the whole sign a thorough inspection because once you walk away it probably won't be touched for another 10 years. I'm going to come back and apply some vinyl decals to the round panels at the bottom but the repaint process is complete. Remove all the masking material and clean up.

If you're a beginner some of these tools may not be in your repertoire but if you want to be able to tackle any job with the ease and speed of a traveling snapper then a gallon of block out enamel and an airless hand sprayer are a worthy investment. You'll sell repaint jobs when walk-ins are slow and you'll surely find other uses that will speed your process when working on-site. I like to think of repaint jobs as giving you good sign karma - that one day someone will repaint one of your original signs and extend its life for the good of its owners and their customers.

  

Montreal Sep’23