As we wandered, cameras in hand, what attracted my eye was old signs. Is it because I work with type daily that I was taken with weatherbeaten signs that show the hand of a craftsman? Maybe this is what we were really after: evidence of other's forgotten work. These signs are the dry career of signpainters--only worth the service they perform in keeping people from entering, or not parking in front of, or of simply stating the name of a business. The effect desired is authority, and the authority is the hand of an experienced signpainter. The craft required to layout a sign and indidually paint each letter is lost in the lickitysplit world of computers. Hand drawn characters, with all their irregularities, are unacceptable in the work I do. And yet I find these signs rich and full of character. Something unattainable by the computer.
