The art of the signwriter

Rachel has already done a post about the variety of shops. We love the fact that there are barely any big chains and that each shop is unique in its own way.

When we were in a cafe in Durango I watched a signwriter painting the outside of a shop. It was mesmerising.

He would climb his step ladder and focus intensely as he painted, freehand and by eye (!), each layer / colour on each letter. 

He would then descend the ladder. Firstly to move it along to the next one. But secondly, it seemed like he needed the time to relax before going back up and resuming his focus on the next letter.

I watched him work his way along each letter then go back to the start to add emphasis in another colour to each. 

As Rachel's post showed, most shops are really brightly coloured and the detail of the lettering is easy to overlook. Now that my eye has been drawn to it, I've been amazed by the variety of styles, the richness of the colouring/shading, and the skill involved in creating these works of art.

The selection below illustrates this. They are just a random selection that I've snapped. I gathered the images in no time and could have got hundreds more.