East Central Apartments Signage

8’ x 60’, 274 Huger St., Charleston SC
The East Central Lofts sign was commissioned while the building was still under construction. The clients had a general notion of what they wanted, but the exact placement and typeface was left up to me. We all wanted to recall the era when brick buildings were routinely named by large hand-painted signs that could be seen from far away. The letters are ivory colored, but I added a little yellowing in an uneven way to suggest aging.

This is as straightforward of a sign as it gets, and that, to me, is what makes sign painting a satisfying enterprise. You take a concept through the design phase, and then it becomes all about the execution. Even though I strive for perfection in the execution, it is never perfect. Paradoxically, the slightly imperfect, hand-painted nature of the sign is what makes it so much more appealing than a digitally-produced version could ever be.