After getting a feel for pulling the brush and making tight strokes, participants laid tracing paper over examples of the alphabets and got busy practicing. Here’s where the education truly begins, as hours of practice develop into the muscle memory necessary to produce consistent, controlled work.

Damon and his staff regularly open the doors of their shop on 9th Street here in San Francisco for similar beginner-level workshops in signpainting.

Damon Styer

Damon Styer took ownership of New Bohemia Signs in 1999, after an abbreviated apprenticeship-by-telephone. He derives the greatest pleasure in his work from providing a place for young artists to learn the rules and tools for developing an efficient brush lettering practice they can carry into their future endeavors. New Bohemia Signs, in San Francisco, has been producing exclusively hand-painted signs, in enamel and gold leaf, since 1993.

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Written and Photographed by David Sudweeks