African Store Sign Art

June 22nd 2008

Store sign painter Mambi at work in his studio.

The store sign painter is a dying profession in West Africa. More and more businesses offer modern inkjet printing on vinyl banners and less and less new stores are ordering hand painted signs.

Before my departure from Africa, I visited several store sign painters in their workshops and gave some designs I had put together mostly by using images from old record covers to paint them onto plywood sheets.

Their size ranges from 1.5 x 3 foot to 4 x 4 foot.

As always, click on images for a better look!