After visiting Bob Behounek we drove to Coralville, Iowa to meet with John Downer whom we first heard about through Ken & Andy over at House Industries. John grew up in the Pacific NW, and began painting signs there when he was still in high school in Longview, Washington, under the guidance of Shelly Dugan, a hotshot pinstriper.
Coralville is where John's former Signshop associate, Ed Otten is still located and operates his same business today. Ed is a veteran (left-handed) sign painter who received excellent training in Cedar Rapids before starting to work at the University of Iowa's own sign department in the 1960s.
We were joined by Ed's second cousin Hugh Hoffman, of nearby Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Hugh is a professional sign painter and pin striper. Hugh has been doing many of the local painted signs ever since Ed switched his output to primarily vinyl signage back in the '90s.
John brought out a number of old sign examples to share with us and Ed's photo albums of his work blew our minds.
John brought out a number of old sign examples to share with us and Ed's photo albums of his work blew our minds.
Left to right: Ed Otten, John Downer, Hugh Hoffman
[we really are having fun here, I swear]
[we really are having fun here, I swear]
John showing off his amazing sandwich board Halloween costume he designed and painted.
Hugh did an amazing pin striping demo that I didn't capture on my iphone, but Travis got great footage of.
John giving us an on-camera lettering demo and then busting out a beautiful show card for the movie.
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