A hand-painted sign by San Diego artist Koy Sun, shown at his artist residency studio in Bread & Salt on Oct. 4, 2024, emphasizes the generosity inherent in his sign painting.

"I remember one day it clicked for me," Giberson says of his early fascination with sign painting. "I'd been dabbling in different arts my whole life. I notice all these signs and some stand out ...

As with any industry, technology brings change—but in the case of sign painting, that’s meant decline in an industry that brought a touch of individuality to any place a sign stood.

This sign painting course has been around for 100 years at L.A. Trade Tech and is the last sign painting A.A. degree in the nation. Tom Carroll stopped by to chat with the instructors to ...