Wall Dogs

Leon Sweet – Sweet’s Chocolates – Sold From Alaska to Australia – Silverbow Paint Company – Wall Dog Frank Meinhart – Butte, MT

Jan 31st, 2013

by Frank.

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July 2009 © Vincenzo Aiosa

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But with an orange hue, it revealed “Sweet’s Chocolates.”

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So I took this image below,

and unskewed it –

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and then performed the same hue saturation filters to reveal the sign below:

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Upon further research, I found this slogan in a recently published book about Richmond, VA (Richmond, Arcadia Books, 2011)

Made in Salt Lake – From ‘Richmond’ By Cheri Housley, Marie Lundgreen, Kathy Jones (Arcadia Publishing, 2011)

Then I discovered an article by Leon Sweet about the confection industry in October 1918 issue of The Utah Payroll Builder, as well as an ad for Sweet’s Chocolates & an anecdote about the “largest electric sign in Utah.”

Google Books

Utah Payroll Builder Volumes 5 & 6, 1917-1918

From the Utah Payroll Builder

From the Sweet Candy Company website:

Leon Sweet started the Sweet Candy Company in Portland, Oregon. The early varieties Leon offered for sale had two distinguishing characteristics: they were made mostly by hand, and people loved them. Customers loved Sweet’s candies back then for the same reason they love them today—quality.

Leon moved the operation from Portland, Oregon to Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon relocation, he merged several small specialty stores into one general manufacturing company. Over the years, Sweet’s has become more innovative and more automated, embracing technology to create better and even more delicious products.

The Sweet Candy Company moved into a state-of-the-art, 180,000 square foot manufacturing and distribution facility. The new factory is located three miles south of the Salt Lake International Airport.

Sweet Candy Company is still a family-owned and operated American company. The third, fourth and fifth generations of the family are actively involved in the daily operations of the business. Sweet’s distributes more than 250 quality candy items nationally and internationally—in bulk, bags, and boxes. Sweet’s is still known for its quality candy and world-class customer service. We thank our customers for your business and support all these years. We look forward to supplying you with your favorite Sweet’s for another 100 years. – Sweet’s Candy Company Website

Made In America- Sweet Candy Company – ABC News
Silverbow Paint – Ghost Signs – Butte, MT

Smoke Dry Climate Cigars – Wall Dog, Frank Meinhart – Butte, MT

Jan 29th, 2013

by Frank.

7 comments

July 2009 © Frank H. Jump

A little research unveiled one Frank Meinhart who not only painted signs but was a well known Montana wildlife artist, even exhibiting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.. Northwest Digital Archives has a comprehensive bio of Frank as well as photos of his various signs. – The Ghost Sign Weekly – Montana’s Fading Ads

Also on Main Street Butte

Corrado’s Market – A & A Signs – Clifton, NJ

Aug 9th, 2012

by fadingad.

2 comments

A&A Signs – Art Amerman – Wyckoff, NJ – 201.652.4465

Painted ads resurface in NYC as urban ‘modern art’ – VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press

May 9th, 2012

by fadingad.

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New York is sprinkled with barely visible old ads painted on the sides of buildings — remnants of lost eras of urban life. Now, they’re making a comeback as a nostalgic art form.

Photo: Bebeto Matthews / AP

Painters known as “walldogs” work on scaffolds, dipping brushes into a lineup of open paint cans. Then come the details, carefully brushed in gleaming color onto walls that are sometimes hundreds of years old.

“So it’s like, `Make me a bucket of soup,'” says Art Pastusak, 61, a master mentoring apprentice walldogs. “Slap it on the wall, and let’s crank.”

Paul Lindahl co-founded the company leading the comeback, Colossal Media. He hired Pastusak to teach what he’s been doing for three decades to a younger generation.

Though computers have taken over, ad painting fascinates people, says Lindahl, who likens the craft to performance art.

“People really stop and they watch, and they want to know what’s going on, and they want to know what it is that you’re painting,” Lindahl says.

Apprentice Liam McWilliams, 23, says it’s “very exciting” to work with people who have been doing this their whole lives “through the snow, the heat, day in and day out.”

On a recent day, they made a beautiful, red-lipped woman a brunette in an ad for the social network Badoo as they stood suspended five stories above the street.

Painting ads is one method of promoting products that dates to the 1800s, when advertising murals were painted by hand on blank brick side walls.

Hand-painted wall advertising peaked in the early 1980s and faded in popularity as computers made large-scale vinyl printing possible. But “the respect for a hand-painted sign is still there,” Pastusak says.

So it’s comeback time for a job that’s not easy.

“At the end of the day you have to be able to meet a deadline, and you have to be able to make it look like it wasn’t painted,” Lindahl says.

Fans like Frank Jump, author of the new book “Fading Ads of New York City,” says hand-painted wall ads are close to modern art.

“The best thing about a hand-painted sign,” he says, “is it’s hand-painted.”

Leave it up to me to state the obvious.
See slideshow on Yahoo NEWS.

Featured Fade – Photojournalist Matteo Brogi – Seventh Avenue Walldogs – Latest Marc Jacobs Ad

Feb 5th, 2009

by fadingad.

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Matteo Brogi – Photojournalist

Comments taken from another posting about this one to lawman2:

They were painting the sign that you see in the later shots. I have this wall several times on the blog. Marc Jacobs seems to have the exclusive on this wall. Brooklyn has Monk parrots too! Other Marc Jacobs & Barney’s signs. This sign was just across the street from this sign (Jefferson Theatre) and taken from the roof of the building with the Barney’s signs.

The Weekend's Feature Fade: The Art of Walldog Jerry "Orange" Johnson

Feb 22nd, 2008

by fadingad.

4 comments

Pintchik - Jerry Johnson

Bill Cody - Jerry Johnson

Mae West - Jerry Johnson

Cash - Jerry Johnson

O Calcutta - Jerry Johnson

Nick @ Nite - Jerry Johnson
Seattle WA

Nick @ Nite - Jerry Johnson
Cincinnati OH

Van Exel - Jerry Johnson

Benihana - Jerry Johnson

Here are ten images from Jerry “Orange Outdoor” Johnson’s private collection. Before establishing Orange as Brooklyn’s premiere hand-painted sign company in 1977, Johnson worked as a walldog for Seaboard Outdoor. These ads represent some of the work he did while at Seaboard and some of his signature murals like “Cash.”

Here is a response from Sam Roberts @ UK Brick Ads to Jerry Johnson’s work:

Frank Jump over in NYC has just posted a collection of ten outstanding images from the work of experienced signwriter (or “wall dog” in USA) Jerry Johnson. Some of these are genuine pieces of advertising and some, like the one pictured, are spoofs. The craftsmanship, or ‘art’ (?), is exceptional and so is the photography. It must be really satisfying finishing off a piece of work and then stepping back to take the first photo.