- My name is Nick Lee and I'm a sign painter.
(gentle music)
I am the owner of Studio Signs
and Pictorial Displays Incorporated.
I'm a second generation sign painter.
My father ran the business before I bought it.
So I was pretty much born into the world of sign painting.
The fun thing about making signs is that it's very diverse.
One day I could be doing a wood sign,
next day I could be doing a carved sign,
the next day I could be doing gold leaf on glass,
the next day I could be doing screen printing on metal.
So it varies.
There's just so much to learn.
There's so many different aspects of sign painting
that you could spend your whole lifetime
seeking more knowledge and there'd always be more to learn.
Whatever the project may be,
I just do my best to make it a top quality product
and make sure that the customer's happy with it.
So on this one, we're using 23 carat gold
to gild these giant Nebuchadnezzar bottles
that whole 20 standard bottles of wine.
(light music)
Gold leaf gilding is applying metal leaf,
usually it's gold.
Applying leaf to something is called gilding.
Gold leaf is so fine and thin
that touching it with your fingers
will just make it disappear from the oils on your skin.
(light music continues)
Over the years, I've made countless signs,
thousands and thousands.
Some of them are quick economical signs.
Maybe they're still up, maybe they're not.
But then the hand painted stuff we do
and the gold leaf work,
that's the type of work that is meant to last
and it's meant to give a sense of permanency.
(light music continues)
I think the resurgence in handcrafted signs
is just kind of a reaction to the design world
went very clean and everything was glass and white
and minimalistic.
And that's nice,
but I think that kind of lacks that human element to it.
You know, the perfect imperfections that make it attractive.
I do all of the hand painted signs
for McMenamins hotels and restaurants.
(upbeat music)
Those designs are great.
They're colorful and the lettering's really interesting.
So pretty much any McMenamins that you go to
and you look at their big, main sign
and that's something that myself or my father has painted.
(upbeat music continues)
Studio Signs was founded in 1963
by artist Dean G Stanley.
And they focused on the big pictorial displays.
Nowadays, this would be a printed photo,
but back then it was all hand painted.
In 1985, when Dean Stanley was getting ready to retire,
he chose my dad as his successor.
- I started off in the sign painting business
in 1970 in Vancouver, BC,
and started my work with Studio Signs in '76.
We did truck lettering, the window lettering
outside of buildings.
Lots of the signs that we do are out there,
fairly permanent, some lasting 10 to 15 years.
We put a lot of time and effort into our work
so it's nice to have our stuff viewed
for a long period of time.
- Over the years,
I took over more of the production
and learning about how to run the business.
And eventually my dad was ready to retire
and he said, hey, you want to, you want to buy the business
and take over?
So in 2018 I bought Studio Signs.
- Well, he learned the craft early on
and I'm proud of him.
(light music)
- We're part of the Portland Lee's association,
which is a family association
for people with the surname Lee.
My grandfather was in it and my dad, my uncles.
We do lion dance, dragon dance, and Kung Fu
and get the youth interested.
So right now during COVID we're not performing.
Everything is kind of shut down.
So it's a good time to repaint the drum
and get some new lettering on here.
(light music continues)
I would consider my father a true sign painter,
a true sign writer.
He can walk up, grab the brush, and go.
(light music continues)
He's been doing it for 50 years
and so he's built the muscle memory,
he understands the alphabets,
the way they're supposed to look.
And it's beautiful.
Myself, I don't feel as confident doing some like that,
but I'm really into the technical aspect
and the design aspect.
I also love the artistic side of it.
(light, cheerful music)
I've actually used some of these techniques
to create some art pieces
that I sent down to a art show that was in San Francisco
called, But Where Are You Really From?
And it was a showcase on minority sign painters.
(light, cheerful music continues)
So a couple of the pieces that I made for the show
was this Bruce Lee piece here,
where I used liquid silver.
And then this one here is another mirrored piece.
And 1882 refers to the year
that the United States outlawed Chinese people
from coming to the United States.
I was born in 1982, a hundred years later.
So this is kind of my tribute
saying look at this dark history that we had,
but 100 years later, and I'm a Chinese American artist.
And so this was kind of my commentary on the Exclusion Act.
And they asked my dad to letter a poster
to promote the show, so that was pretty cool.
For me it was more satisfying
for my dad to get the recognition.
We need to get our brush ready.
In the past, a sign painter was just a sign painter.
He was just some guy who did a job.
Now with the younger people who are wanting to learn,
they're actually looking up to these old sign painters,
kind of like, not rock stars,
but they're idolized a little bit
because of the skill that they have.
But to have these younger people say hey,
we appreciate your work and what you've done,
and we'd want you to actually make a poster
so we can memorialize it.
I think that was really cool for my dad.
(light music)
It's very important to me to continue the legacy
of Studio Signs.
It was started in 1963.
So there's not many businesses that last for that long.
And now being the third owner,
I feel like there's a big responsibility
for me to continue to be successful,
not only for myself,
but also to continue providing quality signage
and informing the visual landscape
with good design.
My father and I are both lifelong martial artists.
And in the same way that there's a lineage
from teacher to student
in the martial arts world,
I feel there's a similar lineage
with the sign shop.
And so for me to continue it on and continue the legacy
is really important to me.