Jack Murray Design

10/03/2023

More sign photos from the Kutztown area. Happy to see a couple of them still up after all this time: Savory Grille (20 years) and the Bowers Hotel sign -the one still hanging from the porch ceiling (almost 40 years!)

10/03/2023

It's been kind of fun rounding up old photos of signs I've made in various locations. I recently posted selection of some signs I made for Boyertown. Here's the first of two( or three) more collections of signs I've made in the Kutztown area over a few decades. Many are still there, some long gone.

This photo round-up ought to serve as a kind of personal archiving exercise and, hopefully, a reminder that I'm still at it.

I started making signs in Worcester (near Skippack) then in Bowers for ten years, then Kempton and now up here in the wilds of suburban Barto.

12/29/2022

“On the Ninth Day of Hank-ness…”

Tenth Annual Blue Tarp Wrangler Hank-a-Thon at Godfrey Daniels on New Years Day!

Don’t tell anybody.

www.godfreydaniels.org

12/07/2021

One of my Covid projects was putting variegated 22k gold leaf lettering on this beautifully restored trolley for Colbrookdale Railroad. There was a lot of striping and corner decorations -as well as the lettering. The trolley was built in Philadelphia about a century ago. They called it the Doodlebug. It was a real pleasure, once again, to be workin' on the railroad with Nathaniel and Justin. They were extraordinarily gracious and patient as I chipped away at this -a little at a time over many months -as we pondered options and challenges and came up with a lot of good solutions. I hope the folks in Boyertown know just how lucky they are to have something this cool in the neighborhood. There's lots of reasons to believe they do.

10/05/2017

After a number of delays, I just wrapped up a cool project from some cool customers down along the Lehigh in West Easton.
Josh and Brittany are on the front lines of a new generation of recycling.
But I think it's one of the coolest junkyards I've ever seen. Kind of looks like a battleship -a giant, rusted steel wall that conceals most of their inventory. They wanted their logo hand-lettered on the rusty wall in a way that will become "naturally distressed" over time -and look like something that's been there for a couple decades. I think we got that done.
They found me via another hand-painted wall project I'd done on the South Side of Bethlehem last year for Bonn Brewing Co.. Word of mouth works great. (Thanks, Sam and Gina!)

01/16/2017

FB Memories Dept. thinks I ought to repost this post from a few years ago. What the hail. I always liked this one. It's still there in Kutztown, last time I checked...

I'm looking forward to doing some more glass gilding work in Chestnut Hill in a couple weeks. Here's one I did for Sorrelli's a few years ago. Not sure how visible it might be in the photo, but the outside of the 23K gold leaf lettering has the usual "mirror" gold look -with the centers gilded on varnish for a matte effect, then outlined in black The border was done with variegated leaf. ~Kutztown, PA

11/17/2016

Another 'Down Memory Lane' Suggestion from FB. Why not?
Sign work's a bit slow and my FB Pals might tolerate an occasional reminder that I still make custom signs. Some cooler than others. This post is from a couple years ago...

Doing some archaeology in my shop -I found the components to a "spare" sign I'd made for one of the late, great Chuck Wago Day gatherings that Bob Hovanek and Pat Kerr of Big CIty Signs graciously/bravely hosted in Johnstown -for about 20 years! This particular year, they'd "commissioned" letters of the alphabet from various sign makers. I picked the letter Z -and borrowed (stole) it from R. Crumb's classic Zap Comix logo from issue #1. This is a dimensional sign has a painted MDO board disc background -with black outline hand-cut from black PVC stuff. The top layer from white PVC stuff with a layer of gold-tinted epoxy resin to give it some gloss and rounded-over edges after it dried. Happy I made a spare -and happy to find the pieces for my own souvenir. R.I.P. ~ Chuck Wago.

08/16/2016

Since I live "right around the corner" from Landhaven, I rarely think to look at the signs anymore. But when I do, it reminds me how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to work with Ed and Donna Land in so many ways. The only sign I Didn't make was the "For Sale" sign out front. I don't think I could've done that one.
Their stories have been wonderfully tangled up with mine and Ramona's for the past dozen years or so -as friends and neighbors, working with them behind the scenes on the Landhaven concerts, guest "hosting" for them when theyre away. Ramona and I even got Married there -almost three years ago now.
So much more to say about all of this, but for now, I thought I'd start with some Sign photos…