The Enduring Craft of Sign Painters: From Ghost Signs to Wall Dogs

Sign painting, a manual advertising technique that flourished from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, has never fully disappeared. Known colloquially as "wall dogs" for their grueling work scaling buildings in safety harnesses, these skilled workers still operate today, experiencing a vintage-inspired resurgence. A 2014 video by Vocativ titled "Wall Dogs" documents contemporary sign painters in New York City, showing their studios filled with paint, solvents, and equipment. Earlier, in 2010, filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon began a project on sign painters, resulting in the film "Sign Painters" and a 2012 book published by Princeton Architectural Press, with a preface by artist Ed Ruscha, who himself once worked as a sign painter.