Field Notes

Field Notes from BLAG: May 2026

The New York vernacular, brush care, DIY directionals, Barcelona painters, and more from the field.

Better Letters

• 7 min read
Man sat in front of a corrugated iron structure painted red and lettered with the Coca-Cola logo in white and "Ambush's Shop" in yellow above.
Coca-Cola celebrates local interpretations of its iconic logotype.

Welcome back to Field Notes, my periodic member-only email with things of interest that I come across in my research and meanderings on the worldwide web. You can share your own discoveries for future issues via email to sam@bl.ag.

Contents

In this edition:

  1. Stickers reprise.
  2. Veteran LA sign painter Eddie Morin.
  3. Recognition for Mail Pouch barns.
  4. More Mamdani, featuring BLAG.
  5. Featured films: New York’s vernacular signage and Beverly Sign Co.’s sketches.
  6. Japanese sign painters.
  7. Press Gang, featuring Ales Santos, Alina Kiliwa, the craft in Catalonia, and more.
  8. The return of Richard Gregory.
  9. Brush care and brush making.
  10. Sundries.

Field Notes: May 2026

Stickers Reprise

Four more pages in the sticker album filled with a selection from Crow Nine Signs and Station Studios

Following the recent post about my sticker collection, Bryan at Crow Nine Signs got in touch and sent me a fat pack from him and his ‘Church of Signtology’ partner Dean at Station Studios in Saskatoon, Canada.

Thank you Bryan!

Eddie Morin: Veteran LA Sign Painter

Comic book-style painting titled "Flash Morin: Rocket Sign-Tist" and with "Invasion of the vinyl wannabees" further down. The pictorial shows a man lettering a UFO with "Brush Patrol" as huge bees buzz around him. A woman in the UFO asks "Flash! Are you sure that they're confused?" to which he replies "Relax honey. They never learned how to deal with original art and dynamic layout!". A red panel at the bottom with white text reads "The intrepid Flash Morin also confronts the vile menace 'Rush', battles the merciless Miser, and it's all in a day's work!
Comic book-inspired humour from the hand of Eddie Morin.

Agustin McCool’s diary/blog recently featured a wonderful two-part interview with veteran Los Angeles sign painter Eddie Morin. I recommend sitting down with a hot (or cold) drink and enjoying Morin’s stories via Part One and Part Two.

“When he didn’t have a shop truck, he’d have a ladder and he and an assistant would get on a streetcar. He’d hand one end to his assistant and then he’d go inside and would lift up the ladder and they’d go that way to a jobsite on the streetcar with a ladder.” — Morin talking about his father, Raul Morin.
“The most successful sign businesses, they’re run by guys that aren’t that great. The true craftsmen are too busy with their craft to really get involved that much more.” — Morin on the business of signs.

Ghost Sign Corner: Mail Pouch Barns

From left (photographer): barn 48-26-02 (Earl Leatherberry); barn 48-42-04 (unknown); and barn 48-18-03 (Kenneth Cunningham).

Good news comes from West Virginia where these three Mail Pouch barns have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. While this doesn’t give them outright protection, it does recognise their historic significance, which can help with fundraising for maintenance costs.

For more Mail Pouch, check out the piece about the authentic original at the American Sign Museum in the museum’s book, and also The Barn Painter by Harley E. Warrick, the last painter of Mail Pouch barns.

More Mamdani, featuring BLAG

Photo of a projection screen showing a slide from a presentation and a small circle bottom right with a video feed of the presenter. The slide shows a variety of sign painting examples, posts from the bl.ag online blog and a graphic inspired by these that says "Election day, Nov. 4".
Aneesh Bhoopathy presenting at the Voices in Type Assembly in Breda, the Netherland, 31 March 2026.

In the last ‘Field Notes’ I referenced a couple of articles taking deep dives into the election campaign for New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. So I was bowled over to hear that BLAG gets a shout-out in presentations about the work from graphic designer Aneesh Bhoopathy:

“Our signs were referential to the sign painting tradition and I gained so much respect with regard to that discipline. As we needed more signs as the campaign wore on, I needed to expand my vocabulary and incorporate new styles. I really fell in love with this publication — Better Letters Magazine — which gave me a deep appreciation for how international this discipline is and how varied the styles are.”