Jessica Krcmarik: Digitizing Detroit’s Hand-Painted Signs

Jessica Krcmarik (BFA 2012), has successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to digitally preserve Detroit’s hand-painted signs. After collecting images and digitizing the type samples, Krcmaric plans to offer ten unique fonts based on styles found in Detroit neighborhoods as pay-as-you-can downloads.

“I can’t save the physical sign, but I can at least make sure people don’t forget it was there,” she said, adding that the signs are part of a visual landscape that makes the city’s neighborhoods ​“awesome and unique.”

Many of these signs are so-called ​“ghost signs,” hand-painted on brick, that remain decipherable long after their intended purpose has been served.

Designer aims to save D’s vintage signs, letters | Detroit Free Press