CLEVELAND, Ohio - A trip to Sokolowski's University Inn is steeped in the past - for the most part.
The 1920s James Beard Award-winning restaurant in Tremont is as old-school as it gets. There's a lunch line that serving piping hot Polish food. Its sepia-toned interior is full of Cleveland mementos. And, deceivingly, a hand-painted sign outside its doors that looks as though it was meticulously created decades ago.
The sign, freshly painted this spring by local artist Alan Giberson with thick white script and a red shadow, may look of a different era - a time when every small business hired artists who specialized in the craft. A time that has come and gone with the advent of digital art.
But across the country, artists like Giberson are reviving the classic style.
Giberson creates under the name Old Soul Sign Co. In his studio at 9720 Madison Ave., he's dreamt up signs for some of Cleveland's hottest restaurants - Larder Delicatessen and Bakery, Noble Beast Brewing Co. and Vero, just to name a few. Call it retro if you'd like, but Giberson gives each a modern touch while paying homage to a vintage art.
"I remember one day it clicked for me," Giberson says of his early fascination with sign painting. "I'd been dabbling in different arts my whole life. I notice all these signs and some stand out to me. That's someone's profession, and I think I could do a good job at that."
Sign painters could be the unsung, behind-the-scenes heroes of enticing you into a business, and that's certainly true for Giberson in Cleveland. You're likely to be a regular at your favorite restaurants without ever knowing he's the man behind the art.
With Giberson lending his skills to everything from boutiques to tattoo parlors to barber shops, it's hard not to notice the signs reaching further and further into more corners of Cleveland.
Today, you can see his work when you hit Forest City Shuffleboard, where the interior transports you back to a vintage gymnasium. Gold Dust Salon, The Sweetest Chill boutique, Herb'n Twine sandwich shop and Lakewood Electric Tattoo are just a few places that have had the Old Soul Sign Co. treatment.
The style could be seen as having a comeback - it seems like the prime time for it as everyone turns toward local and handmade - but Giberson notes that the community is still relatively small. "I can name almost every sign painter in the country," he says.
A personal touch
There's a distinctive feel to hand-painted signs - one that can't be replicated through the computer screen. And, let's face it, the slick look doesn't hurt when it comes to standing out. So it's no surprise that Giberson's work has been in demand by a new wave of businesses that want something that connects with their own dexterity.
"When something's hand-painted, I really think that it connects with people on a more personal level," Giberson says. "People see it and think, 'Oh, a human made this. They put effort and time into this.' I think it reflects a lot with businesses. Like Larder - the way they make and prepare food goes hand-in-hand with how I did their sign."
For Giberson, it all started in the skate park. Growing up in Strongsville, he began skateboarding at 12 and it took him throughout the region. He became interested in photography after discovering his uncle's old 35mm camera, and it eventually led to urban exploring, where he ventured into abandoned places.
"From there I noticed graffiti inside, and started getting into that," Giberson says. "That's how I got into letter forms. I think that played a big role in sign painting. I get to paint letters and get creative with it - and get paid for it."
Vintage signs surrounded him when he was young, and those memories stayed with him. As a Saint Ignatius High Schools student, he worked at the nearby West Side Market, where he'd see signs for Gaylord's and Bailey's.
When Giberson began sign painting, it was just something he was doing in his studio apartment for fun. A gig painting the interior of a buzzy, Southern-inspired barbecue restaurant in Lakewood was his first foray into making his mark on the public.
"The owner really let me do everything there," He recalls. "I just started as a hobby, and I thought in the back of my head it might lead to something. At some point, I really went for it."
A timeless art
Not every business lets Giberson take the creative reigns, of course. But the ones that do, recall a return-to-form to the days when sign-making was trusted to the sign maker.
"The ones I'm really excited about are the ones people let me design; they pretty much say we trust you," Giberson says. "Back in the day, when all the signs were painted, the mom-and-pop shop would say, 'We need a sign that says tailor,' and let the sign painter handle it from there. Because that's the painter's profession and they know what's best."
Giberson revels in getting to give signs a little extra gleam. The gold leaf technique, using 12- to 23-karat gold on glass, is a favorite of his. He's used it to add a classic look to Tremont Athletic Club, Cleveland Public Library and The Rowley Inn, among others.
No matter the detail involved, Giberson says he likes to keep it simple. Sometimes, he says, thinking back to a whimsical pink-and-white street sign for Tremont Scoops, "you just need an ice cream cone and to say, 'Open.'"
But Giberson's art transcends businesses. In 2015, he collaborated with poet Damien Ware for an installation in the Buckeye neighborhood, "Love Lunes Over Buckeye," through Cleveland's LAND Studio. He was also part of the organization's mural project along the RTA Red Line, which tasked artists with creating large-scale works inspired by the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.
He has other sprawling projects under his belt. A sign heading into the Flats directing you towards the city or lake with arrows. And that giant, color-blocked wall that's been the backdrop of thousands of photos at the Cleveland Flea in St. Clair-Superior. He's even renovated wooden boxcars for Midwest Railway Preservation Society.
"One day I can just be working on smaller signs in my studio, and the next day I could be on a lift 25-feet in the air," Giberson says. "I love that variety."
It's the signs painted on the brick exteriors of buildings that stand the test of time. Plenty in Cleveland still exist, and there's an appropriate name for them: Ghost signs. The entire historic building where Forest City Brewery and more businesses reside in Duck Island have Giberson's black painting on white brick.
"They're like a piece of history you can still see," Giberson says. "I always like doing brick walls because I think, even if this business closes in 30 years, maybe this sign will still remain."
If there's one thing Giberson knows, it's the value of being timeless. In a world dominated by messages delivered in digital, Giberson's signs offer a reminder of the human pulse behind the walls of the places those signs cover. And long after the signs may have faded, that legacy of Cleveland craftsmanship remains.
Ironically, it's Instagram that's been bolstering the sign movement today. More and more, people are stumbling upon Giberson's feed and sending him messages when they realize he's the one behind the art they see every day. Other times, that discovery just comes in the good old-fashioned form of a stranger knocking on his studio door.
"Sign painting isn't that widely known, but it's getting there," Giberson says. "When people see it, they'll says, 'I had no idea that was done with a paintbrush.' In other cities having a sign painted it almost a status thing among restaurants. And I think Cleveland's getting hip to that."