Design
Meet Mexico City’s Sign Painters
Seemingly replaced by vinyl-printed ads since the early 2000s, artists who can paint advertisements by hand are making a comeback.
Sign painter Bernardino Antonio Hernandez, 46, is sitting on a bench in a tree-lined avenue in Mexico City’s northern Gustavo A. Madero municipality and sighing.
“My problem is I think that I failed to keep abreast and learn new technologies. When I started this was a good job, but now it is difficult and instead of painting letters I am helping build metal frameworks for advertising,” says Antonio. “I need to learn how to design on computer.”