The Art of Sign Making: A Conversation with Sean Danaher

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Only a couple months down. I think I recognize it.

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Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in US Art, your source for conversations on arts and culture. I am your host, Rob Lee, and today I am thrilled to be in conversation with my next guest, the founder of the Baltimore based Danaher Signs, which specializes in traditional sign making methods, providing a variety of signage solutions for individuals and businesses alike. Please welcome Sean Danaher.

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Rob Lee
Welcome to the podcast.

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Sean Danaher
Thank you. Good to be here.

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Rob Lee
Thank you for coming on. Thank you for making the time. And, you know, it's like it's almost like I know you because I know of your work as in going through all of the different places that you're your fingerprints all over. And we really get into that in a bit. But those are places that I go to regularly.

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Rob Lee
Like I've seen the students work in so many places and like, All right, who's the man behind the paint, you know?

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. Yeah. So thanks for saying that.

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Rob Lee
Absolutely. So in starting off, I'd like to get to sort of the crux, some of the the beginning things and maybe we find something there. It's a you know, so some digging deep here. So, you know, I read that you're a former youth pastor here, skateboarder and so, so, so on. So let's start off with that. Let's let's talk a little bit and share a bit of your background.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. So I think all the things started with skateboarding growing up, skateboarding, I think I'm the generation that, like Tony Hawk's pro skater, came out and it was like, This is my life now. So that that has been my life ever since. I don't know what year that came out, but yeah, skateboarding introduced me to some really cool people.

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Sean Danaher
Those people encouraged me in my faith and helped me someday become a youth pastor. And then skateboarding also addicted me to the skate shop that I worked at called Rascals grew up on. I get City and Howard County. Rascals was the best. It was the coolest thing ever. And that I always kind of credit the skate shop with starting my fine painting journey.

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Sean Danaher
In some ways. There was kind of a legacy design that was on some of the skateboards that was like this, like bullet graphic. It like fit on the skateboard and it was super cool and legacy and everybody loved it. And of course, like, you know, why fix it if it isn't broken? But I was like, What if we made some new logos?

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. And so I attempted to do that and I didn't know how to use the computer to, well, this would have been like 2010, 2011. It was like, you know, graphic design was kind of popping off, but I didn't know how to do that stuff. So I just started drawing and painting new designs. None of the designs got used.

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Sean Danaher
They were just scraps. And nobody, nobody cared because the classic graphic was better. But that was sort of the beginning of of painting letters. And and yet here we are.

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Rob Lee
Thank you. So, you know, in looking over it and seeing sort of the background, like you're you're doing a bit of work with, you know, businesses. You don't you've done some work with individuals. And, you know, as I've touched on it, you know, seeing, you know, your stuff like everywhere, like in addition, I read that, you know, sign painting, traditional sign painting is has been practice for over 150 years.

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Rob Lee
And you know the in America like so how did you really get into it to the stage of like how do you get into an explore it I would imagine you didn't wake up one day. I was like, Yeah, time to get it, you know? And it was something a little bit more intentional. So to walk us through that.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, I think it was, you know, just being drawn to the esthetic of, of hand-painted signs. I was like, I can trace it back to like Tumblr. I had a Tumblr and I would just lead. Was there an Explore page on Tumblr? I don't even remember that. I just find these different sign painters who are putting up their work.

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Sean Danaher
And some were, you know, a little more informative about their process. And so yeah, for me it was finding stuff online on Tumblr, on Instagram. Eventually when I, when I got with the Times and like, zooming into photos and seeing what kind of things people were using. But yeah, I didn't really know about the history of sign painting.

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Sean Danaher
It was obviously you know, how signs were made up until vinyl plotters came about and that looks like kind of a death of of the trade in some ways. But before then and there's even evidence all around just in Baltimore, I love driving around and you see a road signs that were hand-painted and you can see the brushstrokes still, they're fading, but they're super visible.

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Sean Danaher
They're beautiful. They're like, not perfect, but very legible. So yeah, all of that was was really charming to me. And like, romantic. I kind of think like, wow, like this is there's a whole history here of of incredible art and trade and and, and businesses that you just wouldn't see or notice if you don't know to look for it.

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Rob Lee
No, I dig that. Yeah, that's makes a lot of sense. You like the things you said there's was like it's it's a charm there. It's sort of like people did this and I think the other part of it and I remember it's not zooming in per se, because it wasn't visual, but I remember when pursuing this, yeah, I kept saying some medium one.

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Rob Lee
Doesn't that go into at least then like 2000 I'd say, how does one podcast the resources out there to really dive into that? So I remember there was a podcast that I was listening to listen to Smartcast Kevin Smith's podcasts, and I just remember really, I mean, listening really intently, listen to be entertained but listening very intently. And as soon as he said, yeah, you know, you plug in the Fastrack pro and I'm typing it and I was like, yes.

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Rob Lee
To trying to get some source, trying to get some, some of the inside track to figure it out. Now you can, you know, you, you can do an Internet search without finding someone's, you know, tool kit on how to do a podcast.

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Sean Danaher
Totally.

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Rob Lee
You know, diving in in these sort of early stages, you're talking Tumblr back in 2010, 2011, just trying to figure it out, trying to figure out how to get past it, to pursue something. So that's really cool.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And there's I mean, kind of the history of same thing thing that, you know, I came to too late, but every city would have had a school where you could have learned and sign shop, where you could apprentice. And just like a plumber. I mean, it's like you, you become an apprentice, you become a journeyman, eventually become a master.

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Sean Danaher
You know, whatever. So it's it's just like these union type jobs. But the unions are gone kind of I don't know. The trade still exists, but a lot of the infrastructure isn't quite there anymore. So you have folks like me who come in self-taught and just trying to learn everything you can from the old hands or the people who have been doing it for a while.

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Sean Danaher
So tons and tons of respect for those people. And then, yeah, it's fun. It's fun to to hunt down the processes and how they've been doing it for a long time.

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Rob Lee
So was the pursuit like, did it really kind of take off for you during the pandemic? You know, and I asked that because the more I talk to folks, I can look at almost that as a period of, yeah, I got real busy during that time like that for this like this podcast took off that year. People were at home and wanting to talk.

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Rob Lee
Yeah, you know, it resonated. Was was that a thing for you?

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, you know, my, my, my, my rhythms shifted, you know, just like everybody else. You know, I was full time youth pastor for six years and trying to do that from home was totally different. It was, you know, and it was like pulling teeth, you know, working with high schoolers, a resume, total gift to be able to do that as I look back on it.

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Sean Danaher
But it was tough. But that that rhythm of being home and being close to my workspace and you know, all the cool things that were happening even while the pandemic was going down, like Good Neighbor opened up, you know, in May, I think, of of 2020. But I guess I don't know. But yeah, it was, you know, a ton of opportunities in a in a strange way did arise during that time.

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Sean Danaher
So yeah, I would say that that would be true for me too, professionally in painting and kind of getting an idea of like, oh, like this could be something, you know, maybe it doesn't have to be the side thing. It could be the full time thing. So that was a glimpse.

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Rob Lee
I did get.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah.

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Rob Lee
So my understanding is you're not you're not much of a tech person. You know, I've heard the word Luddite thrown around a little bit. And and it's interesting because, you know, I talk about the sort of I mean, it's literally me stealing the talking about the analog to digital loop, you know, like there's it's hard to avoid something that has any computer involved in it.

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Rob Lee
I think the more we're able to get to touching something, you know, putting our hands into, we have a different connection with it. And, you know, we and we're going to talk about that a little bit more later when it comes to clients. But yeah, you know, talk about like how much technology is involved in the process and about how much is involved in, you know, that's this analog involved in your process, working with a new client and so on.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, I think I default to self-deprecation, so I tend to say like, I don't know how to use technology at all. I do. I know how to do some things and it's the kind of thing there's a sign painter in Catonsville named Janice, and I bought a plotter from her and her process hasn't changed in so long where she's like Putin up the computer from 1992 and like, that's her system and it works.

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Sean Danaher
You know, she she's got it. She's got it down to do what she wants it to do. Not as fast as it could be on a newer computer, but the software doesn't work on the new computer. So I kind of have my version of that or like I know how to do a few things. You know, like I work with an iPad and in procreate so I can take that and vector ize it in Inkscape like I used the free open source.

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Sean Danaher
I'm not actually so yeah and I know how to do that and I really don't know how to do anything else in there. You know, like I don't know how to insert text. I don't know, you know, So I know enough to do the things that I know how to do. That's more than a lot of people. So I shouldn't say Luddite, I guess.

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Sean Danaher
But yeah, I think the best work happens on pencil and paper first, drying out like that and then transferring that, digitizing that and then being able to resize it with a vector file is how I typically will work. But it is cool to have the process down and have the ability to like if the power went out like it doesn't have to stop my process, you know, it can, it can still go on.

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Sean Danaher
I could still paint your sign if if we don't have power, you know. So I think that's cool. A lot of people are very romantic about like, everything has to be handmade and I dig it. I think that was something I aspired to before and now I'm like, let's use a little bit of technology to speed things up and make sure, you know, I can make some money.

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Sean Danaher
And yeah.

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Rob Lee
I think at a at a point and I like that, you know, using sort of the the technology in a functional way like I do data stuff and you know, I have this this sort of gear here, but, you know, if I was doing, let's say something that's not being recorded, I know how to use a microphone, how to set up the gear and all of that stuff, and it's not being captured in that way.

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Rob Lee
The experience is there, or even when I'm doing something for the day job and I'm using sequel or some software to do it, it's like, I don't know everything in there. I know enough for me to get the stuff I need to get done and make what my what that that undertaking is, you know, run a bit smoother, save some time, make some money and all of that good stuff.

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Rob Lee
But, you know, when I look at this like I have this, you know, relatively new mixer, but I got it a few, you know, maybe two months ago. It is great. But, you know, I'm sure there's so many more things that it can do. But for me, I'm using it as a microphone interface at this juncture. Maybe later I can see all the bells and whistles, like, Wow, I've got a soundboard here and everything that's complete.

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Rob Lee
You know, I don't need it for that, that purpose. And that's not what I'm using it for. So I think, you know it maybe this is going in a very different direction. But I think, you know, we had this sort of maybe it's a sea change, but this sort of awareness with, you know, this this conversation around like digital art and things of that nature, you know, even something like day I, you know, where you can't make up for the of how ridiculous the soul.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah.

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Rob Lee
It's just like, oh so if I'm doing this conversation and I know that there are podcast that exists, I can put in a script and have some computer read it to you. You ask questions, it's not the same.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, yeah. No, they totally have enough audio. You know, whatever you need 5 minutes of your audio and they can just have an AI version of you.

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Rob Lee
Yeah. I don't want to think of that now.

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Sean Danaher
No, although you're absolutely right. And I think I think that's true, too. A second. Who's been your friend about that? You know, if we have these air design templates, where's the place for the graphic designer? You know, how does that shift and change? You know, maybe someday they could they could have robots painting things.

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Rob Lee
It makes me think of because I saw like, what is it? I put in a problem. It took one day of, I want to do a five minute podcast, here's money, here's all the inputs used in the data background. I was like, This is what I need to put in there and I want to see how this comes out.

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Rob Lee
And then a voice that came back out, I was like, Oh no. I was like, This can not work. Or, you know, this is going to go very deep, as I used to say, deep Geek But the fact that they're in this goes to what you were saying about, you know, having like 5 minutes of content, you know, having all the recordings for like James Earl Jones so they can keep their going, even though he's right.

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Rob Lee
So it's something there. And I think the the soul the the the way that one approaches their work, some of the imperfections you know, like you're doing something hand-painted, you're going to have sort of those small imperfections in there. But that's the thing that's that makes it unique, that makes it interesting. And I saw on your site no two paintings or no, two jobs are the same.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Somebody said perfection comes standard, mistakes cost extra, you know, something like that. There's all these little design isms that that carry a similar sentiment. But yeah, we love it. You know, it's funny because you, you can approach your stuff with such a perfectionistic mentality and you can ruin it by being so perfectionistic where something feels really robotic.

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Sean Danaher
I know a lot of the same work that I love. You can see the process of of like at the end of a letter where there's a terminal, the sign painter had enough control to just kind of flick their brush off a bit. So you get this little spur off the corner and it's like, Oh, that is like, that's good.

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Sean Danaher
You know, that's control. It's like attitude. I don't know, it's great. So that you don't, you don't get to have fun with perfectionism. So that's something I'm trying to learn and integrate into my practice.

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Rob Lee
I think about it in doing this like I have an editor and, you know, he's he's great. He gets it. He understands what I need and what I want, all of that good stuff. But when I was doing the editing, I remember early, early, early on when it would be, let's say, a really cool interview or a cool podcast or have you I'm going through fine tooth comb trying to be.

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Sean Danaher
Here.

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Rob Lee
With it. And to your point, I would lose the conversation in it. You need those pauses, you need those arms, you need those different things that actually flow like a conversation, not just here's a bunch of words and here's a bunch of words on the other person. Information.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, no doubt.

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Rob Lee
So what are what are some of your your other favorite tools or even, you know, which is kind of what gets you in that spot where you're ready to, like, work on something creative, where you're ready to paint, where you're ready. You know, you have everything set up, you know, you have your you sort of like lay out your sketch, your factorization done.

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Rob Lee
All of that gives some of the tools that are there and what are what are some of the components like within the mindset? Because I hear that is a muscle. I hear that being able to create is a muscle you to get warmed up. You know, I do the scales before I'm doing this podcast.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah. And it's good. Yeah. I mean, I feel like it's it's a little different for me. Like it's, it's with painting a sign, painting letters. There's, there's sort of a vulnerability where if you're doing something without guidelines, there's been a few occasions where I'm just like, let me see what I'm made of. And just paint some, some letters with minimal guidelines or something like that.

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Sean Danaher
That takes a lot of vulnerability because I feel like the letters, you can tell them they're wrong. You know, there's a write in around. Yeah and I think, you know in in art there's like a subjectivity and I don't know if that's is as relevant or prevalent in time painting because it's more of a commercial art. Sure. So I think to approach things with a bit of like this might not go great and that's okay.

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Sean Danaher
You know, like I'm a student, I'm going to learn. I'm going to do my best. And yeah, so I think that's that's one thing that I approach with a mindset. There's there's plenty of times where I feel like an imposter even halfway through the job, it's like crap, crap, crap, crap. You know, like, how am I going to finish this?

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Sean Danaher
How is this going to work out? And it works out, you know, no problem is too big to be solved. And you can always start over.

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Rob Lee
That's a good.

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Sean Danaher
Like, yeah, yeah. I think my, you know, I really want to make something that looks great for for the client. I think about my other designer and sign painter friends and I'm like, oh, like I'd love to make something that they're excited about. So, you know, these are some things that I think about going into a job and yeah, and trying to push and learn new skills too.

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Rob Lee
So thank you. So I'm definitely want to touch on this piece. Your work has been seen everywhere. I saw the was a Baltimore mag like article, all that good stuff. Your stuff has been seen everywhere from shops like Good Neighbor, as you mentioned, sophomore read Emma's paper or shadow paper her all of the.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah.

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Rob Lee
I love the.

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Sean Danaher
Process.

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Rob Lee
And you're approaching nearly 100 commissions. I read that somewhere. I think it was about 88 maybe 90 in Baltimore. It's truly your campus and DMV, but Baltimore with the concentration. What is it about, you know, a commission that really, like, gets your attention? Because I would imagine, you know, with, you know, having sort of like press around it and people seeing as like, oh, did the work here, you know, you're unique.

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Rob Lee
Yeah. So, you know, we have limited time, limited resources, all of that good stuff. What pops up for you like? Yeah, that's the commission I really want to do because it's a lot of yourself that's. That's going into it too, right?

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Sean Danaher
Yeah, totally. I think I get excited when, when there's a collaborative component with the shop owner or with a restaurant or whatever where they come and they say, this is kind of the look or, you know, here's our logo, but you can you can add something to it or, or whatever it is when it's collaborative and there's trust, I think that's that's the best.

00;21;48;05 - 00;22;13;20
Sean Danaher
You know, I definitely have people who are just like, go crazy. And and I'm like, really good, okay. And I get to make something that I'm really proud of that they're really proud of, too. So those are those are really sweet. I think I'm just like, I really enjoyed and I didn't realize this would be a part of why I like my job so much.

00;22;13;20 - 00;22;38;28
Sean Danaher
But meeting these shop owners, I tend to be, you know, just as they're opening up, I get to see them kind of at this like really challenging time where, you know, all the permits have to be put together and, you know, merchandizing whatever they're doing. But like, you just see people kind of in their moment, in their passion.

00;22;39;01 - 00;22;56;01
Sean Danaher
And I just get to like come along and give them a little extra push, you know, and feel that excitement with them. So I think I think it's just like if if you are excited about what you're doing, I'm excited to work with you basically.

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Rob Lee
So, you know, have the second have the second part two that question. So like, what is that process like? Like, you know, you said, you know, you may have one or two, a few those like go crazy. Here's, here's some of the resources, here's the colors, this is what we're working with or this is the rough idea, you know, like, you know, is it let's say, you know, going back to maybe let's say one of the first like projects you worked on, right?

00;23;21;21 - 00;23;37;23
Rob Lee
Like, what was that process like in terms of like working with the client and then, you know, getting to that sort of like finished product or what have you like what was the sort of like, you know, timeline looking like, you know, how long did it take you to do it? You know, you could share the client was if you like.

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Rob Lee
So those details around that, because we never forget our first We never forget our first.

00;23;41;26 - 00;24;09;17
Sean Danaher
Sure. Yeah. The first sign I made for a shop was in Ellicott City Imperium Razors. Dan, the pizza king. He moved to North Carolina. But, yeah, he was just a super nice guy. I was. It was 2015, I think, and it was like, Yeah, I really want this sign that fits right above here. So I have my my size.

00;24;09;19 - 00;24;27;07
Sean Danaher
Like, I want kind of like an old school feel that I got the feel so, you know, drafted up and sent it his way back. Then everything took a long time because I didn't really know what I was doing or what I was using. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like it probably took me a month or something, right?

00;24;27;08 - 00;24;46;17
Sean Danaher
That to paint this sign and draw it all out perfect. And I wasn't using computers at all, so it's like something's wrong, start over, you know, just draw the whole thing and move a letter just two inches over or something like that. But yeah, I think that was kind of where, where we started from. It's such just one process.

00;24;46;17 - 00;25;03;27
Sean Danaher
I think you still got the sign he's taking it with him to a couple different locations and yeah, that was, that was like really empowering for me to, to put something out in the wild and see it's still doing its job almost ten years later.

00;25;03;29 - 00;25;23;05
Rob Lee
And it's great to hear because, you know, as I'm looking through it, it maybe it's just me being romantic or hokey about it, but yeah, you have someone make a sign for you that's representing your business. And as you were saying, you know, a lot of the clients that you're working with is like towards like we're just getting started, we're just kind of opening and so on.

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Rob Lee
This is part of that, that sort of identity, that sort of brand Bible if you want.

00;25;27;29 - 00;25;28;24
Sean Danaher
Yeah.

00;25;28;26 - 00;25;50;16
Rob Lee
It's I would imagine like, yeah, like, man, I'm going to have this up when I have the museum for my, my place or what have you. And even in this way I can even see some of your, your work popping up in, you know, let's say ten, 15, whatever, years popping up in the Museum of Industry because that was part of it is part of like we have these small businesses here.

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Sean Danaher
Yeah.

00;25;51;10 - 00;25;58;23
Rob Lee
You know, having the sort of visual identity, the signage component of it is a big piece of that. It's a big responsibility too.

00;25;58;25 - 00;26;25;14
Sean Danaher
Yeah, it's, you know, I haven't been to the Museum of Industry and I feel so, so dumb. Samantha Reynolds did this, another great sign painter in Baltimore. She did this exhibit a bunch of years ago that was Baltimore, hand-painted signs and just archived everything and talked to a bunch of old sign painters. And yeah, it's totally I mean, it shapes the city.

00;26;25;14 - 00;26;48;12
Sean Danaher
It's it's the visual landscape. I don't think about that so much as I'm doing it. But but yeah, I mean, you're totally right. It's an honor to have that kind of impact and yet to, to if, if a sign does a good job, like whoever is buying it is going to make so much more money off the sign than I do, which is cool.

00;26;48;15 - 00;26;52;25
Sean Danaher
You know, like, I can I can help make you money.

00;26;52;28 - 00;27;09;02
Rob Lee
So it with it I want to I want to ask this this question about because we always have that one that sticks out like you have the first one. You know, obviously that says something that really matters. I always go back to you want someone to ask and we're what, 600 interviews in. I can always go back to the first one.

00;27;09;02 - 00;27;11;10
Rob Lee
The first one was James last. He does my first interview for the.

00;27;11;12 - 00;27;12;12
Sean Danaher
This.

00;27;12;14 - 00;27;22;05
Rob Lee
And then there's always a handful that they'd stick out for whatever reason, whether it was like I was super sick and I'm luckily this is remote.

00;27;22;05 - 00;27;22;29
Sean Danaher
Or sure.

00;27;23;05 - 00;27;44;17
Rob Lee
I, I call myself the guest name and I introduce my nice self as if I was the gas. It was very weird. Is there a client or project that you know, you've done in this this time that this you know you're talking about almost about a decade at this point that really sticks out whether it was due to the the degree of difficulty with it?

00;27;44;17 - 00;27;59;26
Rob Lee
Was it an odd sort of request, a request that, you know, you were able to kind of flex your creative bones or something even more recent to show sort of the where you were at in the process and where you're at now in the process, What comes to mind.

00;27;59;29 - 00;28;23;05
Sean Danaher
So learning how to do Gold Leaf was was kind of a a challenge. It's a process that involves a little bit of I don't know if it's alchemy necessarily, but it's there's there's a you think you know the process and then you you try and do it exactly the same way and you get a totally different result. And guilt is all cloudy.

00;28;23;05 - 00;28;48;16
Sean Danaher
It's not clear it doesn't look as good. So you're kind of learning that process again, being self taught, asking some questions of other painters that I knew just like sliding into their like, you know, me, you know, whatever. So like I did the transom window at my brother's house and he was like, Yeah, yeah, that's, that's great. Like, let's do cool.

00;28;48;19 - 00;29;14;19
Sean Danaher
So I did it and like, yeah, it's kind of proud of it at the time. And looking back at it, every time I go to his house, it's like, Man, I didn't throw this doesn't look great. It's, I think it's probably something that I noticed, but not so much other people. But, but yeah, it's cool to to be reminded of kind of where where we came from.

00;29;14;21 - 00;29;35;25
Sean Danaher
And, and I feel like every time I do a gold leaf job, there's a humbling experience there where you're working with a really expensive material that kind of demands some respect and just a bunch of different factors come into play where you're like, Okay, I'm better at this, but I'm still not great at this. It just humbles you.

00;29;36;01 - 00;29;43;13
Rob Lee
So I see that very line to me, to myself before every podcast, and I better still not quite there yet.

00;29;43;20 - 00;29;51;28
Sean Danaher
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not the master, you know, a maybe a journeyman, you know, especially an apprentice.

00;29;52;00 - 00;30;01;05
Rob Lee
Myself as a poppers. Like I'm barely a podcast. I'm just a guy with, with a mouth. That's, that's literally all I get to be self-deprecating.

00;30;01;07 - 00;30;01;29
Sean Danaher
Right.

00;30;02;02 - 00;30;32;22
Rob Lee
So, so this is the last sort of real question, and I really want to get your perspective, as, you know, being a person that you know, sort of your ID, supporting the brand identity, supporting the launch of a lot of businesses here visually. And you know, for store a perspective and being sort of tied in in being in conversation with other folks who are designers, who assign painters, what advice would you give to someone who's interested in pursuing that sort of like undertaking and pursuing sort of those sort of client relations?

00;30;32;24 - 00;31;08;10
Sean Danaher
Yeah, I mean, I feel like on on unlike the pure sign painting side, there's there's nothing better than like spending time with letters, like getting excited about the alphabet and different ways that it can look. I, I think there's there's one trade school that still teaches sign painting and like kind of the traditional work in Los Angeles. I didn't go I know some people that went but the first semester there you're just drawing letters.

00;31;08;10 - 00;31;29;22
Sean Danaher
You don't even pick up a brush. So spending time like that with your designs kind of, yeah. Just just working in other forms is is a it can't be be. And I think also I think some people want to do everything, you know, they want to be the designer, they want to be the sign painter, the muralist or whatever.

00;31;29;22 - 00;31;52;03
Sean Danaher
And that's awesome. I know some people that do that really well. I know I can't you know, I'm not the graphic designer. I have some graphic design inside, but I'm so much more happy to refer to somebody that I know. That's good at that stuff. Or if it's a mural that that, you know, like, hey, it's got letters on there.

00;31;52;05 - 00;31;57;20
Sean Danaher
But but if we're doing photorealistic, let me let me point you to some other people.

00;31;57;22 - 00;31;59;03
Rob Lee
Graffiti out of things.

00;31;59;05 - 00;32;23;05
Sean Danaher
Yeah, exactly. Knowing your limits, I think is is is is is good you know boundaries in that in that regard that's all really good. So yeah I don't know I think I focus on the work and and kind of let it speak for itself as much as possible. Yeah I know.

00;32;23;08 - 00;32;30;22
Rob Lee
It's good. It's good. Thank you. So, you know, as we've been talking, I've added to more rapid fire questions. So now you're up to five.

00;32;30;22 - 00;32;32;01
Sean Danaher
Oh, boy.

00;32;32;04 - 00;32;49;16
Rob Lee
In that it's time to get into the rapid fire questions. And you see the humans we have here. All right, So don't overthink. Please don't overthink things. So here's the first one, Um, whether it be apply to your work, whether it be applied to life, what is your motto?

00;32;49;19 - 00;33;08;00
Sean Danaher
Oh, there's this one that that comes up a lot with. With my friends. And I think it's. It's true. It's be safe and have fun. So. Yeah, but also be safe. Have fun.

00;33;08;02 - 00;33;12;05
Rob Lee
Good. What is your favorite color combination.

00;33;12;07 - 00;33;37;19
Sean Danaher
Mm. It switches a lot I think like this a little different, but like gold and white, you know, with it, with some black to just like those together. I'm very into those right now, especially with, like, you know, like a mirrored gilded gold. Yeah. This is really nice.

00;33;37;21 - 00;33;48;04
Rob Lee
It almost has the, you know, this is going to age me and eat me and all of that stuff. Definitely the White Ranger's fit from Power Rangers. Yeah, exactly. With that color set is.

00;33;48;04 - 00;33;53;22
Sean Danaher
Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean, you put it that way. And like, definitely that's not like on.

00;33;53;23 - 00;34;08;15
Rob Lee
The Let's see now, now. So this one is slightly different. It still relates to color. So with maybe the clients that you're working with, what are the three colors that you find yourself using the most?

00;34;08;18 - 00;34;45;05
Sean Danaher
I think I think that I use a lot of dark blue and white, not well, not necessarily together and lately. Like I'd like to kind of think it's all about contracts. It's all about contract. So if, if, if you can if there's good contrast, you can read it. And if there's bad contrast, you can't read it. So if if somebody comes to me with a brand colors or something and then I'm like, you know, a contrast is kind of low here, how do we tweak that?

00;34;45;07 - 00;34;54;26
Sean Danaher
And so that's that's generally how I think I don't know if I like, go to certain colors right away, but I think what's going to pop.

00;34;54;28 - 00;35;17;13
Rob Lee
That that that blue for paper world definitely pops that is like probably with the exception of the blue in my logo, that's probably my favorite blue. I like to look at my logo. It's about symbol, but it's something. So I got two more for you. Um, I mean, I'm gonna hit you with the easier one, and then the last one we will close on that.

00;35;17;16 - 00;35;21;28
Rob Lee
You mentioned letters as your favorite letter. So first time I've ever asked that question.

00;35;22;01 - 00;35;28;18
Sean Danaher
It's a great question. Ah, how is a wonderful letter? Is that all the strokes. Yeah. You know.

00;35;28;19 - 00;35;32;05
Rob Lee
Yes. I got, you know, my name Naga.

00;35;32;05 - 00;35;46;06
Sean Danaher
Yeah, yeah. It's got all the practice strokes. So you got a vertical, you got a horizontal, you got a round and then you got a diagonal. So are are is it good letter to practice.

00;35;46;09 - 00;35;58;28
Rob Lee
Yeah. Just for anybody that doesn't get it, you know, it's going to give you impetus. Right. To name more of your children. Robert had an extra r you know, like r0brrt yes.

00;35;59;00 - 00;36;01;24
Sean Danaher
Strong, strong letter.

00;36;01;27 - 00;36;10;21
Rob Lee
And this is the last one for you. You know, this is this is almost, you know, manifestation, if you will. What's a dream project for you?

00;36;10;24 - 00;36;37;01
Sean Danaher
Dream project? I think as much as I like designing things, I think it'd be really fun to, to be able to pull off like someone else's design very well. I find that to be challenging and rewarding in a way, and especially if it could be collaborative with a designer where it's like, Oh hey, what if we did this?

00;36;37;04 - 00;36;47;17
Sean Danaher
Like, that'd be so, so fun. I'm the painter I can design. I have some insights, but there's some great graphic designers out there that I'd love to collaborate with. So yeah.

00;36;47;19 - 00;37;05;23
Rob Lee
That's that's fantastic. I like that. It was one of the things in this this book I was reading today, it was like, So it's similar but not quite the same, where it's like this one artist who's doing, let's say, cubism, what have you and his is this other artist he was rivals with, and he was trying to replicate sort of his style.

00;37;05;25 - 00;37;17;07
Rob Lee
And he's like taking from your style and doing a riff on your style and, you know, it's like we're rivals. But also I really like your work, so I'm going to try this. And I was like, He doesn't know. He doesn't know cubism, but he's trying it. I dig it.

00;37;17;10 - 00;37;19;09
Sean Danaher
Yeah, yeah.

00;37;19;12 - 00;37;27;19
Rob Lee
So, so, so that's pretty much it for the, for the podcast, for the interview. But I want to thank you for one coming on to the podcast. Thank you so much.

00;37;27;22 - 00;37;28;14
Sean Danaher
Thank you.

00;37;28;16 - 00;37;42;01
Rob Lee
Yeah, you're welcome. And secondly, I want to invite and encourage you to tell the listeners where to can check you out. Social media outside of all around Baltimore, DMV and all that stuff. What social media website, all that good stuff. The floor is yours.

00;37;42;03 - 00;38;02;27
Sean Danaher
Cool. Yeah. On Instagram, Danaher signs you can find my website at Danaher. Signs Scar. That's about it. I don't have a Twitter. I guess I don't need one at this point. Okay, talk to me. I like.

00;38;02;29 - 00;38;12;11
Rob Lee
It. There you have it, folks. I want to again thank Sean Danaher from Danaher Signs. And I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art and culture in and around your neck of the woods. You've just got to look for it.