Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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Join fine art painters turned sign designers turned book publishers Andrew and Kelsey McClellan of Heavy Pages Press on a lovingly nerdy investigation through the signs of Chicago’s small businesses of yesteryear. A chance encounter with a perfectly preserved “ghost sign” by the Beverly Design Co. from the 1930s led them to uncover previously lost sign design sketches. They sit down with podcast host Alisa Rosenthal to discuss their book The Golden Era of Sign Design: The Rediscovered Sketches of Beverly Sign Co., what it was like to interview tough talking old timer painters, and their hope for how access to this rediscovered material will usher in the next generation of great designers.

Tickets to Heavy Pages Press with Tanner Woodford, founder and executive director of the Design Museum of Chicago, on Saturday, May 10, 2025 from 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm CT at Co-Prosperity available here.

Explore the rest of the Bridgeport Day 2025 events here.

SHOW NOTES:

Read the podcast transcript.

PHOTO: Kelsey and Andrew McClellan and Alisa Rosenthal chat over Zoom.



Read:

The Golden Era of Sign Design: The Rediscovered Sketches of Beverly Sign Co., Heavy Pages Press



Explore:

Heart & Bone Signs

“The Chicago Look” Edition Field Notes

The Monadnock Building



Podcast edited and mixed by Alisa Rosenthal

Podcast story editing by Alexandra Quinn

Additional assistance provided by Lauren Pacheco



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