Interview with Minneapolis Sign Maker — VOLUMES
VOLUMES — KELSI 6/30/22
Interview by David Sharp (VOL.1 PRINT)
Video Interview on IG: @vol1.print
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Kelsi Sharp sits behind a wooden work table covered with a green cutting mat in the basement of her Lake Street sign shop, Sharp Sign Co. Behind her power tools hang on a peg board, above her a workshop light. Dressed in a tan jumpsuit with a peach scarf tied around her neck. Periodic shuffling can be heard above us; the bakery next door preparing for opening.
Sharp: Who are you and how is life right now?
Kelsi: My name is Kelsi Sharp and I run Sharp Sign Company and life right now is very busy and very very good. I feel really inspired.
Sharp: Tells us about where were are
Kelsi: So right now we are in my workshop space which is in the basement of my sign shop, on Lake Street in East Minneapolis. Upstairs there is a public facing storefront and then downstairs is where I do a lot of fabrication and sign preparation in advance of going out on an install. A big part of moving into this space for me was just that conscious leveling up and kind of being at a space in my career where I knew I wanted to continue to do this. So I could actually feel comfortable to pursue getting a small business loan to make this space a real level up for me, from the world of hobbyist, maker, side hustler, into the world of really being dedicated to this craft.
Sharp: What have been some of your best resources for learning the craft of sign making? From a technical standpoint and the business side.
Kelsi: The technical skills that were needed is something that I’ve learned from a lot of different fabrication spaces that I’ve been a part of in Santa Fe and in Minneapolis. Asking a lot of questions, failing and experimenting a lot. I also feel like a big resource for me has been very patient older craftspeople who have taught me a lot. One of the first people that introduced me to the trade of sign painting is one of my best friends, Augustín, who runs Magic 8ball Signs. He went to LA Trade Tech and studied sign painting and is someone who to this day I call him with questions. I’ll facetime him on a job site like “is this enough opacity? Is this too painterly? Should I go back?” It’s really sweet to have that relationship. And then here in Minneapolis there’s definitely a few sign painters that I definitely love and respect. Forrest Wozniak is a dear friend now, but definitely someone who when I first moved here I was kind of chasing to introduce myself. Like: “Hi I’m new here, I’m painting signs and would like to make your acquaintance. Can I buy you a beer?” And now it has just developed into a relationship where oftentimes I will support him on an install, or have him come by and check my work at a job site, or truly just grab a beer and talk shit. Another guy is Phil Vandervaart, who has painted a lot of the signs in this area of Minneapolis. So it’s really cool to be living and working in his shadow. He lives right down the street too, and is just an incredibly talented sign painter. Both of those guys have really defined the trade in Minneapolis on a business level and on a stylistic and aesthetic level. Another person I’ve studied with is Mike Meyer, who is from Minnesota, but actually doesn’t live here anymore. In January I went and studied with him and learned about gold leaf, which is something really interesting to me. There is also a female sign painter named Liane Barker who’s in Australia, who I studied with a lot during the pandemic.
I’ve learned and grown so much that I’ve learned how much more I still need to learn and grow. I’m at a place where I kind of just want to shut the fuck up and reflect and also continue to learn. Really taking that backseat position to all the teachers I have available to me right now. I hope to think of myself as a documentarian and a historian of this craft first, and then a person who practices this craft.
Sharp: Tell me about establishing yourself in a new city, both socially and career wise
Kelsi: I have moved to a new city where I didn’t know but a few people several times in my life, so I feel totally comfortable and confident in that setting. I spent a summer working in Chicago where I didn’t know anyone, and then I spent time all over Texas, in Dallas and San Antonio, and then most recently moving to Minneapolis. I don’t know.. I just think socially I’ve had really good luck I guess. I’m really outgoing and I think I’m okay with a bit of discomfort. During the time that I’ve been here, and in previous cities same thing, I’ve lived in different districts. So not being afraid to totally change up your housing situation because it’s really inspiring and interesting to live where I live now which is way more industrial and near a lot of other working artists. Or where I lived before which was much more metropolitan. Living near all the breweries and bars and all that kind of stuff which was also really important to me as someone who is dating in a new city, to be able to walk to all these different bars and restaurants and galleries and museums
It was actually me putting myself out there that got me client work. When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t have a single client. I did a little bit of gig based work through recruiting agencies in town which allowed me to see the landscape, which was dope, but not for me. The biggest thing that actually did stick for me was literally just going to museums and galleries and meeting people. Going to different events and meeting people. And it sucked a little bit because it was like I’m lonely and uncomfortable and I’m having to put myself out there Thursday thru Sunday, every night going to these things when I don’t necessarily feel like it. But I literally didn’t have any money or any work, and it worked really really well. I really think for me it’s just that in person thing that seems to stick.
Sharp: We’ve talked before about you getting a business loan last year. Share a little about the process, the preparation for that, and the feeling when you got it.
Kelsi: Coming from a background of never really having any money it was hard to even think about what my life would be like if I had money. If I could make decisions not motivated by money at all. Which is a very very liberating place to be. What do I actually like if I’m not trying to make a dollar today?
So I applied for a small business loan and the one thing that I did before applying was to hire an accountant. I had pretty much always done my own books and I just really want to have an accountant make sure that everything was in order. For them to tell me what do they see when they look at this, so I’m not hearing it for the first time from the loan officer and then I’m feeling stupid or looking ignorant. Based on the conversations that I had with the accountant who was helping me prepare the application for the loan, I knew that I was good to go. And I already knew that I was good to go because the business had been making gains every year, but it was just helpful to have a second set of eyes.
I do think that we should name numbers; the loan was for $50,000 right, so one day I woke up and I had $52,000 in my bank account [laughs].. So you know, yea it did make a huge difference. It was a huge game changer because just being able to buy, for example, $10,000 worth of product that I can now resell. It changed it to where now it’s almost like $50,000 is nothing to me. I mean it’s not nothing to me, but it just means so much less to me because I see how being able to have that money to scale my business, allowed me to scale my business! It just allowed me to play on a different size of tennis court to where more and more frequently I will have projects that are $10,000, $20,000 projects, so it doesn’t mean quite as much. Before, it was pretty common that a project fee would be like $2,000-$5,000.
Sharp: What influence did the southwest have on you?
Kelsi: I feel like growing up in the southwest is a very very big part of my identity because I do feel like so much of my formative years was surrounded by this kind of aesthetic of like Route 66 and also very historic zones. As well as the culture of thinking of an artist as a blue collar profession rather than a white collar, capital ‘A’ artist. Instead of being like: “I will paint something, and my pinky is out because I am painting it with my beret on, and listening to classical music” it’s like: we might have some cheap beers, we might buy some paint, we might steal the paint if we don’t have the money. That kind of culture, which is like: things aren’t too precious. We are, even at this age, just like shit head teenagers. I’m really into that culture so I try to bring that with me. Now in the midwest people are very reserved, and that’s the clients and my other creative collaborators. But I still just try to bring that energy to the meeting. I’m going to pull jokes, and I’m going to say the thing when it’s like “don’t say it, dooon’t say it”, I’m going to say the thing and just be really really playful. That’s just a big part of the culture that I grew up in.
Also a big part of the culture that I grew up in is growing up in foster care. So before I was adopted I had like eleven foster care placements and I think that really allowed me to feel comfortable with this constant changing environment. To the point where I actually find it really really inspiring to have my environment constantly be changing. I’ve only lived in Minneapolis for three years and I’ve totally lived in three different, defined districts and that’s felt really good to me.
Sharp: Me and you have talked about times when things weren’t going so smoothly for you. How well do you remember your feelings during those times? When things were rough
Kelsi: It’s very humbling because I actually feel like every contract I was signing was bigger and better than the last one. I was like: “hmm I’m too busy”, life was really really good. And then I definitely lost some of my biggest contracts right at the beginning of the pandemic. For a while I literally just didn’t do anything. Then I just kind of went thru this whole mental exercise of: “Okay so you’re saying you’re a homegirl, so you’re saying there’s no job that you’re too good to do, so you’re saying you’re not going to be out here hungry and idle like those other people, what do you actually do?” So for me that was like.. driving door dash. I did what I had to do. I think it was incredibly embarrassing, humiliating, and just very humbling. And it was like: “You are a homegirl. You can still make money off the labor of your back on that day.” So I think that the thing that I like about making signs is I can just go out and get that next sign, but when that wasn’t an option for those few weeks, months in there it was like: “What are you gonna do for money?” And the answer is literally whatever you have to.
At the time it wasn’t something that I talked about because I think that one of my biggest fears was that one of my clients would see me driving door dash and they would be like: “Oh, well you should just be happy to have this sign, $500 for the sign??” So I was kind of fearful of what the client perception would be. I was also fearful on a social level of what the perception of my friends would be. I really didn’t want my friends to be worried about me, that I was struggling. It wasn’t something that I shared with a lot of people at the time.
It was actually a really interesting exercise in terms of finance and business. There was a project in January where I bought the piece of equipment that I needed to do the job with the job fee. So when the pandemic hit in March it was like, you might not have any money, but you have the equipment you need to go out and make that next sign. Instead of doing what I had been doing previously, outsourcing that work.
Final thoughts
Kelsi: I’m just so already curious about what’s next. I want to get a bigger loan, I want to buy commercial property, I want to own more equipment. On the one hand a really big part of what I am interested in doing is upholding all of these old world traditions and techniques and then on the other hand, the interesting part for me is being a sign shop that’s known for innovating. Having access to the latest technology, being really curious, experimental, and pushing the boundaries of what signage can be. How we can brand the built environment in new and interesting ways, other than just putting a vinyl logo on the front door of your business.
