Lessons from a Sign Book
Necessity is the mother of invention. I was recently on the hunt for a birthday present for a friend and wanted to give something useful that he’d like. Kriston Chen (the friend), collects and blogs about Trinidadian hand-lettered signs and already has a strong collection so giving him another sign probably wouldn’t matter much. Inspired by his fascination with hand-lettered signs and in keeping with my current trend of giving handmade books as birthday presents, I decided to make him a sign book, featuring the work of local hand-letterer and sign-painter, Bruce Cayonne.
That decision began an adventure in collaboration and learning which has developed my views on our evolving Caribbean aesthetic, design, collaboration, business and innovation.
Lesson 1: To Duplicate or To Create
There are two popular views of Caribbean culture: there is the the packaged tourist experience, complete with idyllic sunsets, steel pans, carnival and traditionally handcrafted leather slippers. Then there is the everyday life experience which differs greatly in every island and parish. My life in Trinidad would be incomplete without Curepe on a Saturday night: bright lights and busy roads, the sounds of Trini, Syrian, Venezuelan and other Caribbean accents along with the scent of oysters, doubles, gyros, exhaust and stagnant gutter water. Bliss.
My real experience may not be the one that’s packaged and sold. There are too many immigrants, foreign influences and “unsavoury features” in my Curepe story for it to be widely accepted as “the real Trinidad” but it certainly isn’t Syria, Venezuela or Guyana. It isn’t a duplicate of what has been Trini but rather a snapshot of an evolving Trinidad. The same is true for our design and making culture. Perhaps visual and material “immigrants”, foreign influences and “the unsavoury” have a place in locally produced work. Packaging and repackaging the same edited and presentable things that made us “Us” is not the way forward. Like the gutter water in Curepe, a stagnant Caribbean aesthetic is one that will eventually begin to stink and destroy good life. We must be careful not to kill creativity and our aesthetic evolution by a commitment to duplication.
Lesson 2: Connect Design to the Ordinary
This isn’t a post about my book-making process so fast forward to the fourth book I designed and made from one of Bruce’s fete signs: It felt authentically Caribbean. Yellow and black, assertive brush strokes, playful shapes, real brush textures and perfectly imperfect pencil lines from the hands of the sign painter. In my mind, I could see Barbadian school children in uniform piling into an airbrushed “Yellowbird” ZR van, with the ZR pounding out an old dub tune with bass so loud that it could modulate your heartbeat. That’s the extent of my experience with fete culture in Barbados. While catching a ZR is not exactly a fete, the music and experience are definitely related. Somehow the spirit of everyday life, music and fete culture made it into that little piece of the sign that became a book.
Design connected to the ordinary and every day can reap unexpected results. Maybe we should do more of that. That leads me to my next point.
Lesson 3: Collaborate to Innovate
Bruce is a sign-painter/hand-letterer. I’m a designer/strategist who also likes to make things. Maybe collaboration isn’t so much about getting together to accomplish one single goal but about finding ways to “Do More Together”. That’s the tagline for Barbadian design company IDS Creative Inc. and it captures the spirit of collaboration that I’m pursuing with these books and other projects. I think collaboration might be the newest thing that defines “Debbie”.
Academic journals have long touted the benefits of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teams, condemning silos as an outdated trend of the past. This does not mean that we should all be “Jacks of all trades, masters of none”. We can look for ways to be masters in our own areas, while holding hands across the lines. The ability to collaborate, embrace new methods, approaches, mediums and entire fields can result in the kind of practical creativity that fuels invention. I now think that collaboration is critical to the growth of Caribbean businesses and industries, especially those businesses that do not have access to venture capitalists, investors and seed money like some of their foreign counterparts. There are no business super-heroes. It’s up to us to figure out ways to create better, make better and do better. It won’t happen fast enough if we stay in our silos. Collaboration breeds innovation.
Lesson 4: Do Good
While we’re working on churning out innovative solutions, we should consider the social and environmental impact of every business venture. Beyond up-cycling, the production of sign books can help solve issues surrounding visual clutter along public roads. Sign-painting and informal promotions contribute significantly to Trinidad’s cultural and physical landscape and should be valued. However, there is an inherent challenge in the system when it comes to removing signs that are past their date. Event-planners, sign painters, promoters and sign installers all play different roles but no one currently has the role of sign removal. A top-down approach from the Government to ban or remove signs would be shameful as the informal promotion culture is not only widespread and culturally valuable, but it can provide access to affordable promotions and a positive source of additional income opportunities for individuals, especially those from lower income backgrounds. There are significant benefits to the support and continuation of hand-made signs and the informal promotions culture but these do not negate the need for sign-removal. This is where the making and sale of sign-books and other sign products become valuable. Upcycled sign solutions become the missing link in the event promotion system by placing value on outdated signs and seeing to their removal while providing additional income-earning opportunities for sign removers and makers, all while celebrating and promoting local culture.
Harvard Business School Professor, Michael E. Porter, an authority on business, social impact and innovation has published and presented on the benefits of businesses facilitating or contributing to sustainable, socially and environmentally beneficial solutions. In an article for Harvard Business Review he said, “If corporations were to analyze their opportunities for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover… that CSR [(corporate social responsibility)] can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed — it can be a potent source of innovation and competitive advantage. While Porter’s quote is in relation to CSR, why stop there? We can apply solid business-thinking and design-thinking frameworks and processes to finding opportunities to develop profitable businesses that make a difference. For developing nations in the Caribbean, organised public and private sector focus on the support and development of such “double duty” businesses may be an ideal worth pursuing. We have everything to gain.
To sum it all up, I learned a lot from this experiment. My appreciation for local culture and what that can mean has evolved, along with my thoughts on identifying a “Caribbean aesthetic”. Design and innovation remain central and highly respected life interests and I was able to test theories, make observations and explore opportunities for collaboration and positive social impact. I can’t file this away as a completed project as it’s not over and there is no end in sight. I’m still developing production and distribution for the sign books and am considering other collaborative projects and approaches that can make a difference. Oh the possibilities!
Thanks to Joshua Lue Chee Kong for donating a sign from his collection so that I could destroy it to make books.
Kudos to Bruce Cayonne. His distinct style of painted, hand-lettered signage is unique, easily recognizable and Trinidadian to the core!
Thanks to Kriston Chen for drawing public attention to the sign culture in T&T and inspiring this latest project.
