Thanks to kottke.org, I now know about Detroit sign-painter Ron Miller. A photographer named Andrew Anderson has documented as many of Miller's signs as he can find on his website, and created a map of their locations with Google Streetview links.
Miller started painting signs in 1978, so he must have been pretty young at the time. I wonder if he went through a vo-tech program or apprenticed with an older sign painter. Or just figured it out himself.
Here are a few images I got off of Anderson's Streetview links:
Not all of Miller's signs include this multicolored chrome effect, but many of them do, and it's clearly part of his signature. My favorite ones are like these three, where the whole building is also painted in one or two bright solid colors.
The signs made me realize how many car-oriented businesses there must be in Detroit. Car washes and repair-related enterprises made up at least 80% of the ones I looked at.
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