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Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High 88F. Winds light and variable..
A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible early. Partly cloudy skies. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.
City Lights Bookstore & Café
City Lights Bookstore & Café
Inside their doors Baxley’s Chocolates, Innovation Brewing, Fitzgerald’s Shoes, WNC Farm to Table and the new Wildkitchen have essentially nothing in common. But right outside they, and about 20 other storefronts along Mill and Main streets, all have one thing in common – Tyler Watras of Signs & Designs designed and hand-made their signs.
For about 20 years he has specialized in making residential signs, banners and more for businesses in Western North Carolina.
He estimates he has made 30 for downtown Sylva, but only about 20 of those businesses are still afloat.
He has been on a ladder with tools hanging one of his creations at Fusion’s Spa, Sundog Realty, The Papermill, City Lights, Melissa’s Back Street Takeout, Farmhouse, Creekside, Harry Alter Books, Pie Times, Jackson General and Balsam Falls, among others.
The numbers are impressive, but not his goal.
“It’s about quality over quantity,” Watras said. “I want to offer different options that are going to speak loud for somebody’s business because that’s their first impression on new customers.”
A resident of Jackson County for about a decade, Watras didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a sign painter. He originally wanted to become an architect, because he loves to hand-draft and considers it “meditative,” he said.
“I actually fell into sign painting by chance,” Watras said. “I was in high school, and my father told me I needed to get a job. The first place I went because I had a music interest was the local music shop in downtown Andrews called ‘Dean’s Music.’ I did not know that he (Dean Williams) was a sign painter, too. So, in the process of working at the music store, he taught me the tricks of the trade.”
Watras became Williams’ apprentice in sign painting for about two years during high school and for about two or three summers during college.
“Sign painting doesn’t have to be perfect,” Watras said. “Signs should speak for themselves. You have to make it something that’s going to pop and set it apart from other businesses, which can help those businesses get noticed.”
Watras’ business isn’t just about making signs from scratch. Signs & Designs also specializes in remaking or “touching up” signs that may experience damage, weathering and/or deterioration. He last installed a new vinyl graphic to replace the old hand-painted graphic in The Sylva Herald window.
Watras says that instead of using marine plywood to make signs, he uses a substrate called polymetal, which is used for many signs nowadays. Signs & Designs also offers a variety of alternatives to hand-painted signs like vinyl, digitally printed, banners, metal plaques and more.
“When I paint a sign,” Watras said. “to keep things interesting for me and not make things monotonous, I try to do something new and challenge myself.”
All the signs are made by Watras in his studio.
He is open to having his own apprentice, potentially “passing the craft down” to the right student.
With many of his works already up in towns like Andrews, Dillsboro, Franklin and Sylva, and plenty more still on the way, Watras is happy with the way things have worked out now in his full-time profession.
“I don’t think I would change anything,” he said. “I don’t have any regrets with what I’ve done. I’ve just enjoyed it all.”
Watras works out of a studio at his home on the Haywood side of Balsam. For more information about Signs & Designs, visit www.facebook.com/SignsandDesignsWNC/ or call Watras at 269-6084.
Sam Dietrich is an intern at The Sylva Herald.
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