About Me

I was trying to make a living as free-lance commercial artist in San Francisco in 1973 when I encountered one Ken Poli painting a sign on the window of the Meat Market Coffeehouse in Noe Valley. He was gracious enough to talk to me about what he was doing and how, and I saw my future (Ken is now in Yreka, California, with a shop named Acme Signs). Aside from that introduction, plus some good advice from other friendly signpainters (they tend to be that way) and some good reference works like Raymond LeBlanc's excellent book Gold Leaf Techniques, I’ve been pretty much self-taught.

I started up a business called Lonesome Pine Signs and Graphics, and pushed it along in San Francisco from 1973-79. My portfolio for those, and later, years is here.

I learned computers and typesetting on a CompuGraphic MCS 10 system in an art department in Fresno in 1984, while going to college in pursuit of a Journalism degree, and the basics of plotting and vinyl cutting at IMI Signs in San Rafael in 1996-7. My favorite medium, though, is still oil-based enamel, applied with a brush or airbrush.

My one-man shop is now in Point Reyes Station, California, on the coast about an hour north of San Francisco. For contact info, click the "Contact Scott Leslie" button top right.

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