John Downer At Work
Today John Downer will be putting the finishing touches on the new Oysterville Store sign. Even though the store has been there since 1918 – nearly 100 years, now! – I can’t help but think that she will finally have ‘come of age’ once the sign is finished. Certainly, she will be all dressed up and ready to take her place at the cotillion. (Or do we speak of stores as “she” like we do of ships? I really don’t know.)
The name “John Downer” may not be familiar to everyone, but most people who have been to the Peninsula know his work. He is the designer of the distinctive Jack’s Country Store sign – the sign that has helped Jack’s become a household word far beyond Ocean Park, the Peninsula, Pacific County, or even Washington State. And, of course, John is the son of Jack and Lucille Downer who opened the store decades ago.
John is a type designer, typographer, sign writer and logo designer. He began training as a sign painter while he was in high school, finished his apprenticeship after college, then began graduate studies in art at the University of Iowa where he receive MA and MFA degrees in painting. He lives in Iowa but in the summer (during allergy season) he comes to the Peninsula to visit family. And, if you’re lucky and need a hand-painted sign, you just might get on his project list for the summer.
One of the skills he is known for is glass gilding. The variety of silver-colored window lettering which now graces the Oysterville Store is known by sign painters as an “aluminum dust” job. Some have jokingly dubbed it, “The Poor Man’s Gild.”
Yesterday John wrote: The window lettering is now done and dusted (with aluminum powder). Tomorrow, I will trim the excess paint, and then shade the word, Oysterville, in red. I’ll add some scrollwork in red, too. The sign should last for decades, if the glass remains unbroken.
Kudos to John! And also to Greg for finding the perfect person to do an old-fashioned hand-lettered sign that will perpetuate and enhance the historic character of the Oysterville Store!
Greg seems committed to incorporating local artisans and history into the store and becoming a real member of the village and the Peninsula. This is one more example of that commitment.