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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Passion to Paint: John Espinola, artist and owner of Art Works, has painted all the signs for the Campbell Union High School District distinguished schools. He has also painted the school mascots on school walls.

Sign-maker's art touches all of Campbell

By Cathy Weselby

Some businesses exist to make other businesses shine. Art Works is such a business. Owner John Espinola has been quietly increasing the visibility of local schools and businesses for 30 years.

Espinola grew up with a passion for painting, but after graduating from San Jose State University with a bachelor's degree in fine arts, he discovered not everyone could afford to commission a mural. A friend asked him to create a sign, and Espinola's business quickly grew from referrals.

"I'd be painting a sign on a storefront, and someone would walk up and ask me to paint a sign for their business," Espinola says.

This was in the late 1970s, and everything about sign-making was done by hand. Espinola learned all he could about the sign-making trade; he studied the psychology of color and quizzed suppliers about available materials. When computers emerged on the scene in the 1980s, they revolutionized the business, and it also meant re-educating himself. He had to learn how to use and incorporate computer and software applications into his art business.

"It's been an evolution," Espinola says.

Referrals from unusual places have also helped expand his business.

In 1998 the state of California began recognizing exemplary schools as "California Distinguished Schools," and the Campbell Union High School District contacted one of Espinola's competitors, who in turn referred Espinola.

He was commissioned to paint the honorary designation for Leigh High School, and from there his work evolved into painting wall-size graphics for gymnasiums.

Espinola's work now graces walls throughout the district, including Del Mar, Prospect, Westmont, Branham and Leigh high schools. Students pass by campus walls that sport their mascot, which Espinola painted, and the entrance that also displays his art. Espinola estimates he has done more than 90 projects at 48 local schools, including schools in Los Altos and Twain Harte.

John Nolan, director of support services for Campbell Union High School District, enjoys working with Espinola.

"He offers his professional opinion and also listens to people and their ideas," Nolan says.

Espinola's collaborative style works with business owners as well as school officials.

Ingrid Zurlo, manager of Asiatic Treasures in downtown Campbell, searched from "coast to coast" for a sign-maker, and in the end chose Art Works right off Dell Avenue in Campbell.

She told Espinola the antique style and colors that she envisioned and he created a color mock-up, with the "A" and "T" represented in gold leaf. She was sold on the idea because she was able to visualize the result.

Ron de la Chevrotiere, owner of Bed and Back on Campbell Avenue, wanted to emphasize the word "back" in his sign. He had heard about Art Works through word-of-mouth, and when he visited Espinola's website, he was impressed with what he saw. Espinola created a design for de la Chevrotiere that outlined the word in red, and suggested a hanging sign. Espinola pointed out that people walking down the street don't always look up.

"I appreciate that I could just give him an idea as to what I wanted, and he just ran with it," de la Chevrotiere says.

Nice Twice Doll Shop owner Bonnie Peterson commissioned Art Works to create a new sign for her window one year ago. She called around to several shop owners, and Espinola's name kept coming up. Her storefront is set back, and Espinola suggested using red to increase her store's visibility. He told her, "warmer colors tend to attract the eye's attention."

When the adjacent Twist Café and Bistro installed a patio enclosure, Peterson says it blocked visibility to her storefront. Gazing across the street, she saw how Bed and Back's storefront was enhanced by its hanging sign, so she asked Espinola to create one for her.

Espinola's talent can be found throughout Campbell. He has lent his creativity to signs at House of Brass, Fusion Design and Floyd's Barber Shop. As a regular customer, Espinola convinced the owners of Floyd's, in the strip mall at the corner of Union and Bascom avenues, to give their peeling sign an update. The new sign has hand-painted lettering and 8-inch PVC pipes covered with reflective vinyl films to create dimensional barber shop poles. For Fusion Design, a mechanical prototyping company on Central Avenue, Espinola created a dimensional logo out of foam that he carved, shaped and sanded by hand. He likens it to "doing body work on a car."

After 20 years in the sign-making business, Espinola had the opportunity to return to his first love, murals. He painted a mural of rural Tuscany above the bar and in the lounge for Campo di Bocce in Los Gatos and recently completed a mural for its new location in Livermore.

Private clients have asked Espinola to paint a nostalgic baseball scene for a boy's bedroom, and a trompe l'oeil of a garden scene to camouflage an unsightly concrete wall.

To increase Campbell's visibility, Espinola hopes to paint large murals of fruit box labels on exterior walls in historic downtown. He's inspired by the colorful Ainsley Packing Company labels and thinks it would accentuate the Orchard City's heritage. One location under consideration is the 30- by 60-foot wall on the side of Cardiff Lounge.

He presented his idea to the Campbell Downtown Business Association which was agreeable.

For more information about Artworks, 1334 Dell Ave., Suite C, call 408.379.6002 or visit www.artworksbyjohn.com.