GARAGE STYLE FILES SODA IS A GATEWAY DRUG The Road Art bug bit Jordan Richmond innocently enough. He and his wife bought a restored, vintage Coca-Cola machine for their game room. The machine looked fabulous, and they loved using it to get sodas, especially when entertaining friends and family. One day, they decided a vintage Coca-Cola sign would look great hanging on the wall adjacent the machine, so they began to seek one out. Soon enough, through the internet, they found the sign they were looking for. DON WEBERG Don is the editor and publisher of Garage Style Magazine and a self-proclaimed car-nut from birth. To Don, there are no bad cars—he loves them all—but he favors the 1976-89 BMW 6-series, the 1981-83 DeLorean and the 1974-89 Lamborghini Countach. Having worked both in-house and freelance for various A-list magazines, Don launched Garage Style Magazine in 2007. He enjoys spending time with his wife and young daughter, and tending to his cars—a ‘79 Fiat Spider, a ‘79 Caprice Classic, a ‘65 Mustang and a ‘49 Willys panel wagon. “It had great graphics, and that was what really interested me. I’ve always loved antique signs, largely because of their graphic design, and this one really spoke to me,” Richmond said. “So, we bought it and hung it, and it was spectacular. It finished the overall look; it kind of gave the area a theme. It was fun.” But Richmond soon realized the fun came from more than just hanging the sign—it was in the hunt, and during the hunt, discovering so many different soda signs, not just for Coca-Cola, but for 7UP, Pepsi, RC, Bubble-Up and so on. “So many of the vintage signs had stunning graphics, and that was a huge part of what attracted me to them,” he said. “It was amazing how many different designs Coca-Cola had, it seemed infinite.” With this, Richmond began seeking out other signs that spoke to him. Because he was working a 9 to 5 job in the nutritional supplement business, he couldn’t scour the countryside like they do on TV seeking various stashes long forgotten, but he did partake in a number of online and telephone auctions, acquiring more and more signs from various industries. “To me, it wasn’t about a particular industry or genre or brand, it was about the graphics and the colors,” he said. As such, Richmond began collecting from various industries, ranging from gas and oil, to food, beverage, automobile and motorcycle, acquiring a large number from each. Sometimes unwittingly, he would buy a sign that he only knew to be seldom seen, not necessarily valuable. “I was buying signs I liked, never really looking at them as investments,” Richmond said. “Sometimes I would come across a sign I’d never seen before, or a sign I had seen sell for more somewhere else, and buy it; but again, it was mostly because I was getting a deal on a sign I liked, not because I thought I could somehow flip the sign and make some money.” Mecum Auctions has been one of his best resources, he said. “Mecum has so many auctions and gets so many great pieces, I really like working with them,” he said. “It’s much more efficient than going to shows or swap meets. I’ve bought and sold a lot of signs through their events with great success.” Richmond is still excited by the sign industry, as he feels it’s continually growing and will do so for a number of years to come. “I think it’s got a long lifespan ahead of it,” he said. “There might be a time when it fades out, but I think that’s a long time out.” Richmond has noticed one thing when it comes to buying and selling Road Art: condition is paramount to everything else. 82 // MECUM.COM
