leeanna.maharaj@guardian.co.tt
His work can be found in front of shops, on utility poles and along busy roads. Yet few know the man behind some of Trinidad and Tobago’s most recognisable hand-painted signs.
“People don’t know me, but everybody knows my work. Whether you are six years old or 80 years old, and regardless of your status, anyone in Trinidad and Tobago, as long as they have vision, they know my work, but nobody knows me,” said Bruce Cayonne, also known as The Sign Man.
The 58-year-old Arima resident, originally from Campbellville, Guyana, moved to T&T at the age of 12.
Although his name looks like it should be pronounced “crayon” without the r, it’s actually pronounced Ka-yo-knee. As fitting as that comparison is, Cayonne has certainly lived a colourful life.
“I was born into art. I was born into a creative family. My father’s mother was a seamstress, and he himself was a joiner, but he was very creative. He used to carve, sculpt, paint, make handicraft, those sorts of things. And I have other brothers who are creative,” he noted.
For Cayonne, he was always drawn to letters.
“From very young, I had a fascination with letters. I would draw them and create my own letters.
Then came the days of graffiti culture in the US, and I loved what I saw them doing with letters. They were pushing the limits of all the characters of a letter, and you’d still be able to recognise it,” Cayonne reminisced.
He started by making “No Parking” and “Beware of Dog” signs before moving into advertising with a large firm, painting billboards along the highway until he was laid off.
In 1992, he began creating signs for an events group he belonged to. Shortly afterwards, promoters noticed his work, and his sign-making business took off.
According to Cayonne, he was the first in the industry to add a different splash to the scene.
“These signs were mainly white backgrounds with coloured lettering on top of them, because I guess people used to treat them merely as a source of information, not as something attractive or art. What I did was reverse the whole thing that I saw. I decided to put the colour in the background. And that’s what you would see right now. So instead of a white background, I’ve coloured the background and then put the black and white lettering on top of it,” he explained.
While he had no formal training, Cayonne said that over the years he learned the details of sign-making on his own.
“Sometimes people don’t have the luxury of time when looking at a sign. You’re on the highway driving, and you need something to stick, even if it’s just one word. It’s the sign painter’s role to decide what they want to stick. What is most important has to be the biggest, and sometimes that will always be at the top. In terms of colour, in almost all my signs, you will see yellow popping up, because yellow is the first colour that the human eye picks up,” Cayonne added.
However, he admitted that in the digital age, sales have declined. He said he gets approximately seven per cent of the work he used to get 15 years ago. He also acknowledged that people imitate his style and sometimes sell copies of his work, but he has learned not to let it bother him.
“I met numerous fellows doing it. So the signs weren’t new, but my style is what was new. Nobody really copied me until the last few years. There was a sign I painted like 22 years ago, and while the promoter paid $75 for that sign, a man I met insisted he sold the same sign for $5,000. I don’t like that, but when my signs leave here, I am totally detached from it. If you were to pay for the sign you could take it right now and light it on fire in front of me and I won’t feel any harm. I got my money already. I detach,” Cayonne said.
That philosophy, Cayonne explained, is why he doesn’t sign his work despite being constantly asked to do so. His perspective on his own work is part of a wider philosophy about creativity and how he sees it as something woven into everyday life.
“Designers on the whole, to me, are artists, and there isn’t anything in this world that wasn’t done by a designer. The logo on your T-shirt, your watch, pants, the camera, everything. The designer did all those things. So, when people think about art, they should think wide like that. And they would realise that they could get involved too, because some people use it for therapy. I wouldn’t say my work is therapeutic, but what I know is that I could tell anybody, I love, love, love, love my work,” he said.
