A man of letters

"I saw this as a failure, and it spurred me to do more research on sign painting. I later found out that sign painting requires special materials and techniques. That was how I started on the path to becoming a professional sign painter," says Zhao.

In 2013, Zhao boarded a plane for Tokyo to kick off the next phase of his journey in painting signs. During the two years before that flight, he spent more than four hours every night learning about sign painting and painting on acrylic plates while working as a full-time graphics designer.

"I learned there was a vibrant sign-painting culture in Japan and I wanted to see the hand-painted signs along the streets there with my own eyes," he says.

Zhao then met Hiro "Wildman" Ishii, who is widely considered a master craftsman of customized lettering in Japan. During his time in the country, Zhao studied Japanese and practiced his sign-painting skills during the week while taking private lessons with Ishii on the weekends.

Zhao later launched Good Fellows Signs in Tokyo along with local sign painter Koji Anzai. In 2019, while hosting a sign-painting workshop in Shanghai as a tutor, Zhao was heartened to see a large group of Chinese expressing a keen interest in the craft. This experience, he says, convinced him to return to his homeland to start a business.

That same year, Zhao opened Huaihai Signs in the living room of his friend Yao Yao, who is also the co-founder of the studio. The first job they received was from the Imuse Barber Shop that sported a vintage style and was very popular with young people.

Today, Zhao owns a 50-square-meter studio with a small yard in Shanghai's Xuhui district where he spends most of his time designing, drafting and painting signs. He says those who hire his services are usually shop owners seeking to offer experiential consumption services to customers.

"The personalized signboards or window designs allow consumers to have an immersive consumption experience as the hand-painted letters convey a different feeling," says Zhao.