New York's most spectacular art isn't hanging at the Museum of Modern Art, it adorns the sides of buildings

Venture south of the fast paced, dazzling, flashing and overwhelming epicenter for outdoor advertising Times Square and you will start to see a different kind of billboard advertising. 

The dying art of large-scale sign painting has seen a massive resurgence. Hand painted billboards have the ability to transform traditional brash vinyl or digital billboards into works of art. 

Colossal Media's Thank You Campaign

The Brooklyn based Colossal Media got this off the ground in 2004. The company was started from the desire to revive the “lost” art form of sign painting that peaked in the early 20th century, and declined after the introduction of graphic design and mass manufacturing.

Portland-based graffiti artist Paul Lindahl and his friends Pat Elasik and Adrian Moeller, co-founders of the magazine Mass Appeal, founded the company together in 2004. 

Companies such as Stella Artois, Bushmills Whiskey, H&M, Virgin Airlines, and,  MOMA have created hand painted billboards that are painstakingly transformed and painted by hand.

 Williamsburg Hand Painted Billboard Mockup

During the early months of the pandemic, when advertising budgets were slashed, much of the cities billboards went dark. It was a surreal experience walking through Times Square and seeing blank squares where the dazzling billboards once were Across the city, billboards got painted over and left blank. 

Brick Texture Hand Painted Billboard Mockup from House of Mockups

“We’re the epicenter of this crisis, the epicenter of COVID, the epicenter of revolution in the streets. Maybe we can be the epicenter of hope and stopping madness.” 

Make sure you check out the Hand Painted Billboard Mockups at House of Mockups!