Painted Signage in Small Town Nicaragua

Posted on Nov 15, 2011 in Featured, Inspired | 1 comment

The small town of Rivas

in Nicaragua is such a wonderful place to visit to get a true sense of Nicaraguan culture. The low number of tourists in Rivas has resulted in the town’s ability to retain it’s authentic charm – low prices, great food stalls, friendly children and non-pushy vendors. There was a surprising number of hostels in the town, considering it isn’t the biggest tourist draw, but they were all really well priced and run by super-friendly locals.

A colourful and quiet street in Rivas.

Rivas has a lovely produce market. (Please ignore the obvious tourist standing in the middle of the shot who makes me look like a liar when I say there aren't many tourists around.)

One of the the things I loved the most about dusty Rivas was the abundance of hand-painted shop signs. I can only assume that it is cheaper for store owners and advertisers to hire a painter to create a logo or store name that it would be to pay for large-format printing. I think the hand-painted signs look infinitely better than the boring vinyl or backlit signs most businesses and restaurants use – you can only be so creative when it comes to cheap printing of text.

Paint is used to enhance a building - in this case, it is also used to create the store's signage.

Brightly painted doors and simple text are used to identify most businesses.

A simple rectangular butcher window is framed with paintings.

This storefront painting is a little more complicated - love how the artist chose a colour scheme to correspond to the brand.

These paintings look like vinyl prints to me! Such clean lines.

Think Pink! This building is so cute, I love the collage of images depicting the services and products sold.

I love how Latin culture is not afriad of colour. At all. Ever.

Each sign and storefront is like a work of art. I wonder how often the signs are touched-up? If Nicaragua’s rainy season is anything like Panama’s, I would assume the signs need to be re-painted or touched up at least once a year after the wear-and-tear of rainy season.