Sonny Franks’ Handpainted Murals

Since 1971, Sonny Franks has operated Sign Creations in Lilburn, GA, a northern Atlanta suburb. He plies his trade with routed, 3-D signage, boat and vehicle lettering, inkjet-printed graphics and other types of signs. However, he devotes much of his trade to handpainted wall murals. He’s been a longtime member of the Letterheads and Walldogs movements, and has led many public-art projects, such as the painting of an Amish-themed mural in Arcola, IL as part of the 2012 Walldogs Pop the Top event. He’s also won awards in the last two International Sign Contest’s Mural/Exhibit Graphic categories, having earned a First Place award in 2014 for his creation of a trompe l’oeil mural on a Lilburn wall and taking home a Second Place designation this year for an interior mural at Tin Lizzy’s Cantina in Atlanta. Also, Sonny contributed to the handpainted signage showcased on “Main Street” at the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati.

Sonny also bedecked Tin Lizzy’s with an exterior mural that features the eatery’s logo. The 16 x 6-ft. mural features acrylic-latex paint applied with fitches to a brick-and-stucco wall. After having prepped the logo file for production using CADlink’s SignLab® software, he created manual pounce patterns to develop his on-wall template. Partnering with fellow longtime muralist Martin Haddock, Franks spent one and a half days painting the mural. To help the Tin Lizzy’s mural withstand Georgia’s changeable climate and searing summer heat, they applied TJ Ronan’s Aquathane clearcoat.

Franks devised two murals for SmokeBelly BBQ in Atlanta’s Buckhead district. First, they painted the 7 x 15-ft., namesake mural on a black chalkboard wall with acrylic paints. Franks adapted the flourishes from an old cigar-box label, and he obtained the typefaces – Esoteric and Grant Antique –
from www.letterheadfonts.com, a website that specializes in digitized, vintage-typography alphabets. Using pounce patterns developed using SignLab, they painted elements with Mack Brush Co. water quills, and protected the graphics with a Marabu Clearstar liquid topcoat.

For an 8 x 8-ft., exposed-brick wall, which would serve as a backdrop for the restaurant’s bandstand, Franks created a ghost-wall effect by replicating the logo from Peaches Records, a legendary, now-defunct Atlanta record store. The project evoked fond memories for Franks: “This was our Tower Records back in the day. It had a walk of fame; popular bands would stop by there and have their handprints encased in the sidewalk. I couldn’t believe they tore them up when the building was demolished. I spent a lot of time there thumbing through album covers.”