Returning to Chicago a year later, Max sought out some of
the last remaining masters of the classic hand-lettered and
hand-illustrated advertising styles made popular early in the
20th Century. “It was becoming a lost art because of
digital technology,” says Max. Along with lettering and
illustration, the veteran sign-makers taught him the ins and
outs of vintage printing processes. And, when the sign shops
ultimately closed, he seized the opportunity to render their
old style a new way: at the Art Institute of Chicago, Max learned
how tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Quark could help him
execute vintage designs on computers while maintaining his
signature hand-crafted style.
In the mid 1990s, Max founded Ampersand Signs in Bar Harbor,
Maine. In the early 2000s, he migrated south to subtropical
Nokomis, Florida, where Max founded Max Kelly Design, specializing
in the graphical style from his favorite era: the mid-20th
century.
