For Tony Depoto, it is more than a sign. It is artwork.

The Warren sign-maker was commissioned to create a sign for Barrington Beach and has spent months completing the project. He said he expects the town to install the sign near the entrance to the beach this fall. 

Depoto said he is very pleased with the final product, and he hopes beach-goers love it too. 

“I really wanted to make a splash,” Depoto said. “At this point in my life — I’m 65 — I don’t have time to do my own artwork so I want to make all my signs my artwork.

“This is my masterpiece so far. I really believe that.”

The sign — it is four feel tall and and more than eight feet long — is a mosaic of sorts, depicting a wide view of Barrington Beach looking south onto Narragansett Bay. 

Depoto said he met with Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey a while ago and agreed to make the sign. But the inspiration for the “mosaic” did not appear until Depoto took a trip to England. While in London, he visited the British Museum and saw some ancient Roman mosaics. 

“I said ‘That’s it! I’m going to make a mosaic of the beach,’” Depoto said. 

When he returned to Rhode Island, he took a trip to Barrington Beach and snapped some photos. He used those images to design the sign. Last week, Depoto explained the different steps in the sign-making process. He pointed to one of the walls inside his Warren studio. 

“After I made the design I blew it up to that size right there,” he said, pointing to a large printout taped 20 feet up on his studio wall. 

“And then I had to draw all the little squares in, how the mosaic would actually work. You can see all the Sharpie lines. That’s what I worked off of, and then I had to make a pattern. 

“When I make patterns, I have to do it in reverse, with a soft lead pencil. And then I flip it over and I re-trace the lines. So I had to draw all these lines and then I had to flip it over and re-draw it again.”

He retraced all the lines onto a massive block of high-density urethane, often called HDU sign foam.  

“And then after that I had to darken up all the lines,” Depoto said. “It was like four or five different steps. Each step took at least two weeks. And once that was done it was just a line drawing with the space in between everything.”

Depoto picked up a small chisel and showed how he dug out the spaces in between the “mosaic” squares. 

“This was the only tool I used,” he said. 

He then picked up a tiny paint brush. 

“And this was the only brush I used,” he said. “And I had to paint every single one (mosaic block) twice because it needed two coats.”

When it was finished, he used car wax to seal the sign’s exterior. 

“The beauty of this is that it will darken up after a while. It will age really well,” he said. “I also had to choose colors that weren’t going to fade that fast.”

Depoto said the HDU may be the perfect material to use for a sign that will be exposed to the elements each season at the beach. 

“It doesn’t rot. It lasts forever. I make all my carved signs out of this,” he said. 

It started with Del’s

Depoto said he has been making signs for more than 30 years.

“I did all the Del’s trucks. Back in the day, back in the 90s, they were all hand-lettered at the time,” he said. “I started about 1987. I got hurt at a ship-yard and I was always an artist and I decided to make signs. My dad said ‘Do what you like as long as you make money at it.’ I said ‘How am I going to make a living as an artist?’ Most times people do pottery or make paintings… Making signs would be cool. So I decided to make signs.”

Depoto’s signs can be seen all over the East Bay and beyond. Inside his portfolio are photos of the signs he has carved — restaurants, shops, town halls. He also carves hail port names for boats.

“I do a lot of boat lettering … and I got to do Billy Joel’s boat, Alexa,” he said.

Depoto said there are not many traditional sign-makers remaining. He said many left the business when there was a shift toward vinyl lettering.

“And when everyone started going over to vinyl lettering I stuck with old school. Now there’s only like two or three of us that still do old school,” Depoto said. 

“I just love what I do. And I’ve taught my daughters how to do it and I hope that it continues because sign writers are few and far between. I’m hoping that the town really loves it. And I’m hoping I’ll get more town work from it, like the new schools that are getting built. And maybe they’d like the same theme.”

Depoto has also found that his mosaic approach to sign carving has been popular. While working on the Barrington Beach sign one day, Depoto entertained a new client, a restaurant owner from Warren. The client saw the beach sign.

“They loved it so much I did a mosaic for them,” he said. 

“I did this mosaic for them which has gold leaf on the letters. It’s only two foot by two foot, so it only took me like three weeks.”

Depoto said he enjoys creating the mosaics and hopes they can become a new niche market.

“I’m hoping so. I really like doing them,” he said. 

Depoto said there is no date set for when the sign will be installed at the town beach. 

“We’re going to go there with a 4-by-8 sheet of anything and try to line it up and have it at the angle we want to have it at. And then they’ll dig the holes and we’ll assemble that on site and drop it in. And after the cement sets, we’ll put the sign in,” he said.