The Elusive Senegalese Sign Painter and a Lost Mural Artwork

Back before Covid, Johan Hugo was working on an EP, a collaboration between Mumford & Sons, Baaba Maal, and Maggie Rogers. This took him to Senegal where, alongside David Darg, he wanted to create a unique piece of cover artwork. The resulting side quest gave the pair some special memories, shared here with thanks to Johan.Johan and David are both long-time sign afficionados, each with collections of hand-painted work from their travels across the world.Some of Johan’s sign collection, including numerous West African barber shop signs. (If you can track down a copy, then Ici Bon Coiffeur (1992) by Jean-Marie Leratby is deep dive into these barber shop signs.)Having visited the Senegalese capital Dakar many times before, the pair had developed a fascination with a particular set of barber shop signs they saw there. These were signed with the name ‘JUL’ and their idea for the EP artwork was to commission a piece by this sign painter. But to do that, they’d have to find him.Barber shop…