Mattapoisett resident Karen Souza started Cranberry Signcraft in the back of her Volkswagen Buggy in the mid-1970’s.

Now, Souza has her own shop on Route 6 and a long list of clients seeking her pinstriping and lettering detail work on their trucks and tractors.

“When it started, it was in the back of my VW Bug back when it wasn’t fashionable,” Souza said. “I had a box of paints and some brushes. I didn’t know what I was doing, but if you want something bad enough...”

Today, Souza’s clients come from all over the state, Rhode Island and Connecticut despite a one to two-month waiting list for her services.

Besides trucks and tractors, Souza said she occasionally helps trick out sports cars with racing stripes for her clients.

The name of the business comes from its start in Wareham on Cranberry Highway, and from her first customers – who were mostly local cranberry growers.

The majority of Souza’s clients have been with her since the beginning, including a three-generation family business on Cape Cod.

“It’s cool,” she said. “It’s rewarding that they stay with you so long.”

As a designer, Souza is self-taught.

“I went to the school of hard knocks,” she said. “Once I learned it, I learned not to make the same mistakes. I have no regrets.”

Although she says she has no hobbies now, as a kid she loved art.

“I always liked to draw as a kid and create things,” she said. “We used to make signboards for gifts at Christmas – handmade things.”

It’s the creative side of her work that Souza says keeps her passionate about the business, which sometimes requires an 11-hour workday making sure that her designs are perfectly matched for the clients.

“It’s not cookie cutter,” she said. “My clients have different needs. They know exactly what’s going on in their heads. I like to work that out. I like to see happy faces.”

After decades in the business, Souza says she is as excited to come to work as she was when she first set out in her Bug decades ago.

“Some people do jobs for their whole lives and hate it,” she said. “This place is my life. Everyday I put the key in the lock of the door and I think: ‘I wouldn’t change it.’”

For more on Cranberry Signcraft and to see some of Karen's work, click here!