A BRIEF HISTORY
I started sign writing in 1985, first as a student then as an employee of an exhibition sign company where alongside a ten-man team of brush wielding signwriters I acquired the speed and commercial skills that would complement the formal approach to lettering I l had already learnt. Since 1990 I have worked independently. It was fortunate that I learnt my lettering skills during the last years that this form of the trade was still widely practiced. It was perhaps unfortunate that by the time I was capable of using these skills the trade had all but been annihilated by the microchip.
The early 90s was not an auspicious time to become a sign writer. Computerised sign-making had by now truly arrived and was rapidly replacing the traditional forms. Fast, efficient and now affordable it could, in the hands of capable practitioners, achieve good visual results. However, the door was now open to individuals with no typographical or layout skills and frequently no previous experience whatsoever in making signs. They could purchase the equipment and start a sign business overnight producing work that looked acceptable enough to sell and cheap enough to swing the deal. The main determinant for most customers now was price and the race to the bottom was on. If you ever wondered why most high streets look the way they do now this is when it really started to go wrong.
Old school signwriters were embracing this new technology with varying levels of enthusiasm. Many more were simply quitting the trade and it seemed that my chosen career had been consigned to history before I had barely got started. I decided to do the only sensible thing – I buried my head in the sand and pressed on regardless. Twenty-four years later I am still using brushes. The demand for the work I do never disappeared entirely as many once predicted. Indeed, many now speak of a revival.
I started sign writing in 1985, first as a student then as an employee of an exhibition sign company where alongside a ten-man team of brush wielding signwriters I acquired the speed and commercial skills that would complement the formal approach to lettering I l had already learnt. Since 1990 I have worked independently. It was fortunate that I learnt my lettering skills during the last years that this form of the trade was still widely practiced. It was perhaps unfortunate that by the time I was capable of using these skills the trade had all but been annihilated by the microchip.
The early 90s was not an auspicious time to become a sign writer. Computerised sign-making had by now truly arrived and was rapidly replacing the traditional forms. Fast, efficient and now affordable it could, in the hands of capable practitioners, achieve good visual results. However, the door was now open to individuals with no typographical or layout skills and frequently no previous experience whatsoever in making signs. They could purchase the equipment and start a sign business overnight producing work that looked acceptable enough to sell and cheap enough to swing the deal. The main determinant for most customers now was price and the race to the bottom was on. If you ever wondered why most high streets look the way they do now this is when it really started to go wrong.
Old school signwriters were embracing this new technology with varying levels of enthusiasm. Many more were simply quitting the trade and it seemed that my chosen career had been consigned to history before I had barely got started. I decided to do the only sensible thing – I buried my head in the sand and pressed on regardless. Twenty-four years later I am still using brushes. The demand for the work I do never disappeared entirely as many once predicted. Indeed, many now speak of a revival.
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Signwriting, gilding and other hand-rendered skills remain at the core of what I do to this day. However, it is fair to say they are not always appropriate or desirable for every sign job and since 1997 I have used CAS (computer aided sign-making) to complement the traditional elements of my work and enhance the hand painted variant. CAS is Diane’s domain and an essential tool for much of what we do; being able to use a computer is the main reason I married her.
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It’s now coming up to a quarter of a century since I started out on my own. But I am glad to say that picking up a paint-charged sable brush and making a sign is still fun and long may it continue. Signwriting has been called the world’s second oldest profession and even on the bad days I feel it will always suit me better than the first.
