Signwriting

After painting graffiti murals for 15 years I found signwriting to be a natural progression and next step for my interest in lettering. I like the way painted signs have to be pleasing to the eye as well as useful, informative or selling a product or business. I find signwriting to be a trade full of tradition and depth, with many styles changing through time. People call it a dying art but I think differently, many people prefer it to computer made vinyl and it is certainly more noticeable and longer lasting. A new wave of young signwriters are currently learning the skills from the old and its fast becoming extremely popular again, especially with smaller businesses looking to stand out from the usual high street signage we’ve come to expect over the last 30 years.

Signwriting brushes

There are many types of brushes I use for various jobs, like lettering chisels, coach liners and striping daggers. The two main manufacturers I use are A.S.Handover and Wrights of Lymm, I also use some others such as David Jackson and Mack Brushes. The brushes I use most are Series 2112 sable lettering writers from A.S.Handover, I find them to be the perfect length hair and feel they’re the best all-round brush for general lettering use.

Pounce wheels

Pouncing is a method of transferring an image on paper to a surface to be painted, a common way of doing this is to use pounce wheels. The pounce wheels perforate small holes in the paper which can then be padded with charcoal or chalk, the powder goes through the holes and leaves a copy of image on the surface.

On most surfaces I prefer to just chalk the back of the design, and using a pencil, trace over the design to leave a copy. I find it much quicker and easier, but it doesnt fare so well on rough surfaces like brick or masonry.

Another, more expensive option, is an electro-pounce. A machine that sends lots of electric currents that will burn holes into the paper. Its extremely quick and easy to use but they are becoming increasingly hard to come by.