Property numbers by a signwriter are generally hand painted numerals of the street address on its walls or entrance doors. If a property has a name, this can often be hand painted onto the wall too.
Doing this type of signwriting can have a good knock on effect, which was the case with this job. The clients had seen me producing property numbers for another property owner across the street & requested my services having seen the work produced. The ideal situation would be that slowly a street has matching property signs & then it improves the look of a street but also brings in more work for a signwriter.
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This property was very typical for London. The property has been divided up into two, with the basement being a seperate flat being rented by the owners of the rest of the building. As such they required property numbers painted to show this. So requested the number of their property on the left hand pillar of the portico and the flat number added near the basement door entrance but where it could also be seen from the gate, if not the road.
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The work commenced by measuring the pillar from its base to ensure its painted at the correct height & then measured to the centre of the pillars width.
The ideal size was chose, which was 17cm in height. The drawing was then traced onto the pillar so it could be painted acurately. A specialist signwriting chisel edged synthetic hair brush was used to produce the property numbers. Its a little better using a synthetic hair brush on masonry than a pure natural hair as it has a bit more control & coverage due it its spring in the hairs. If the surface was totally smooth then a pure hair would be prefered.
On this occasion the clients requested a Times New Roman font as they already had that for the property numbers in the fanlight & wanted it to match. Otherwise a more fine Trajan roman typeface would’ve been used. Its part of being a signwriter to know what typefaces are most ideal for period properties in London & those that display best. A lot of the time unfortunately building contractors just call in the cheapest quote, but that usually ends up in badly painted property numbers.
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With the property numbers completed on the pillar, the next stage was to paint the numbers for the basement flat. There were a few areas the numbers could’ve been painted but in the end it was agreed to be on the wall facing the street reasonably near the front door but high enough to be seen from the pavement & gate entrance.
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The ideal size was chosen from a selection of different measured layouts. The drawing is then postioned to the ideal position & enused is straight before being traced onto the wall.
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The surface of the wall was squite sttippled so that meant using a synthetic hair signwriter brush. Care is taken to get the right consistancy of paint flow from the brush & creating each stroke to produce the number
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Due to the uneven surface the numbers are constructed slowly as creating smooth strokes is difficult. The right consistancy of paint prevents runs or bleeding, which would also occur if someone tried stenciling numbers on instead of hand painting.
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The finished property number painted on the building wall. A little flourish was added to under the A just to make more of a decorative feature & the clients were really impressed & happy that was done.
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The completed job taken from the front gate/pavement.
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Traditional & Contemporary Hand Painted Sign Writing in London
Sign Writer Traditional Signs of London
info@traditionalsignsoflondon.uk