Display signs produced for a London based bicycle company, who requested a large amount of wooden panels to be painted with all their branding for a european promotional trade exhibition.

Due to their budget restraints they supplied their own plywood panels & had them matt varnished themselves, but this led to a slightly poor surface to paint onto & led to paint bleeding still.

It would’ve benefitted from each panel of wood being sanded & given 2 coats of varnish first, but the designer was adamant it would be ok.

Unfortunately the designer wanted to be in control throughout despite requesting work from a specialist who knew what he was doing.

A test/sample panel was produced to show the colour match of the brand’s printed advertising against what was achievable in paint.

Its a common mistake that people think a printing ink & paint are the same. Printing ink is a different way to ‘mix’ colour. it overlays 3 colours CMY (Cyan Magenta & Yellow) where as paint uses pigments & is stirred together.

The paint would look different shades in different lights. so appered darker inside the workshop, but a lot brighter under bright lighting or sunlight.

The panel sizes ranged from 8ft x 4ft to 4ft x 2ft. Some were one colour & some were 2 colours.
Frustratingly near on every panel required at least 2 coats of paint, which was so time consuming.

The yellow was the hardest to get a good coverage of. The white shadow took 2 coats & the yellow letters took 4 coats, 3 of the white before the yellow was applied.

It made a real difference once the signwriting had enough coverage of paint & had a consistant finish. The words really stood out & was exactly what the clients were after.

Overall a challenging  sign writing job, but the clients were really pleased with their display signs, despite the graphic designers interference. They even sent a thank you email, which was lovely.

Their brand name certainly notices & the clients were really happy with the results. Apparently many people enquired about the wood panels just as much as their bikes! The bicycles were on display at the trade event called Eurobike. The display signs panels set as a backdrop

Traditional & Contemporary Hand Painted Sign writing in London

Sign writer – Traditional Signs of London

info@traditionalsignsoflondon.uk

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