Sign writing internal signs for historic & traditional hat makers in Jermyn Street. The clients had moved premises within Jermyn St & required new signage within the store, which is shared with a bespoke shirt & suit makers.
The clients had branding which had been used on all their hat boxes. The issue with this, is the image has to be stretched on a hat box as they are wide & curved but can also be tall, thin & curved too. This meant that the branding image I was given had been altered & stretched to suit the boxes, but was out of shape to be produced on walls.
The branding had Gentleman Hatter, but they removed this from what was required on the walls, which altered the shape & design, but also the fine shadow on the word Bates wasn’t right & the spacing for Bates was also wrong. This was altered myself before producing the layouts required for all 3 internal signs.
The first of the internal signs was on an archway entrance beam, which was painted in matte black with the branding to be produced in silver leaf. The branding was produced to size on a paper layout before being on site. the layout was then reliefed onto the surface, which can be seen in chalk outlines.
The sign writing was then produced using mix of specialist size & paint. White paint was mixed so the size, which is of a frsh car oil consistancy in colour, could be seen when applied with the brush.
The size being used had a 3hr dry time, but this tends to vary a fair bit dependant on conditions like if air con or heating is on in the building, so after approx half the branding had been produced in sign writing, the silver leaf was applied to those areas. As is generally the case the silver leaf can cover more than just the applied sign writing area, but the excess is burnished off, once all the leaf has been applied.
The remaining signwriting was then painted before the silver leaf was applied to the bottom half of the branding.
Some dry time was required before the excess silver leaf could be burnished off, which completes the signwriting on the sign.
The burnishing completed & the excess silver leaf still to be cleaned from the shop floor. The leaf is so fine that its easily swept & almost disintergrates as its swept. The tape thats visible was just used to mark out & make sure the branding was measured to the middle of the arch & that the sign writing would be straight & at the correct sizing. This was removed after the pic was taken.
The next sign writing to be produced, was on a different archway & on a different colour wall but with the same branding design.
The design was measured to size & produced to fit by being drawn on paper first before being on site. An addition to the branding sign writing was to have a manicule (pointing finger) and the wording ‘through here to’. This was designed by myself but agreed to prior to being on site, by a mock up image being emailed to the clients beforehand.
The tape used was to mark out the centre of the archway so I knew the layout design would be in the correct place & the sizing was measured too, before the paper design was reliefed onto the wall using charcoal, which is dusted off once the sign writing has been produced.
There was a fair bit of discussion between the signwriter & client over whether the branding was better central on the arch, with the ‘through to’ on the left side or whether to have all the wording central to the arch. In the end the deciding factor was the position of their desk & that isn’t moveable, so their customers wouldn’t be able to see the archway straight on anyway, so if sided to the left, the branding would seem central for the gap that was available to walk though. This was no problem & was painted as such. They were very pleased with the result & felt its added a finesse to the area of the store.
The branding & wayfaring signwriting seen from straight on. The branding was centred to the archway & the wayfaring manicule was set to the left. The clients loved the wayfaring sign writing design & felt it blended with their branding & style really well.
The last of the branding sign writing was on the back wall of the store, which was above a door. The panel was quite small compared with the other two. It was painted in a taupe colour and was to have the branding painted in silver & black.
The layout was reliefed onto the wall & the sign writing was painted in black first. A small quill brush was used for the main lettering & a liner brush was used for the scrolls & script lettering. The silver was produced in a specialist liquid silver leaf.
This was easier to use due to the scale of the sign. Actual leaves of silver could’ve been used but the liquid saved time & also could be painted neatly without the need of a burnish clean up. As you can see from the image the sign writing on this wall had to be produced quite small compared to the others.
It was important to still get the signwriting as neat as possible as it was to be seen in some filming for un upcoming film using the shop as a location for some of its scenes. This as well as the brand being as well known and high end as it is.
Three differing branding logos but produced in the same design & all on internal walls. The clients were highly pleased with the results.
Traditional & Contemporary Hand Painted Sign Writing in London
Sign Writer Traditional Signs of London
info@traditionalsignsoflondon.uk