Counter Culture

Pulling into the car park of my local pub in the countryside outside Bristol, I always get a warm feeling looking at the high level of craftsmanship that has gone into creating its décor. Weathered leather sofas are artfully offset by brass fittings, and yet the overall design ethic creates a juxtaposition between this ‘old-world’ feel and a slick contemporary look, as modern light fittings and stainless steel jostle for attention. What crowns this carefully crafted gastro-pub’s interior and exterior design is a hand-painted sign that covers one whole side of the building and, likewise, uses a combination of modern font and traditional artwork.

Iron clad market

This choice to mix old and new is now a well-established fashion and the upshot is that a trade once consigned to obscurity in the sign industry has now got some fire in its belly.

A group of experienced sign writers and myself founded the company with the view to addressing a growing trend that was seeing high-street shops, restaurants, and areas like fashion retail demand high-quality projecting signs”

John Carron, director of Iron Design, explains how its products are now seeing a steady growth in sales as these trends gain traction: “A group of experienced sign writers and myself founded the company with the view to addressing a growing trend that was seeing high-street shops, restaurants, and areas like fashion retail demand high-quality projecting signs. We drew on all our knowledge of the trade and launched our first range more than ten years ago now.”

Iron Design has a wide range of projecting sign systems to achieve a look that provides a traditional and yet contemporary feel

Iron Design sells direct to the sign trade, and the last couple of years has reportedly seen sustained demand from one-man-band sign writers up to national firms for this type of product—despite the recession and a contraction of high street shops.

Carron continues: “As we service the traditional signage sector, there is always a good market for this type of work from businesses that want to mark themselves out from their competition and do something a bit different. There are a lot of listed buildings in the UK and places where people have problems getting planning consent for modern signage systems, and this is when many sign-makers turn to us to provide a solution that fits in with the style of these old buildings.”

They may look traditional, but they are all zinc plated and powder coated so it gives double resistance against corrosion”

As all its products are manufactured in-house, Iron Design also provides a bespoke service for architects, designers, or sign-makers that need some-thing specific to fit in with a wider project. This raises an interesting point about the definition of ‘traditional signage’. If the products and services this sector encompasses are specified to offset a contemporary project, then purists would argue it is simply a ‘traditional effect’.

Sheila McCann-Downes says taking on physically challenging projects such as this fishing trawler make being a traditional sign-writer a very rewarding job.  She took two days to complete the project, commenting that when finished it gave her, ‘a warm glow of satisfaction’

Carron highlights that when many people specify a traditional sign, what they really mean is a high-quality product that uses intensive manufacturing, design, and installation processes when compared to your basic vinyl applied to aluminium composite or foamboard. In a world of quick fixes and sign buyers who’s first question is all to often ‘how much?’, it is no surprise that the idea of the traditional sign has become synonymous with the quality sign. After all, when you set up a business before the digital print and vinyl revolution, even your cheapest signs would involve a tradesman who had done a full apprenticeship and normally had decades of experience under their belt designing, hand making, and then installing your shop fascia, light box, or projecting sign. The ironic thing is that ‘traditional signs’ of this nature were not relatively long-lasting and were prone to rust, rot and failure.

“We keep our methods for manufacture up-to-date and always use the best materials,” explains Carron, who adds: “They may look traditional, but they are all zinc plated and powder coated so it gives double resistance against corrosion. Our sign panels are also designed to prevent rot by using moulded acrylic panels or UV-stable foam board. This means they will last for many years but produce the same effect as a traditional sign made from wood or metal and painted.”

21st century classics

A typical customer of Iron Design is Cornwall-based Signs of Good Taste, which is owned and run by traditional sign-writer Sheila McCann-Downes. Qualifying as a graphic designer in the mid-90s, she graduated into an economic slump and with no jobs around took up the opportunity of a youth training scheme for a sign company. Working as part of the production team, she was put onto a two-year sign-writing City and Guilds course in 1994. Here she caught a passion for blending her graphic design skills with a love for applying her artistic talents through a paint brush. Going back to graphic design for a number of years, she founded Signs of Good Taste in 2011.

When I started out not a lot of people were doing this type of work and I saw an opportunity to use my skills and start a business where there was not intense competition like so many sectors of the sign industry”

“When I started out not a lot of people were doing this type of work and I saw an opportunity to use my skills and start a business where there was not intense competition like so many sectors of the sign industry,” explains McCann-Downes.

She continues: “I set-up my website, created a portfolio of work I had done, and have never looked back, it has been really successful. I can draw on my graphic skills to create digital proofs for customers which they can adapt and get what they really want from a design before I begin—I think this combination of modern and traditional skills has really been a strength. For example, a lot of people want their logos hand written, but give you the file to copy in a digital format.”

This commission by Signs of Good Taste harks back to an era where the Post Office and Store was the centre of village life, which means a sign that provides a sense of gravitas

McCann-Downes explains that many customers find her through the internet and referrals mainly, and there is no one specific type of customer she works for. That said, Signs of Good Taste has seen a lot of bed and breakfasts come across its books as Cornwall is a very touristy area. She has also done a range of work for shops, pubs, private houses, and a few yachts and boats as it is located near the coast.

This broad appeal is indicative of a trend that extends beyond signage, seeing a boom in popularity for traditional or classic design in everything from cars, through board games, to digital radios.

This trend stems from a counter-culture reaction to the saturation of digital marketing, and modern technology in modern life. Whereas the 80s and 90s saw a huge boom in demand for consumer products that over-exploited developments in every-thing from moulded plastics to digital displays, many designers are now returning to something that speaks of a lost world where life moved at the pace of a hand written letter, rather than the zip, buzz and crackle of an internet generation.

This counter-culture is at least one reason why sectors such as traditional sign-writing are seeing a resurgence in demand and artisans like McCann-Downes rarely lack work.

There has been a decline in the quality and availability of many of the tools of our trade as demand fell-away and suppliers went under”

That said, she points out that the sector is a shadow of its former glory: “There has been a decline in the quality and availability of many of the tools of our trade as demand fell-away and suppliers went under. I use 1 Shot Paint, which is now widely accepted as the best supplier in this area.”

Signs of the Times provides a service that is designed to give customers the exact look and effect they want from a traditional sign

She continues by explaining what keeps her passion for working in this area alive: “Coming from a graphic design background I spent a lot of time in front of the computer, and so compared with that it is great to be outdoors a lot of the time and doing something with your hands.

“It is very creative and people respond to it very well. If I am on the street and doing a shop sign then you always get passers by stopping and coming up to you and saying, ‘it's great to see you still doing a traditional skill’. So many people are genuinely interested and enthusiastic about what you are doing. It is a very positive thing to experience and has been a real eye-opener.”

Crossing the ridge

As McCann-Downes points out, as demand started to ebb away from the traditional signage sector towards the middle of the 1980’s, it caused a drastic decline of suppliers of everything from paint for sign-writing through to blanks and panels.

One company that managed to cross the ridge and finds itself prospering today is Signs of the Times. Indeed, it has very recently launched its new website, which allows customers to design their traditional signs; choose from a wide-range of criteria from materials, through fixing solutions, to font types; before generating an instant quote. Once accepted, the order can be paid for online and is manufactured using a combination of traditional skills and cutting edge technology, before being shipped out to the customer directly.

This synthesis of modern technology and traditional knowledge and skills has made for a very strong business model, and combined with a bump in demand for ‘high quality’ signs, it seems to have ensured the company will be able to build on its 30 year history.

The type of work that we have done has changed over the years from just doing house signs to being able to cast a wide range of products from all sorts of materials”

“The type of work that we have done has changed over the years from just doing house signs to being able to cast a wide range of products from all sorts of materials,” explains Lyndie Lothian, managing director of Signs of the Times. 

The business started in the founders shed and now employs twelve people, with a range of skills from traditional sign-writing to CAD/CAM manufacturing. Like Iron Design’s Carron, Lothian points out that demand for signs that have a traditional look is still very sustainable, but that the materials they are made from is shifting away from brass, aluminium, and iron to substrates such as polyurethane. This is down to some key factors according to Lothian; cost, durability, and the fact that many signs made from metal are regularly stolen to feed a large black market in scrap metal.

Lothian continues: “We make traditional signs for every type of application, but village boundary and centre signs are our best selling products. There is also a growing demand across the UK for this type of signage from customers like golf and sports clubs, high-end hotels and restaurants, and of course tourist attractions.

Wayne Osborne explains that demand for skills continue to grow as business owners require signs that make them stand out from the crowd

“In the old days every sign was made with hand tools, but today we have a full complement of cutters, routers, engraving machines, and computer design systems to make our patterns. That said, we still have a pattern-maker who can do everything with his hands when required, this is because we produce one-offs. And very often it is still cheaper, quicker, and easier to produce a traditional sign this way and leave the machines to produce the larger runs of products—his artistic interpretation is also often better than it would be with a computer design.”

Lothian is keen to point out that, while the business does traditional signs, it has prospered by being able to supply anything a customer requires.

“We have a larger number of clients from the building sector, who order a good mixture of cast and stainless steel signs from us. The perception that this is a niche market and product sector is wrong; there are very large volumes being ordered as we can take modern materials but add that extra degree of quality and workmanship to them. What may be described as ‘niche’ are areas like bronze signs.”

This brings the argument back to Carron’s point about the difference between a purists idea of a traditional sign, and a ‘traditional effect’ sign. This seems academic however, as Signs of the Times is keeping a large number of staff busily employed—who posses all the old  skills of sign-writing and hand-manufacturing—by using a synthesis of the modern and the old to cater for market demand.

Our clients very often send us digital files with the artwork they require, and we then take this and always use hand-painting rather than digital printing to recreate it on a sign”

“Our clients very often send us digital files with the artwork they require, and we then take this and always use hand-painting rather than digital printing to recreate it on a sign,” adds Lothian.

Analysing this comment, it is clear that the future for the ‘traditional signage sector’ is actually releasing its practitioners from the chains of this title. Lothian described a recent project for a school that used a totally modern design, materials, and manufacturing techniques, but drew on elements of the old world such as bas-relief layers and hand painting to make it stand out and ensure its quality.

Signs of the Times regularly produces projects that are hand-made from materials like bronze, brass, granite or  wood. But—perhaps by name and by nature—it has allowed traditional techniques to survive and prosper by also using materials such as polyurethane and machining it using CNC tools when appropriate.

A new lick of paint

As Signs of Good Taste’s McCann-Downes highlights, those who are prospering in the traditional signage sector are able to tread this fine balancing act. Another well-established sign-writing talent, who’s work can be seen up and down the nation, is Wayne Osborne, proprietor of Osborne Signs.

Osborne Signs is experiencing a growth in demand for its services as customers from farm shops to pubs and restaurants that want an ‘old world’ feel

Leaving school at 15 during a recession, there was ‘little work or opportunity’ for young people to found a career explains Osborne.

“When I just starting out between 1989 and 1993, the majority of sign-writers were either buying into vinyl and getting in new machines or they were retiring out of it. It was hard to find an apprenticeship with anybody at the time and there was no work out there anyway. So, starting out as a young lad it seemed almost impossible,” reminisces Osborne.

He continues: “My Dad was a builder, and we used to go and pick up these signs from a friend of his and I remember seeing his studio and thinking, ‘this is alright’.  He couldn’t take me on, but he was happy to help and talk to me, and eventually I started to pick up odd bits and pieces from him along the way. I used to practice a lot on my own to get good, and that was the trick really.”

Describing the foundation of Osborne Signs as a ‘snow-ball’ effect as his contacts and client base built up over the years, Osborne is now one of the UK’s ‘go-to’ talents when it comes to traditional sign writing.

By 1993 I thought I was a good sign-writer, but probably not compared to my skills today”

“By 1993 I thought I was a good sign-writer, but probably not compared to my skills today. Certainly going into real sign shops after that and working with sign-writers was a real eye-opener. Making up your own letters went out of the window, everything that we did had to be as good, and as sharp, clean, and accurate as the vinyl signs were. But we were replicating type styles by hand, and it had to be of better quality than the machines were doing at the time, so that was a real sharpener for my skills.”

Looking at the market that Osborne serves, he explains his customers are mainly those that are looking for a ‘traditional sign’ as opposed to a sign. Based in the middle of the South Downs National Park in Midhurst, West Sussex, Osborne explains this has helped to drive work to his business: “There a lot of planning controls, and a lot of historic medieval and Tudor buildings, so they really do merit a hand-painted sign.

“The planners like it and the people in the town like it, because it does give it that very historic, gentle look. A lot of the villages around here are like that, it is very old-fashioned—you wouldn’t dare put up a foamex sign on a Tudor building.”

Wayne Osborne explains that demand for skills continue to grow as business owners require signs that make them stand out from the crowd

This observation ties back into McCann-Downes story, and her findings that people on the street engage with traditional sign-writing in a positive and enthusiastic way. This perhaps speaks to something in our national DNA. We like the underdog; we put real value on tradition and history, and in the most part reject the razzmatazz of modern technology and society interfering with what makes us quintessentially British. A case in point if you do not is the elite micro-country of Monaco, which BBC Radio 4 reports is seeing its historic buildings, signs, and heritage slip away in a landslide of slick new housing developments and high-rise office blocks—it has no planning laws to protect historic buildings.

Osborne continues: “When I started out we would make any type of sign, and everyone was cutting each others throat on price trying to compete with vinyl for the same work. Now, because its a market in its own right, people now see it as a completely different choice—you either want a normal sign or a traditional sign. They are prepared to pay a bit more for the latter because they appreciate it as a product that has time, effort, and craftsmanship put into it.”

Osborne goes onto explain that he is seeing demand for his skills now also take off in a number of different areas where even the latest vinyl and print technologies have just not made the grade.

“I have done a lot of work for businesses like coffee shops where they are now often using very different materials for interior decoration like brickwork, rough canvas, and even corroded metal that they want designs applied to. Vinyl, no matter how good its adhesive properties, just does
not look as good in these settings as a really skilled hand-painting or lettering. Vinyl is also weak in applications like really big external areas—you can’t wrap the side of a wooden barn for a farm-shop and make it look good.”

It is not a dying trade: it’s a changing trade, but it will die if nobody picks up the brush. My message to the nation is if you want to learn it, get your head down and learn it properly”

Osborne concludes: “I really want to urge people to get more into sign-writing. The industry does need more hand-letters and it is something that will never really go away.

“It is not a dying trade: it’s a changing trade, but it will die if nobody picks up the brush. My message to the nation is if you want to learn it, get your head down and learn it properly. Don’t mess about; if you want to be good it has to be done from the heart.”

It is this level of shared-passion across this sector, combined with a building trend in demand, that seems to be ensuring the future of traditional signage. Instead of its light dimming and being snuffed out, it is like the mythical phoenix—rising from the ashes and starting to burn bright once again.

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