A decade that changed everything

Talk to any sign-maker of a certain age and they will recall the first time something new and something rather alien arrived in their office. That something would change their lives and change their industry for ever.

It happened during the recession of the early 1980s when there were three million unemployed people in Britain, when the The DeLorean car plant in Belfast went bust and Argentinian scrap metal workers arrived on the Island of Georgia in the South Atlantic. And for those who follow their football, England were something of a flop in the Spanish World Cup of 1982. So some things do not change.

The aforementioned strange and curious box of electronics was a computer complete with graphics software. For some it was a basic PC, but for many in the sign industry it was the future, an AppleMac equipped with QuarkXpress. It could create any typeface at any size over and over again at the click of a mouse. Looking back those early commercial computers seem incredibly basic today. But they were to herald in an era of change so that within only a decade or so the computer was an essential armament in the sign-maker’s arsenal of kit. Today, nobody would start a sign-making business without one.

David Allen of Allen Signs remembers the time well, as up until the early 1980s most signs were still made by hand at his father’s business in Nottingham that had begun life in the early 1960s when everything was made by hand. From shop fronts to coaches, and even Vulcan bombers, every sign was either painted or constructed—especially in the days before mass production was possible through the use of computer aided design.

Modernity begins

Looking back to those pre-computer days, David says: “My father Barry did a sign-writing course at night school and when he was at various places where he was employed he would paint the vehicles and they would ask him to do the sign writing on it. In time people knew he did sign writing at weekends and things, and one thing led to another and when he had the opportunity to strike out on his own he took it. I think he got to the point where he felt he had enough work to keep himself busy and be in charge of his own destiny so to speak.”



And so Allen Signs was born. And it stayed very much a traditional sign-making and sign-writing business until the arrival of the computer in the late seventies and early eighties. And it was during the eighties that new techniques and new kit came in. Vinyl lettering, improved printers, routers and  plastics all became available, and it was these products amongst others that began to change signage.

David recalls the changes: “My father bought the first pantograph machine in about 1970 or 1972.They were one of the original perspex letter cutting and engraving machines, Newing-Hall used to sell them. Perspex came to his attention, but prior to that they had dabbled a little bit with it as they cut letters. You could cut individual letters out and you could guarantee they would all be the same size. With the pantograph machine you had your own ascetate or engraving copy.


“That started around about 1972 he took on someone to work with him and then a friend of his joined him. They kept the vehicle finishing going until 1985. It had dwindled but he went to see the Gerber from Spandex, who had a road show somewhere and he had a look at it. And it was a Graphics Three, which was the first one. At the time he had a job doing some lettering for one of the tractor manufacturers and this was a way of being able to cut lots
of sets of lettering at all at the same time.

“That was when the vehicle re-finishing side finally ended. From then the sign writing side became less as he wanted to push more for the vinyl. I would say mid 1970s it became more sign-making as opposed to sign-writing.

“I joined in about 1985 or 1986 and my dad was still sign-writing with shade, and if he put vinyl on somebody would still want shade—some customers still didn’t want ‘sticky backed plastic’ as they called it. They didn’t trust it, didn’t want it. They still wanted it painted.”

True craftsman

One man who has kept many of the old skills alive creating something of a one-man business is Bryan Rawlings, who has used all the specialist skills of sign-making for heraldic signage. His signs are three-dimensional coats of arms for prestige Government buildings such as the law courts, the police, local authorities, universities, as well as a host of private firms.



Using 21st century methods and materials combined with traditional sign-making techniques he has made a real name for himself. For instance, in order to create his large scale heraldic signs, he draws typefaces by hand, cuts out letters, assembles motifs, and maps complex graphics.



It all began with a primary school project. Bryan Rawlings’ interest in heraldry began at the moment when his teacher set a project to design a coat of arms. The project grabbed his imagination and his design was considered to be so good it was put up on the wall in the school hall. Bryan left school to attend art college at Taunton in Somerset before completing a degree at Stoke-on-Trent in art specialising in ceramic art in the 1970s. He graduated with a first class degree and then spent a spell as a teacher of art Eltham College in London before landing a job as a sign-maker.

O Factoid: The first version of QuarkXPress was released in 1987 for the Macintosh. Five years passed before a Microsoft Windows version (3.1) followed in 1992. In the 1990s, QuarkXPress quickly became widely used by professional page designers, the typesetting industry and printers. O

Rawlings says: “Initially I worked painting coats of arms, but soon I started doing the heraldic and commercial sculpture work for the company. Previously they had been using freelance sculptors, but they were so impressed with my work that I began doing all of their sculpture work.



“Later, with the agreement of my employers, I set up my own company specialising in heraldic sculpture and other forms of commercial sculpture work.”

For a number of years he teamed up with a large glass reinforced plastic manufacturer creating a range of products, but eventually he decided what suited him best was working as a sole trader specialising in heraldic signage.

“I have worked closely with other specialist companies including a patternmaker, and several foundries, some of them art foundries, from whom I learnt a lot about making casting patterns for various types of metal castings,” says Rawlings. He adds: “Also I have worked in conjunction with a woodworking specialist on antique furniture restoration, from which I have learnt woodcarving skills. I now have an armoury of skills, techniques, facilities and contacts to make virtually any kind of sculptural, three-dimensional artistic product, in any suitable material.”


Since each job is usually a one-off it’s important that Rawling keeps the commissions coming in. These are mainly word of mouth and personal contacts built up over the years although in recent times he has marketed his work through the internet, trade press and Facebook. Like many in the sign-industry, the internet has opened up new markets due to its search-specific factor as compared to the days of the Yellow pages and telephone directories. In just ten years from the late 1970s to the days of John Major’s Government the industry has changed due to the computer, but seemingly for some traditional sign-makers the age of the internet and computers has actually helped their business meaning many of the old skills live on.


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