The age of chivalry lives on

It all began with a primary school project. Bryan Rawlings’ interest in heraldry began at the moment 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.

In the 1970s Rawlings left school to attend art college at Taunton in Somerset, before completing a degree in art at Stoke-on-Trent, specialising in ceramic art. He graduated with a first class degree and then spent a spell as a teacher of art at Eltham College in London before landing a job as a sign-maker.

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.

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.

Rawlings says: “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. 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.




















“I enjoy the challenge of creating sculptural interpretations of the extremely diverse designs that I am presented with, but best of all are the occasional ‘fine art’ sculptural commissions that come along, that has included a fully three-dimensional sculpture of an eagle with a 3m wingspan, finished in gold leaf, and even portrait busts.”




This range of skills has served him well as each sign is a one-off piece. When I visited him he was creating an intricately carved 3D bishop’s mitre from a solid piece of timber. Also on his desk was a detailed drawing produced by the College of Arms. Rawlings needed to transfer the A4 drawing onto a board to create the coat of arms some 18" (45.72cm) high by redrawing the original to the larger size. It comprised a shield, crest, feathers, and scrolls amongst other heraldic motifs. Each section is modelled with different media such as clay for the feathers and scrolls and the shield from polyurethane and foam.

Rawlings explains that the elements are then assembled and built up so everything is there in relief. It is then sealed and release agents are added and a glass reinforced plastic is made of the entire design. A first coat of resin is applied followed by further layers of resin to build up the coat of arms with glass fibre before it is cured. The mould is then dug out and prepared in the same way as the negative for the final process when the positive is made using the original negative. It is then cleaned, rubbed down, prepared, and hand painted before a final coat of high gloss varnish is applied.




Since each job is usually a one-off it’s important that Rawlings keeps the commissions coming in. These are mainly word of mouth and personal contacts built up over the years, although in recent times Rawlings has marketed his work through the internet, trade press, and Facebook. His clients are mainly courts, embassies, prisons, Royal warrants, schools, councils, private firms and individuals—many of whom are overseas.

He says: “The use of social media for business purposes is something that I am still learning about. I am certain that it is an extremely valuable tool for my kind of business, and I see the Facebook page as a ‘toe in the water’. I am also using Flickr to make available a large number of photographs of various past projects, conveniently grouped in ‘albums’, and I am in the process of setting up Google+.

“In a way it seems an odd marriage of ancient and modern, heraldic craft and Facebook, but in a way, social media is a similar kind of one-to-one contact, observation and recommendation that used to go on in small medieval towns and villages, but now spread worldwide, and most important of all, it works. In the past month I have completed an order from the USA, and another from Japan.

I have just had the website completely redesigned and modernised, which I believe will be a valuable investment.”

It is easy to see why Rawlings has been successful in this unusual area of sign-making. He has identified a niche and has a passion for his work. Having a strong artistic flair is also part of his strengths along with a likable and dedicated personality which in effect is his company’s image as he is a sole-trader. It is also refreshing to meet someone who is embroiled in the ancient arts of medieval England and yet uses the internet to market his work.

Rawlings also works with conventional sign-makers supplying them with heraldic signage. He says: “Supplying the sign trade has been a vital part of the business. I think it has helped many sign companies to secure and complete major signage projects by being able to supply one or more coats of arms or sculptural emblems, which may have been a relatively small but essential part of the contract. Certainly I get repeat business from many well-known names in the trade. Heraldic sculpture is the type of work that I am best known for, and in 1992 I was accepted as a Craft Member of the Society of Heraldic Arts.”

Rawlings concludes: “Demand for royal, and other coats of arms went through the roof in 2012, the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. I ended up having to turn customers away because it was physically impossible to meet the demand. One customer actually asked if I had any coloured royal coat of arms in any size or style that he could buy!”


In this day and age, businesses dependent on traditional signage skills are few and far between, but this clearly does not mean the world of beautifully handcrafted signs do not have a market. With Rawlings’ vast skills set and beautiful creations, this is one kind of signage that may have originated in the distant past but has as much place in today’s industry as any other.


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