Traditional Signwriting for Heritage, Commercial & Vintage Projects

The Sign Writer

Robert E Stevenson

“Move over Luddite, your skills are no longer required. Your old fashioned slow ways are of no use anymore in a modern fast paced world. You can’t stop progress so either move with the times or move aside.”

As the last decade of the old Millennium drew to a close that was the way it happened.
The signwriter, quietly painting away suddenly got pushed aside by embroidered T Shirt wearing sticker fitters who would jump out of their brand new logo emblazoned van, wielding squeegees and boxes of sticky backed plastic lettering. They could do a large fleet of leased factory painted trucks in no time. The lone tradesman in a van with his box of brushes and tins of paint; had got no chance in competing with that no matter how beautiful his work looked. With the help of the machines, a skill that took years of dedication to master could be achieved in a few months.

It was the protest against the machines why the textile workers smashed up weaving looms during the 19th century. It was out of protest against the machines and production line methods why John Ruskin and William Morris spearheaded the Arts and Crafts movement during Victorian England: when the hand skills of the individual were highly praised, admired and greatly respected. Ruskin and Morris would have been horrified to know in one hundred years after they had died, mass production, low quality and cheap imitations done by cheap labour, with the help of what they called “The menace of the machine” would eventually win and dominate the world market.

Digitally created signs are now in abundance and sign writing is seldom seen or requested for, but I hear so many say the following;

“Computer cut lettering looks okay, but I still prefer to see proper signwriting; a lot nicer”

It is said that Signwriting was under threat from P.V.C lettering as early as the 1980s, but back then the digital age was still in its infancy, designs were limited, the plastic that was available was poor, and so was the work that was done with it; signwriting as a profession was still secure. The nineties arrived and again because of the limits of technology and for the few sign writers that were still about, work was plentiful.

Throughout the nineties, sign writers were holding their ground until eventually with the improvement of the designing software; the digital age had finally won. The 1990s came to a close and sign writing was quickly written off as an archaic trade of the past. A trade that that had taken thousands of years to develop and reached its zenith during the Victorian arts and craft era, and still enabled a good living to be earned one hundred years later was over. A new Millennium had arrived and in the 21st Century the sign writer was made redundant.

Digitally created signs are now in abundance and sign writing is seldom seen or requested for, but I hear so many say the following;

“Computer cut lettering looks okay, but I still prefer to see proper signwriting; a lot nicer”

There is an inertness and rigid stillness to computer created lettering that gives them an appearance of mechanical and engineered coldness. The exactness of preset fonts has also eradicated the individuality of the sign writer’s work, the soul, spirit and toil that goes into the making of hand created work. Here in Stoke on Trent there are left some ghost signs of businesses long gone. These fading remains of sign work on the walls of old buildings one can still see the influences of Victorian England.

From the adverts of these businesses of the past can be seen the principles of layout and ornament as set out in the Victorian book on sign writing by William Sutherland. There they are these hand painted remnants of the past standing victorious in battle against the post Freudian subconscious accessing imagery, the digitally produced designs and fonts, the printed images and illuminated signs. Regardless of how advanced the technology enables sign makers to assist in design and the making of signs; it will never achieve what the human hand can achieve holding a paint charged brush and a knowing eye to guide. Spontaneous flourishes and those undulating lines of beauty, the changing of mind at the last moment on size, style or colour, letters illuminated using gold leaf expertly applied then ornamented with blended shading, perhaps some edging and other decorative tricks of the brush. It is the individuality and the aesthetic qualities of these hand painted signs that still makes them so appealing as compared to the mass-produced, commonplace look of digital signs.

It is the individuality of the aesthetic qualities of hand painted signs that makes them so appealing, in comparison to mass produced digitally created signs that are everywhere to be seen

But not on my website!

Robert E. Stevenson – The Signwriter

Traditional Signwriting for Heritage, Commercial & Vintage Projects

Some of my Recent Work…

What my customers say…
robert stevenson
robert stevenson
09:01 09 Mar 24
thanking you, my customers, for your reviews, Rob the signwriter
Alasdair Coates
Alasdair Coates
18:40 08 Mar 24
First class service, excellent workmanship with exceptional attention to detail, carried out within the agreed timescale on budget, I have no hesitation to recommend The Sign Writer in the highest possible terms.
Graham Berry
Graham Berry
15:18 08 Dec 23
Fantastic - The attention to detail was unrealThank you
neil kirkham
neil kirkham
14:13 11 Oct 23
Robert has a special talent and vision, he exceeded my expectations when he sign wrote my Malcolm Wilson MK1 Escort Rally Car. The attention to detail was extraordinary he blew me away and everybody who has seen the car felt the same.Thank you Robert
GPW628
GPW628
12:35 08 Jun 23
The best Sign Writer around. Genuinely nice bloke, great work ethos and always delivers the highest standard of work.
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