The Importance of Beauty
The livery on the sides of the coaches, depending on the taste of the customers was either traditional or modern. Some were nicer than others of course, but what I can remember they were always pleasing to the eye. Elcock’s layout was traditional with Clarendon lettering done in gold leaf, blue shading and a black edge, with the Telford Iron bridge also done in gold leaf the finished result was sheer class: A tour company of quality. Happy days on the other hand was quite adventurous, the entire coach side was covered with large rays of the sun and the name arched over the circle of the sun. Very appropriate livery for a holiday company. Walker’s coaches the lettering was heavy sans serif, painted yellow with black edging and a large sun with a beaming smiling face painted on: perfect holiday livery.
Most of the time the boot lid though because of the limited space; was either kept simple, or very decorative as in the traditional layouts with the name in script gold leaf lettering, blended or double shading and a black edge. Bands sprayed on, the lettering painted on, name glasses put back in, with the chrome moulding polished and everything finished the coaches done in the company livery whatever they preferred always looked nice.
A new Plaxtons coach now the sides are large, and flat with no contours and all the chrome decorative styling and the name glasses are gone. The usual livery, on a coach I see vary from beyond adventurous to weird with swirling patterns and other strange pre set computerized effects done on the lettering. Horseboxes have gone the same way. The old horseboxes were made from iron framework, with solid oak or mahogany planks coach lined and then brush varnished. They looked beautiful when finished. Vehicle designs changed so they were then coach built with large aluminium panels so the sides were flat, but spray painted on would be a broad horizontal band with two thinner stripes either side, maybe a galloping horse hand painted on.
With the name horses lettered on the back and front, all this resulted in a nice, uncluttered and restful looking layout. Now on the side of a horsebox some really bizarre way-out goings on can be seen. When I see this type of design work I sometimes get that giddy sickly feeling that I once experienced on the only time that I was foolish enough to go on a fairground Waltzer. From the very beginnings of the horse drawn carriage, steam powered lorries up to the large diesel powered trucks vehicle livery until these last few years has hardly changed. When I first started lettering trucks in the early 1980s with the coach lines, ribbons, monograms and acanthus scrolls, decorative shading of the lettering, I was hand painting on a style of vehicle livery that had hardly altered in one hundred years. Those old trucks looked nice even before they were lettered with the stylish designs, panels where the lettering could be put and then the panel coach lined. With the paintwork and livery done those old trucks they looked very beautiful indeed.
The few lorry manufacturers that are still about their recently designed trucks now all look the same; huge square boxes on wheels. The original layouts used by the sign writer with the coach lining if not very carefully planned can look out of place on these modern trucks. The old sign writing layouts are nearly gone anyway as truck liveries now mainly consist of full colour printed graphics; some look very good others though, utterly dreadful. When I saw one cab completely covered with printed on tin foil, it was only then did it really occur to me that we are in the era of poor aesthetical sense of taste where this digital created world is now void of any beauty in design. Hogarth’s serpentine lines of beauty that please the eyes and have an appeasing, calming effect on the human emotions are no longer to be seen.
Almost everyone enjoys owning and looking at what they consider to be beautiful, and from this the feelings of happiness and finally the emotion of love can be activated. When a mankind-designed world becomes completely empty of the beautiful it can only leave behind its exact opposite, ugliness, which will activate the human emotion of loathsomeness.
When this has happened the human emotion of love gets eroded away and is gradually replaced with its own exact opposite, hate: And as history proves if the human emotion of hatred is constantly fed it will ultimately lead to violence and then eventually onto war. I believe now is the time to turn off the computers, stop left clicking and button pushing, pick up a pencil then head straight back to the drawing board.
