Life without rulers and string

Mr Jones, our esteemed Chairman, had recent recourse to a dying art, namely: signwriting. Most things these days are computer generated, enlarged, laser cut and stuck on. But Mr Jones wanted it right, wanted it done proper, wanted it done, in fact, like these things used to be done. So a Signwriter was called in.

Now you’d expect all manner of strings and levels and marking devices, tracings, letter-shapes, layouts and the like. But there was none. Your man took Mr Jones’ business card, business card mind – not renown for their largeness it has to be said, put up two ladders, drew out the first letter and started in on the painting.






Ok, so the e is dropped a gnat’s gnidget, but, Hey! this guy did it all by eye, in about 2 hours.

Your present interlocutor has done his share of signwriting, oh yes, I’m not a stranger to Keep’s Enamel, nor Hamilton’s brushes, nor, indeed, the mahl stick.



It was the winter of ’81, if I remember, in the South of France, signage for a series of campsites, and I admit it, I used a ruler.