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… when we blow up a letter on-screen no matter the font
it is only ever a curve or a straight

No vectors – vectors are a sadness and must be lost…

… when we strike the letter from our heart it reveals the entity of utter beauty… there is no purer way and no finer beauty.

When you move the curve you must know the finest moment of perfection.

Many can paint great letters … few can strike them utterly beautifully.

That is what we must do. That is what I do.

NGS case: Barbour new store Leadenhall Market – gilding in the absolute centre of London… local blokes with brushes..

History: The Traditional London Market

The market dates back to the 14th century. Originally a meat, game and poultry market, it stands on what was the centre of Roman London.  A number of commercial retailers are also located in the market, including clothes shops and a pen shop , the newest being the Barbour shop, the subject of this article.

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The ornate roof structure, painted green, maroon and cream, and cobbled floors of the current structure, designed in 1881 by Sir Horace Jones.

An early 20th century view of the market and actual site of our recent project beneath the colonnade, to right hand side

From 1990 to 1991 the market received a dramatic redecoration, enhancing its architectural character and detail. The redecoration scheme received a special mention in the Civic Trust Awards 1994. The market is a Grade II* Listed Building, being listed in 1972.

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Leadenhall Market formed part of the marathon course of the 2012 Olympic Games.

NGS and the Barbour project – Unit 31 L Mkt – Pieces out of the Jigsaw

Jigsaw is about to be painted out forever…

David Wong the director of the market was responsible for putting Andrew Gill of Active Interiors in touch with me regarding the re-paint and new gild of the 6 main fascia panels in this wonderful heritage landmark.

It’s one thing climbing up a ladder in Notting Hill but another planet working on the very architecture that depicts so much in the eyes of the world and her visitors, the essence of traditional London. This project started and continued in a delightfully fun and meaningful way for me as it brought together the very best of what it means to be a truly professional artist… and passing that tradition on. A London signwriter is a London signwriter.

The deadline was fairly tight and after identifying the font style and forming up the layout in perfect space we,the veritable Jack Hollands and myself, arrived on site to commence work brushes in hand.

Above: NGS’s Jack Hollands making headway with his first application of gold leaf on oil size.

First task was to clean the fascia and find a good tea maker. That done as we were surrounded but such establishments we started the rub down with wet dry, taking off the existing gilded lettering which read JIGSAW and painting out with grey.

My wife will be heartbroken…

We were hoping the repaint could have been localised  but the fascia was too faded.

The first thing we argued about however was how the existing lettering was made in the first place… after a couple of minutes I knew previous lettering had been vinyl stencilled and gilded and so we had no remorse in taking down this, as we saw it, the vinyl gilding was a complete waste of opportunity to beautify this Grade II buildings.

How sad that the stencil had invaded such an opportunity at brilliance and craft… we sanded with impunity!

My intention was to make a series of stunning hand gilded sign panels for the client and work had begun.

• Erect tower
• Undercoat existing lettering.
• First coat and cut in to gilded numerals and coach-lining.
• Second coat same
• Gold Leaf Lettering
• Shade

Hard work and the perfect distraction… Brogue hunting

It had been a while as they say and getting it up was hilarious… the tower that is!  HSS kept us waiting until 2pm on day 1 but once on site we didn’t waste any time in making complete fools of ourselves with lots of tower sections and poles whirling about and not the faintest what with them to do.

There was a lot going on around the place and Jack was seriously on form finding a local Brogue shoe maker which had us gawking through the window at first tea break.

Local inspiration – Pictures tell a truly glorious local story

Working in this harvest of design was the perfect setting to take young Jack’s developing skills quite a way forward and on day 2 I had him start up his own fascia - 

It is amazing what passion for the art can do for a trainee.  His work came on tremendously!!

Standby for Jack’s stunning designing of the new NGS logo and final Degree show work – invitations included.

The Lettering

The font we grabbed from a previous photoshoot and formed the title firstly in Photoshop.  The typeface was redrawn to create certain anomalies and poetics such as slightly irregular serifs, shading spans and refinements to the ‘R’ character form.

Layout

I montaged the word Barbour from the letters gathered by Jack’s iPhone and overlaid with Clarendon Bold. This was tweaked to fit the existing letter span.

Finally the characters wer redrawn in PS3 aligning the serifs nad characteristics to the original Leadenhall typeface.

The gold to be used was Handover’s, specifically pressed to the requirements of the day.

On start-up the very low working temperature made the 3 Hour Lefranc gold size slow going and difficult to get to open up and flow.

The first batch of gold leaf was rejected and returned for a freshly pressed batch of 23ct 6.75 ton pressure.

Once this problem was corrected with the aid of chocolate and course humour, the gilding went smoothly.

Shading;  The black Oneshot enamel shade was zipped on with a shorter haired writer size 5.

Deserving of only the real thing – Gold Leaf

I was amazed at how many overseas visitors flowed through the market every day and it certainly brought home to me the importance of the City Corporation realising that hand painted lettering is really the only way to go for such a special icon:

The amount of tour groups visiting Leadenhall deserve the real thing. Not the vinyl masking that was used before.  Jack Hollands

TM and facts

Work duration for 6 fascias 5.5 days – 3 artists.

Nick Garrett, Jack Hollands, Sam James

Access double staged tower.

Tapes: Frog low tac and Leylands yellow sharp cut.

Enamels: Oneshot.

Orange Gold size: Lefranc from Cornellisons’s

Tea: English Breakfast

Lunch: POD

Beer:  Young’s Bitter

Leaving site finished up left us both feeling hollow and sad… fulfilled, yet yearning for the next big project challenge.

A wonderful week in a wonderful setting – Old London town.

www.nickgarrettsignwriter.com

www.londonsignwrite.com

CV Signs – Nick Garrett  Handwritten Typographics

Nick Garrett Fine Signwriter

http://londonsignwriter.wordpress.com/

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… but it is very expensive… we can’t afford it.

NGS reply:

The only expensive sign is a cheap one – because it fails you,

… misrepresents you and portrays you as second rate. It attracts the wrong customer base which raises the likelihood of contractual problems and at worst a bad client will one day dishonour you.

It will take you on a rocky path when going that bit extra would have brought you to the road of success… and much more.

There is nothing like calculating correctly, a measure of going forward risk and experiencing immediate success entirely on the back of your own sound business judgement. A good sign EARNS for you, it costs you nothing.

NGS will portray your own success and for years to come, your sign will become your greatest sales asset and marketing partnership.

Great signs therefore cost???

(ask me for terms and payment options – I can spread a payment over 3 months)

Real signwriting is an unbeatable option – it says QUALITY

    –  The price of vinyl today is more expensive because it doesn’t last
    –  Signwriting is more dynamic and full of character
    –  When signwriting ages it still looks stunning (if not better!)

Simple we thinks… 

Gilding our way around London

    Like Us!!

    NGS –  a completely modern traditional sign-writing service 

               31 years Traditional Writing experience (Est 1981)

               Sharp sweet quality

               Classic & Copperplate Typeface Specialist

               Modern Wharf Retro treatments

               Great t0-budget value

               Large scale Project Design expertise

               View my Client Testimonials

             … recent work.

Links

Case Histories    Testimonials    Blog   Gallery   Quality Charter

Nick Garrett Signs  

Traditional Signwriter London

For Murals, Fascias, Vans, Gilding,

Custom Typeface design, Brand design, logo creation

Call us on 07951509238    

……………………………………………………………………………….

WHAT I DO

My sign practice creates all types of hand painted sign product, from gold leaf classics to clear graphic brand signage.  For retail, business, product development, film, museums,  interiors home and whatever you like.

I really am fortunate to have such special projects come my way and after years of dedicated work I seem to be getting the most intriguing and rewarding briefs. Below is one such creative ‘Case’.

Best, Nick Garrett

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Full case: NGS CASE: 88 Fleet Street Mayday Rooms, St. Brides Church

Raised letters 

2 pack filler skimmed to profile – flattened – undercoated – double coated One Shot… 88 Fleet Street

Anthony Davies the WDR director: ”When we saw these numbers in the matt grey undercoat there was the discussion immediately about keeping that look… but these look F great Nick!!!…

Defo a smile inducer that one. Not often you create a new product after 32 years – this week we have created 2: Luminare (however you spell it) gilding and faux embossed lead letters.

START

The project started with a meeting with trainee sign artist Beth Jarold observing, on site with the director Anthony Davies (who was wearing the best brogues in a long while), which explored the idea of a Roman numeral painted directly to the stone facades.

There was a really good feeling in the air as we ventured on to the flat rooftop and surveyed the extraordinary poetic elegance of St. Brides, Fleet street and St. Pauls.

The numeral artwork came through from Nils Norman and the height was about 24” letter.  Architect Iain Boal arrived from San Fransico, suggested we create something unique using the heritage feel of the area and the socialist movement at the heart of Mayday Rooms – with a gold leaf gilded glas fan light at a later stage.

My main concern was that the letter would need a build up to make it feel solid on the stonework.  The initial idea was for 4 layers of high build enamel.

We then considered an iron cut-out letter which was scrapped after 2 weeks debate and a slurry was settle upon. I chose a durable 2 pack to do the job and pounced the outline (which was redrawn in Illustrator).

Then the modelling 2 pack went on and levelled out nicely with 2 coats.

A double coat of undercoat and another double coat of trusty Oneshot had the job done.

This really was a bespoke job and having worked as a sculptor with CAC Hong Kong I enjoyed it immensely prompting a renewed interest in 3 dimensional hand made signage. 

Can be done and will be done in our new studio gallery opening midyear .

Inspiration and very nicely laced 1909

Original Artwork  showing XXlarge client format – later dropped for a more moderate size.

Artwork clean up and broaden

Colour Viz

Lineart ready for build – final size 16” H

Below:  Job completed with about a gallon of rain down my neck and thankfully skipping past the fascia, in slightly darker Signal Red – with Vodafone next door I decided to make the distinction and tie the tonality to the vintage red still evident in the local vintage Royal Mail architecture.

It was cold and wet – inlaying the red and black text for these numerals was a tricky job on the beautiful building – one tiny lapse of concentration and a paint drip would have finished me off…

That was the pressure threat to this job.

     More to follow…

Born: October 27, 1923
New York, New York
Died: September 29, 1997
New York, New York 
American artist, painter, sculptor, and printmaker

 

Roy Lichtenstein, American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, startled the art world in 1962 by exhibiting paintings based on comic book cartoons.

Early life

Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City on October 27, 1923, the son of Milton and Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein. His father owned a real estate firm. Lichtenstein studied with artist Reginald Marsh (1898–1954) at the Art Students League in 1939. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School in New York City, he entered Ohio State University. However, in 1943 his education was interrupted by three years of army service, during which he drew up maps for planned troop movements across Germany during World War II (1939–45; a war in which Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States fought against Germany, Japan, and Italy). Lichtenstein received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Ohio State University in 1946 and a master of fine arts degree in 1949. He taught at Ohio State until 1951, then went to Cleveland, Ohio, to work. In 1957 he started teaching at Oswego State College in New York; in 1960 he moved to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Three years later he gave up teaching to paint full-time.

Early works

From 1951 to about 1957 Lichtenstein’s paintings dealt with themes of the American West—cowboys, Native Americans, and the like—in a style similar to that of modern European painters. Next he began hiding images of comic strip figures (such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Bugs Bunny) in his paintings. By 1961 he had created the images for which he became known. These included advertisement illustrations — common objects such as string, golf balls, kitchen curtains, slices of pie, or a hot dogs. He also used other artists’ works to create new pieces, such as Woman with Flowered Hat (1963), based on a reproduction of a work by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). He also created versions of paintings by Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Gilbert Stuart’s (1755–1828) portrait of George Washington (1732–1799), and Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) haystacks.

Lichtenstein was best known for his paintings based on comic strips, with their themes of passion, romance, science fiction, violence, and war. In these paintings, Lichtenstein uses the commercial art methods: projectors magnify spray-gun stencils, creating dots to make the pictures look like newspaper cartoons seen through a magnifying glass. In the late 1960s he turned to design elements and the commercial art of the 1930s, as if to explore the history of pop art (a twentieth-century art movement that uses everyday items). In 1966 his work was included in the Venice (Italy) Biennale art show. In 1969 New York’s Guggenheim Museum gave a large exhibition of his work.

Tries different styles

The 1970s saw Lichtenstein continuing to experiment with new styles. His “mirror” paintings consist of sphere-shaped canvases with areas of color and dots. One of these, Self-Portrait (1978), is similar to the work of artist René Magritte (1898–1967) in its playful placement of a mirror where a human head should be. Lichtenstein also created a series of still lifes (paintings that show inanimate objects) in different styles during the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Lichtenstein began to mix and match styles. Often his works relied on optical (relating to vision) tricks, drawing his viewers into a debate over the nature of “reality.” The works were always marked by Lichtenstein’s trademark sense of humor and the absurd.

Lichtenstein’s long career and large body of work brought him appreciation as one of America’s greatest living artists. In 1994 he designed a painting for the hull of the United States entry in the America’s Cup yacht race. A series of sea-themed works followed. In 1995 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art launched a traveling exhibition, “The Prints of Roy Lichtenstein,” which covered more than twenty years of his work in this medium.

In a 1996 exhibition at New York City’s Leo Castelli gallery, Lichtenstein unveiled a series of paintings, “Landscapes in the Chinese

Roy Lichtenstein. 
Reproduced by permission of the

Corbis Corporation

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Style,” which consisted of delicate “impressions” of traditional Chinese landscape paintings. The series was praised for its restraint (control), as common Lichtenstein elements, such as the use of dots to represent mass, were used to support the compositions rather than to declare an individual style. Lichtenstein died on September 29, 1997, in New York City, at the age of seventy-three.

For More Information

Alloway, Lawrence. Roy Lichtenstein. New York: Abbeville Press, 1983.

Waldman, Diane. Roy Lichtenstein. New York: Rizzoli Publications, 1993.

Walker, Lou Ann. Roy Lichtenstein: The Artist at Work. New York: Lodestar Books, 1994.

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