We had Ged Palmer of The Luminor Sign Company in the Roman Road round to paint numbers on our front door. I thought that this would be perfectly simple, but hadn’t realised what strong views can be held round type faces. Should it be Caslon – right in date, but the numerals a bit too chunky ? Or Baskerville ? Or Garamond, which is more elegant ? Or the signwriter’s own freehand, which is the basis of the signwriter’s craft ? That was only be beginning of the problem. I thought they should be white, so they would be legible. But, no, dark black brown was the preferred option. We have lived without numbers on the front door for eighteen and a half years. No wonder. Now we have them – I think very successfully:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Handsome indeed, and the perfect choice for your house. The sign-painter’s art is under-appreciated and under-used in these lesser days. I note the Speedball poster design manual. In my early years, my uncle owned an art supply shop and gave me a Speedball pen set. This led me into calligraphy, my first serious personal artistic engagement and ultimately via a very roundabout route to photography.
Dear Richard, You’re quite right. The last course in signwriting at the City and Guilds apparently closed in the early 1980s. Ged trained in San Francisco. But there’s still a big demand for good quality signwriting. Charles
It does look good. I will look out for it next time I am going past on the 25 bus. My daughter did a week long signwriting course under the auspices of the Creative Dimension Trust last summer. It was taught by an artist called Adam Williamson and each of the young people on the course painted a skateboard. My daughter enjoyed it a great deal although she was rather thrown by just how good the facilities were at Dulwich College (where the course was held) as compared to the East London school she attends!
I’m always amazed by the quality of the art facilities at private schools. Anyway, it’s great that they are teaching sign writing. Charles