SIGNWRITING ON SHOP FRONT: MIDDLEPORT MATTERS


LABOUR TIME: 12 HOURS

In Harper Street, contractors B+K magnificently restored a row of old homes, to show how the humble people, in the City of Stoke-on-Trent used to live in the 1950s. Bowmer and Kirkland knew PVC lettering would be most inappropriate on a shop fascia board; so, contacted me to do traditional signwriting. I asked, “for the style of lettering has the client got anything in particular in mind? The building contractor’s site manager contacted Middleport Matters and asked the question.
For the wording Middleport Matters, I was pleased the old and new typeface Baskerville was chosen.

However, not to copy the chosen typeface exactly, and to retain the look of genuine English hand painted signwriting; I altered the typeface named Baskerville. I altered it to include my own personal style in a designed typeface, because this is what a sign writer does. If I copied the Baskerville typeface exactly the way it was designed, the sign might as well have been done in PVC sticky letters. To give further the authentic look of the bygone era, on my advice the shading effect of the lettering and the double lining was added. With the colour scheme, the choice of letter style shaded, and the coach lining of the panels done; all hand painted of course: the overall finished look is of a corner shop trading in 1950s, Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent. A bygone era, when your groceries were served to you by a shop keeper who knew your name, had the time to ask about your health, the health of your family. A time when your groceries were wrapped in brown paper bags, and not in plastic bags. A time gone, when groceries were served over a counter and not thrown off the end of a conveyor belt. A time almost gone, when people paid for their groceries with beautifully designed paper money and metal coins, and not with money on a plastic card or inside a mobile telephone.

If you want signwriting on a shop front, and you want the signwriting to look as if it was done during those days when milk was placed early mornings on your doorstep, in glass bottles, and the empties were taken away to be washed. Give me a call. If you want traditional signwriting on a shop fascia signage to look as if was done during a bygone era, an era when fresh fruit and vegetables were wrapped in brown paper bags and not wrapped in plastic. Give me a call. Signwriting on walls when half a dozen oatcakes were paid for by cash and not on a credit card. Give me a telephone call.