History of Whitelocks
Whitelock’s Ale House is nearly 300 years old (that’s older than America!). It opened, as the Turks Head, in 1715, catering mainly for merchants and market traders. The pub was especially busy on Tuesdays and Saturdays when Briggate marketplace was thronged with people.
In 1867 the licence of the Turk’s Head was granted to John Lupton Whitelock. He was followed by his son William Whitelock, then Lupton Whitelock and Percy Whitelock, who sold the pub to a brewery in 1944.
In the 1880s John Lupton Whitelock began to establish the ornate decor still in place today, the long marble topped bar, etched mirrors and glass. The mirrors are joined by polished brasswork and cast- iron tables, all making for a genuine Edwardian atmosphere.
From the mid-1890s the pub became better known as Whitelock’s First City Luncheon Bar and in 1897 John Lupton Whitelock installed electricity, including a revolving searchlight, at the Briggate entrance to the yard.
Whitelock’s was a favourite rendezvous with stage stars and it received royal approval when Prince George, later Duke of Kent, entertained a party in a curtained-off section of the restaurant.
At one time a doorman made sure that men wore dinner jackets and, as women were not allowed at the bar, waiters served drinks where female customers sat.
Poet John Betjeman enjoyed the atmosphere of Whitelock’s, describing it as “the Leeds equivalent of Fleet Street’s Old Cheshire Cheese and far less self-conscious, and does a roaring trade. It is the very heart of Leeds.”
In 2008, Whitelock’s was honoured by the Leeds Civic Trust with the 100th iconic “blue plaque” to be hung in the city. It was unveiled by Sarah Whitelock, granddaughter of Lupton Whitelock. Source.
The plaque reads:
WHITELOCKS Occupying a medieval Briggate burgage plot, it was first licensed as the Turk’s Head in 1716. Rebuilt by the Whitelock family in the 1880s, it later extended into the row of Georgian working men’s cottages. John Betjeman described it as ‘the very heart of Leeds’.
Pictures from their website
The pub interior is definitely very unique and traditional looking, with mirrors and brass furnishings. I think they've kept a lot of the original furniture etc. It's quite a small pub inside, but there is plenty of space for typography, as I found it in constant use around the pub when I visited!
I sent out an abundance emails to a variety of sign writers, gilders, letterers etc and waited to receive responses to help focus my research.
Unfortunately, not a lot of them replied, but the responses that I received were as follows:
Ged Palmer
1. How long have you been practising lettering and sign writing?
I've been actively drawing letters since I was about 14. I started getting serious on calligraphy about four years ago, I've only been painting with brushes since 2012.
2. How did you become so interested in such practices?
It started out with an interest in graffiti and skate culture. I painted large murals a lot in my teenage years but when I came to study design I got a lot more interested in the history of typography. My interested in sign painting came about in 2012 when I was asked to do the sign for a restaurant called the Gallimaufry which I did the identity for. That sparked an interested in creating letters with a brush and the wider sign painting craft.
3. Do you get many commercial opportunities from your craft? Do clients approach you or vice versa?
It's taken a good few years but I am happy to that most of my work come from clients approaching me these days. Nearly all of my work is commissioned based. That said there have been a lot of times where I have decided I want to work with a certain client because I believed in what they do and because I was able to have lots of creative freedom with the project, and with that in mind I try to keep my fees down to make sure the project happens.
4. What industries do you find yourself producing work for most? For example: pubs, coffee shops, etc.
At the moment it's a good mix of commercial design work: logotype, book covers, advertising work and then working with independents such as coffee shops where I do the sign painting.
5. Do you get a lot of work in the UK or do you often travel?
Most of my work is UK based or I work remotely for US clients.
6. Do you get approached by clients who want something modern in terms of aesthetics? Or do people ask for more traditional design styles, because of the history of sign painting?
My aim to make work that looks classic. I get a lot of inspiration from classic styles of lettering, everything from Roman, copperplate, brush scripts, etc etc. I think the trick is to try and make the work look appropriate and also timeless. Sometimes it's fun to try and make it look really 50s or Victorian but there has be a reason for it.
7. Would you say that sign writing is a dying craftsmanship?
It was live and kicking last time I checked!
Manu from Pincel Signs
1. How long have you been practising lettering and sign writing?
For the last few years I have been painting words and murals for exhibitions, but I got my first "official" sign writing commission in october 2012. Since then I haven´t stopped doing it, constantly learning the trade and loving it more and more each day.
2. How did you become so interested in such practices?
I have always liked big signs, specially the hand-painted ones I saw in the work of american photographers such as Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Robert Frank...I used to take pictures of signs, later I started painting them myself for personal exhibitions, in a very amateur way. When I came to London and got this first commission I became more interested and started learning about the trade, tradition, and all the specific tools and techniques of sign writing.
3. Do you get many commercial opportunities from your craft?
Yes, I have been really lucky getting quite a lot of commercial opportunities in the field of sign writing and mural painting, although I also combine it with working as a freelance illustrator/graphic designer. Do clients approach you or vice versa? When I set up PINCEL I spent months doing promo work, sending hundreds of emails, cycling around London leaving my business card in every shop, and I still do every now and then. But I have noticed a lot of clients approach me from word to mouth, which I find amazing.
4. What industries do you find yourself producing work for most? For example: pubs, coffee shops, etc.
In the last two years I feel really lucky to have worked in a very wide range of projects, from a massive mural at The Boundary hotel in Shoreditch, hand-painting all the signage for The London Coffee Festival 2014, to paint signs for art galleries, creative agencies, coffee shops and restaurants, food shops, bike shops, book shops, children´s shops, as well as painting signs and murals for personal exhibitions. If I had to choose one industry, hospitality is the one I have mostly worked for in the last two years(hotels, events, bars, cafés and restaurants).
5. Do you get a lot of work in the UK or do you often travel?
Most of the work I have been doing lately has been in the UK, although I recently travelled to my hometown in Spain for a mural project at the art festival Arenas Movedizas, which takes place in Gijón every year, making use of abandoned spaces to transform the city through artistic interventions.
6. Do you get approached by clients who want something modern in terms of aesthetics? Or do people ask for more traditional design styles, because of the history of sign painting?
I have been mostly painting rather modern graphics, but I am really looking forward to get more traditional commissions. Most of the clients already have a strong idea of what they want for their business when they contact me. Sometimes they give me a logo that I just have to paint, but some other times they want you to work on a full brand new design based on a briefing. Those are the most interesting and challenging projects.
7. Would you say that sign writing is a dying craftsmanship?
Not at all, for what I have seen in my brief experience in the trade there´s and there has been sign writers in many countries around the world, specially if we don´t take USA and the UK as the only references. Obviously vinyl signs and printing machines had a great impact in the trade back in the day, but I think there´s clearly a regeneration of the trade, with books being published, documentaries being filmed, workshops being tought, young people learning about it and setting up their own sign writing studios and projects... And of course a popular common taste for beautiful, hand-painted, long lasting words to inform the passer by and build preetier places to live.
Bob Dewhurst
Roderick Treece
1. How long have you been practising gilding and sign writing?
I have been doing gilding and signpainting for around 48 years now.Since I was about 11.
2. How did you become so interested in such practices?
My Dad was a signpainters and head of the sign shop at Knott's Berry Farm.
3. Do you get many commercial opportunities from your craft? Do clients approach you or vice versa?My Dad was a signpainters and head of the sign shop at Knott's Berry Farm.
All of my work is totally commercial .I have repeat cutomers and new one that get ahold of me through my web site.
4. What industries do you find yourself producing work for most? For example: pubs, coffee shops, etc.
Most of my work is for private bars,Restaurants and large clothing companies.
5. Do you get a lot of work in your home town or do you often travel?
I used to travel alot for work but now most is done in my studio which is located next to my house.
6. Do you get approached by clients who want something modern in terms of aesthetics? Or do people ask for more traditional design styles, because of your own style in approaching design?
I am asked by clients to do all styles of artwork.
7. Would you say that sign writing is a dying craftsmanship?
Sign paint is enjoying a resurgence now.
Damon Styer
1. How long have you been practising lettering and sign writing?
I learned calligraphy when I was, I think, 12 yrs old. I had a little training in layouts in my first year of art school, 1988-89, and slapped together flyers and cover art for a band I was in, in the 90s. Other than that, I didn't practice lettering much at all before starting as an apprentice, here at New Bohemia, in June of '99.
2. How did you become so interested in such practices?
I've never been especially interested. This shop had been turning out attractive work in my neighborhood for 6 or 7 years before I walked in the front door, which I appreciated, but I was mainly looking for an opportunity to get myself into a "creative work ethic", and nothing so specific as sign writing.
3. Do you get many commercial opportunities from your craft? Do clients approach you or vice versa?
I don't have a marketing bone in my body. Clients approach us, more so each year.
4. What industries do you find yourself producing work for most? For example: pubs, coffee shops, etc.
Looking around the shop right now, I see projects in the works for a coffee shop, a Turkish restaurant, a private grammar school, and for Pinterest HQ. That may be a typical selection. Small local businesses and tech industry campuses call on us rather frequently.
5. Do you get a lot of work in your home town or do you often travel?
Most of our work is within 50 miles of SF, but I'm plenty willing to travel.
6. Do you get approached by clients who want something modern in terms of aesthetics? Or do people ask for more traditional design styles?
Probably somewhat more than half of our jobs are designed by the client, or someone else they hired, and we're just being asked to paint it (or to "make it look hand painted"). Those that we're asked to design are not generally heading in a "modern" direction, unless it's maybe mid-20th century modern.
7. Would you say that sign writing is a dying craftsmanship?
Quite the opposite. I s'pose my view from here is skewed, but I posit that while the craft went through a drastic winnowing in the 80s and 90s, in many parts of the world (and is currently going through such, in India), currently, in the US, at least, we're in a period of growing appreciation for the appearance of hand-craftedness. There are, of course, many hi-tech means of producing simulacra of that, but the actual pushing of paint with a hand-held brush, while it may never again be the predominant mode of sign production, isn't likely to die, as a craft, anytime in the foreseeable future. I tell people, frequently, that, in the coming decade, we can reasonably expect to find more active sign painters in their 30s, than we can currently find in their 50s.
I was also wondering if you know of anybody else that I can contact to talk to about the craft? I've been looking around for larger studios of several painters, and was wondering if you knew of any?
I've got four other painters working here. I don't know of many other multi-sign painter operations around. Mostly people working for themselves. Josh, at Best Dressed Signs, in Boston, has another painter working with him. Bob Dewhurst has been at it, here in SF, for 30+ years, and often works with another painter or two. You'd probably get some interesting perspective from the guys at Colossal Media, who send out teams of billboard painters all over New York, every day.
Dapper Signs
Annoyingly, they didn't have time to reply to my original questions that I sent them, but luckily they had been asked similar questions from someone before, so they sent me the answers of these instead which were as follows:
What or who inspired you to pick up a brush (or whatever else it is that you use!?)
People seem to really like it when they see you painting letters, and will often stop to chat with you. It's also the most satisfying work that I've ever done. Most of our customers are independent businesses, so they a lot invested in them - money and emotion. What I do is basically the icing on the cake and it's great when you see a customer so hyped on the work you've done for them.
Why do you think so many businesses use digital graphics / look so uninspiring
Digital graphics are quicker, generally cheaper, and can be uniformly reproduced countless times, so it's easy to see why business franchises use them. I think there's plenty of businesses where they look good (or at least appropriate). But some of the homogenised signs reflect the bland state of large parts of the high streets in Britain, so I guess it fits.
Do you think there has been a resurgence in interest in hand painted signage? why?
Yep, definitely. This has been the busiest year for us since I started five and a half years ago. I think it's a perfect storm of doing something for long enough that some people take notice, my sweetheart Katie joining the business (I'm poor with any numeric values greater than four), and also a global resurgence in the craft. People are after things that are created by hand. When they have a sign painted for them, it's unique. Nowhere else will have that and it helps them stand out.
Painted signs will obviously never be as common place as they were before vinyl signage came along, but if there's enough businesses out there who value craftsmanship and have fantastic taste in what looks good (!), then there should be enough work for people like us in the future.
Do you use social media to advertise your work?
Traditionally, I have always openly sneered at Instagram and other forms of social media, but now I'm all over that shit - I've got loads of work through it, from Colossal Media in New York to Gordon Ramsay's new restaurant Union Street Cafe in Southwark, London. It's also put me in contact with loads of other Signwriters and is a great platform for sharing ideas, techniques and inspiration. People such as Best Dressed Signs in Boston, Colossal Media in New York, Golden West Sign Arts in California and Dave Smith in Devon are just a few of the amazing artists whose work I can now see regularly and fairly soon after they're completed.
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Whilst out and about I photographed anything that could influence my design decisions, as well as a bit of primary research into the local pubs and market stalls in Leeds to help make my decision for what I was going to produce for my practical work..
I really like the Victorian feel to the Victorian Quarter in Leeds, and the typefaces on the shop facia are interesting.
I also noticed some signs painted on a Street Food building..
I quite liked the carnival aesthetic of these signs..
Having a look at pub typography, I noticed it's always very ornate and fluid..
A lot of gold is used..
I liked these signs at the Packhorse as they looked traditional.
Whitelocks has recently gone through some modernised branding, but still holds traditional aesthetics throughout the pub..
I noticed a Marks and Spencer stall in Leeds Market, which I thought was quite ironic as they tried to make themselves look old, when they're not a very old company..
Had a look at some other market stall fascia..
There was a bit of hand painted lettering in Trinity Kitchen..
I like the vintage feel to the type at Everyman Cinema..
The typeface used for Carlucci's is very scripted and elegant..
There was a little hand painted stall at Cielo Blanco..
The new Byron Burgors have used gilding in their windows, which is unusual, as most places use gold vinyl to try and pull off the gilding aesthetics, but on closer inspection I noticed that Byron Burgers have actually hired a gilder to produce the window displays..
They even had a hand painted menu inside the building..
I found this trip around Leeds really useful, as it gave me a bit more of an insight into the types of signage that are used commercially within pubs and in the market square.
From this trip, I have decided to produce a sign for Whitelocks pub, as it reaches 300 years old in 2015, which is a perfect time to commemorate the pub and produce a piece for them!
I have emailed the owner, to see if they would be interested in having something produced for their 300th birthday, which also means that I can photograph the final product in context.
I really liked the traditional feel to the design of this rose sticker.
I love the typography on this building in Banbury. It used to be a ghost sign (all worn out and hardly visible, just left over paint from years ago when it was first painted) but has recently been renovated and looks so good on the old building! Funnily enough the place doesn't sell coal, cake, etc anymore, it's actually an estate agents..
I found looking around for typography and signage really inspiring, as I started to notice a lot of particular aesthetics that I enjoyed and it's definitely encouraged me to get on with my practical work!
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Don't talk about the use of vinyl in your last paragraph of the history chapter.
- Try to state where sign writing is now, and don't be negative or opinionated.
Think about the hand crafted "vibe" to sign writing and how that adds personality to communication.
The introduction and conclusion are not chapters, so don't call these Chapter 1 etc.
Choose a brand that will be interested in sign writing for your practical. There's no point trying to create something for someone that won't be interested or won't need it in today's commercial audience.
Have a look at the pubs in Leeds - primary research
- Whitelocks
- Traditional pubs
- Go into town and list potential places
- Belgrave type places?
Your sign could work with traditional methods, e.g. gilding, but produce something contemporary in the design aspect.
Make changes that were noted in your written element.
Feedback I received from the group crit:
- Have a look at places like Burger King and how painted signage could possibly work for them?
- Look at commercial places for signage
- Could produce a set of signs, if you have time?
- Think about traditional design methods.
How can you use these to their full potential?