Gaze upward at a corner store in inner-suburban Melbourne, and you might notice some fading letters painted on the brick façade. The artist who created the sign was likely alive before anyone who currently lives in the area was born. Vintage signwriting used to dictate how the streets of Australia communicated.
Before Vinyl: Signwriting as a Street Profession
For most of the twentieth century, Australian towns had to use signwriters for almost all of their public messages. Pubs, grocers, banks and delivery trucks had hand-painted names and slogans in vintage signwriting. A talented signwriter would craft a sign for a client, turning an ordinary timber board into their company’s face.
The apprenticeship required for becoming a signwriter typically included many years learning the trade by the side of a master. Apprentices would prepare the surface and mix paint before ever working on anything for a customer.
Vinyl cut by computer revolutionised the field from the 1980s onwards. It was quicker, cheaper and took less training than the old methods. It did not replace hand lettering entirely, just confined it to a narrower sector of the trade.
Visual Language of the Era
Vintage signs all share a visual language that the trained eye recognises immediately. Drop shadow was a common technique that gave depth to the letters, making it look like they were coming off the wall. Scripts conveyed elegance, while bold block letters conveyed authority and reliability.
Gold leaf applied to glass was a special type of sign used mostly for banks, chemists and barbers. The reason is that gold leaf represented trustworthiness and permanence. When applied to the back of a window, it would reflect light differently depending on how the day progressed outside.
The choice of colours also conveys a message. Old paint schemes tended towards reds, creams, greens and black, combinations that are now considered dated in the most desirable sense. That is the reason that the designer borrows them.
Ghost Signs: What’s Left of City Advertising
Ghost signs are the worn-out relics of the original painted wall ads. Old names for tea, soap, and tobacco still manage to peek out from beneath the grime that’s accumulated on city buildings. Each one gives us a glimpse of what went on in the streets way back when.
People get pretty fired up about what should happen to them, some want them restored to full colour, while others say leave ’em be and let them fade naturally. Restoring them to their former glory keeps the image alive, but it can end up erasing the worn texture that makes a ghost sign so meaningful.
You’ve also got to consider local heritage controls in some cases too. If your building’s got a heritage overlay, you may need to get approval from the council before you can go messing around with painted surfaces. If you’re thinking of painting over an old sign, best to check with your local council first.
Why the Retro Look’s Made a Comeback?
Specialty cafes, barbers, and craft breweries have brought back the art of hand lettering in a big way. Businesses like these are all about selling a sense of authenticity, and nothing says “we’re the real deal” like a nicely painted sign. When customers take a look up at a sign, they notice the little imperfections that a machine just can’t replicate.
Social media helped propel the revival by showcasing the craft. Time-lapse videos of signwriters painting shop windows have gone down a storm online, and people who’d never really given lettering a second thought have suddenly developed a new appreciation for the skill that goes into it.
Of course, imitation’s just around the corner whenever something becomes popular, in this case, printed vinyl that’s designed to look like distressed vintage lettering has become all the rage. The problem is, if you take a closer look, the flat colour and perfect repeats usually give it away.
Keeping the Old Skills Alive
There aren’t that many people around who are keeping the traditional signwriting skills alive these days. Formal apprenticeships are nowhere near as common as they used to be. Unless we get more young people learning the ropes, the hard-won techniques that we’ve got might just slip away from us.
But there are some workarounds, workshops and informal mentoring are starting to fill the gap. Young designers are seeking out experienced signwriters to learn the ins and outs of brush control, spacing and layout. A lot of them are coming from a graphic design background, where they’re craving skills that don’t involve staring at a screen all day.
Of course, the single biggest factor that’s keeping the trade alive is the paid work. As long as businesses keep commissioning hand-painted signs, there’s still a place for working signwriters. And, more than anything else, that’s what’s going to decide whether signwriting survives, whether it’s just a nostalgic thing or something that’s actually worth keeping around.
Old signwriting lasts because there’s still something about a hand-painted sign that speaks to people. Every time you see faded lettering above a doorway, take a moment to stop and read what the street used to have to say.
