Sign Painting

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Sign Painting: A practical guide to tools, materials and techniques by Mike Meyers, out now from Laurence King Publishing, and reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

Mike Meyers is a sign painter from Minnesota who is widely recognized as one of the masters of the craft. Together with Spain-based sign painting expert Sam Roberts, Mike runs Better Letters, which promotes sign painting internationally through workshops and educational activities.

In 1984 Bill Stewart wrote of “the renaissance of the crafts-man” in his book, Signwork. This continued a tradition of books remarking on the current state of sign painting. Those at the early stages of their career when Stewart was writing, including Mike Meyer, have seen a fall and rise in demand for the sign painter’s craft: In the last ten years or so we have truly witnessed a resurgence. This appears to have been driven by business and consumer desire for a human touch in their interactions, something that comes naturally from a hand-painted sign, less so from a digital screen. — Sam Roberts

This book was written following many requests from curious people who are striving to learn the fascinating craft of sign painting. In the pages that follow I have tried to set out some of the essentials for getting started, with the aim of providing a solid foundation for you to build upon. In this introduction I want to talk about some of my core beliefs about sign painting and being a sign painter. These have been formed over my many years in the trade, and have stood the test of time. — Mike Meyers