TRADITIONAL SIGNWRITING Becoming a traditional signwriting specialist


Wayne Tanswell is a traditional sign- writer and lettering artist, and entered the industry by a twist of good fortune as he hitchhiked home on his final day of school.


“I was never academic, and as a child I’d seen someone painting coaches near where I lived, and I wanted to do it,” he says. “I was hitchhiking home from Subdury to Long Melford, and a guy pulled up and gave me a lift. As fate would have it, he also gave me a job.” Once he held the brush and realised he had a natural flair for it, Wayne entered into a career in traditional signwrit- ing and never looked back. Today, he has a sign studio in which he creates his signage, and he also works on exhibits and public art installations. Not bad, considering at the time, he was unsure of the possible career longevity in his chosen field. “At the time, I thought I was entering a dying trade, as it was around the time that computers and vinyl were coming out,” he says. “I suppose really, I was too stubborn to change career. I’d learnt my trade, and I thought this is what I wanted to do, so I stuck at it.


“Hand painted signs have got soul…(people)


know somebody has done them and not a machine.”


- Wayne Tanswell


Wayne Tanswell is passionate about teaching the next generation of signwriters.


I’m lucky that I live in Suffolk and the local planners and authorities won’t let people have plastic signs everywhere, so work has never died out completely.”


For Wayne, there’s regularly work to be found on historic buildings in the country- side and in London, and there’s also been a spike in demand from restaurants wanting a faded style vintage sign, so that it looks like it’s been there for years. He notes that people generally like seeing the odd brush- mark or slight imperfection, as it gives the sign some character. “Hand painted signs have got soul…(people) know somebody


has done them and not a machine,” he says. “My father used to say to me - the more you stick at it, the more you become a specialist. The more technology moves on, the more you become a specialist. Now people are happy to pay a premium rate, because they know it’s done by hand and they know it takes longer, and they appreci- ate what goes into it.”


Wayne has completed a variety of projects since starting out in 1980.


70 Sign Update ISSUE 167 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016


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