Sign Maker Advice


Utilising brick walls into signage S


ign making is only limited by your own imagination, I love solving new ways to


display messages with signage, its what keeps me interested in this broad church of an industry. I know many sign people who, like me


say yes to the customers enquiry and then start to work out how we are actually going to turn that vision into a reality. One such area that is proving


increasingly popular is wall graphics, be that a contemporary design or a rustic recreation.


How are we going to tackle a job like this? The customer wants a distressed image of their logo on a brick wall that could be ether internal or external. We could of course get a traditional


sign writer to complete the job in an authentic manner and then distress his work by sanding and adding various weathering techniques.


What if we don’t have those skills to hand? We could stencil the lettering with a vinyl mask film and paint through the mask and continue as above. Most sign shops have wide-format print capabilities, but think they can only apply those graphics to smooth plastered or rendered walls, not so. Vinyl manufacturers have developed films that we can now apply to brickwork with all its texture. To apply film to this challenging


surface we first as always need a film that is designed for the job, it needs to be conformable and most probably a high tac adhesive. As I said most of the larger vinyl manufactures have developed a film just for this job.


How will this film conform to the textured surface? Our normal squeegee is just not going to cut it here, how ever soft it is. For this type of application we need to use rollers. The roller needs to both be firm and soft at the same time. it has to both confirm to the irregular surface and


| 72 | January/February 2026


With customisation and imaginations growing, sign makers are finding new ways to create their clients’ ideas. Paul Hughes, owner of Sign Making Tools, discusses the rise in vinyl applications, especially those on brick walls.


Using a palm held roller to apply vinyl to a brick wall


push the film into the irregularities at the same time. There are many rollers available some


quite wide and others very narrow. I find a palm held roller of around 50mm wide to be the optimum size so one does not end up with arm and wrist fatigue from trying to push too much film into the irregularities. To fit the film first clean the brick


work. Then position the film on the wall, I find masking tape is useless for this, so you will need extra pairs of hands or I have had success with electrical gaffer tape with an only a small area in contact with the face of the vinyl film and a larger part on the wall. A heat gun is required to make the film


conformable. Use the heat gun in one hand and the roller in the other, heating the film and then rolling it into place. Work on heating fairly small areas at a


time work as you would if applying with a standard squeegee making sure your roller strokes overlap. This method should get most of


the film in place. You may find deeper mortar lines may require a reheat and pushing in by a gloved finger or a vehicle recess roller that has very similar properties to our larger roller but is only around 10mm wide. Post heat the film after application. You should now have a graphic that


looks like it has been painted on the brickwork, but has the advantage that it can be easily changed and replace and does not require the skill of a traditional sign painter. Graphics like this can be a sign all on their own or as part of a large installation forming the background to raised letters or addition signage – your imagination is the only limiting factor.


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