BLAG 01 - Magazine - Page 39
mounted sign board visible today on
Portland Mews in London’s Soho once
directed customers to Robert Nevison
Cattle’s woodturning business in the yard beyond.
Its age is unknown, but the business traded
there from the 1880s until at least 1941. More
recently, it has inspired two typefaces, FS Cattle
and FS Portland by Fontsmith, based on the two
lettering styles found on the sign. (Learn more
about these typefaces at bl.ag/fontsmith.)
A
The original sign in Soho. Photo: Roy Reed.
The commission for Salandin & Son came
about when a colleague of one of Cattle’s
descendants was looking for a 50th birthday
present for him. The initial idea was to buy, and
remove, the original. However, advised against
this, she decided to get a replica made.
Applying the first coat of lettering.
a tarry material that was once added to paints
to enrich the appearance of darker tones.
To recreate the bitumen layer, a black house
paint was laced with sand and pumice powder,
poured into the frame (which had some depth
to it), and brushed over to give an even spread.
Given the depth of this layer, it was left to dry for
two days to ensure it had properly cured before
applying a glossy varnish to finish the look.
The first step was to take tracings from the
sign and some close-up photography to use
as visual reference later. Next was building the
board and frame. The original sign is made
from a standard 8’ (244cm) length of wood,
but the frame extends beyond this length.
A decision was taken to scale the sign down by
an imperceptible 3%, allowing the frame to be
made from readily available timber lengths. As
a result, the original tracings had to be redrawn.
After priming the board, it was time to start
recreating the visual elements of the original.
Getting up close to the sign revealed two distinct
layers of decaying paint. These were both black,
with the top-most layer having a cracked matte
finish. Below this was a mysterious gravelly layer
with a high gloss. Investigations revealed that
it was painted with a substance called bitumen,
The next layer was painted with the same black
paint, but with a little talc added to give it some
texture. This wasn’t applied across the whole sign,
allowing parts of the faux bitumen layer to show
through. Instead of letting the paint dry naturally,
a hairdryer was used to accelerate the process
and create the required cracked appearance.
The original sign has patches of flatter
black in the bottom right. These are later
additions to cover up graffiti, and a decision
was made to ignore these for the replica.
After all this, the lettering itself was actually
the quickest part of the process. It was done
Issue 01
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