🎉 75 Today: Happy Birthday A.S. Handover! 🎉
Wishing all at A.S. Handover a happy 75th birthday, and giving thanks for their continued support.
On 12 September 1949, the brushmakers of distinction and signwriting suppliers to the Queen, A.S. Handover Ltd., was first registered in London. BLAG 06 will include the story of the firm over the last 75 years, but here I want to wish the current team a happy birthday, and to thank them—Handover have been huge supporters of my work over the last ten years, not least in sponsoring BLAG.
Back to 2014
When I was first getting started with Better Letters, I had the good fortune to have A.S. Handover just down the road from me in Stoke Newington. In fact, its location practically next door to Type Tasting saved my skin on more than once during our first workshop—we kept running out of things, and so I kept running down the stairs and into the shop to restock!
We subsequently hosted a number of workshops in a small room inside Handover's Farleigh Place premises, which included classes with Mike Meyer and David Kynaston.
Handover were of course our supplier of choice for workshops more widely across Europe, and they contributed to our first printed resource in the form of Mike Meyer's folding alphabet sheet.
London Calling
While we moved on from running the London classes at the shop, the relationship with Handover was far from over. 2017 marked the start of our next big collaboration—London Letterheads—and last year I reflected on the experience of pulling off this huge event.
Handover continue to support and attend Letterheads events around the world, most recently in Epsom, Surrey, for A Day at the Races.
Sign Painting
Although activity was paused for the busiest period of the 2018 meet, work was already underway on our book, Sign Painting: A Practical Guide to Tools, Materials, and Techniques (2021). In addition to the wonderful photography from Darius Zomorodian, Handover's knowledge of brushes and other sign painting tools and materials was invaluable in researching the book.
Backing BLAG
Which brings us to today, and the most recent chapter in a decade of working alongside the wonderful folks at A.S. Handover. When I came up with the crackpot idea of a printed magazine about the international sign painting scene, the team immediately jumped on board as sponsors, and their confidence in me and the BLAG project has been a massive boost over the last couple of years.
The Next Milestone
The Handover story is far from over, and the company's majority shareholder is now an employee-owned trust. This puts it in very safe hands as it heads towards its centenary but, for now, please join me in wishing the entire team a very happy 75th birthday 🎉