Having never been to one before, Joby Carter hosted his first Letterheads meet in November 2016. He’s been hooked ever since and this year saw him hosting his third event, the Collective Letterheads, hot on the heels of Letterheads 2018: London Calling. Over 50 signwriters took to the easels for a weekend of painting, drinking and sharing skills and knowledge. All this within the inspirational setting of Carters yard, the winter home of Carters Steam Fair.
The whole event kicked off with a screening night at the nearby Boyne Hill Cricket Club where we showed all three ‘When Better Letters Met…’ films. The days that followed were flooded with sunshine, so that we could all eat lunch outside in t-shirts! It closed on Sunday afternoon with a charity auction of work produced over the weekend, which raised over £8,000 for local charity Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.
Thank you Joby for hosting the event. Here’s a collection of photos from the weekend.
Painting at Joby Carter’s Collective Letterheads.All three generations of the Signwriting Department of Carters Steam Fair were at the meet.Jon May‘s piece was the winning design in the annual competition to create an artwork for the souvenir t-shirt.A tiny fraction of the visual inspiration that lines the walls of the sheds that house the easels and panel jam.
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This ageing piece of lettering adorns the back of one of the fair’s many vehicles, which was co-opted to be the bar at the meet.Hélène Valverde at work on her interpretation of the vintage ‘Carter the Great’ magician posters from the early 20th Century.Bob Perry from the Isle of Wight couldn’t make the meet this year, but sent a couple of panels for the auction, including this one, #AlwaysHandPaint.Typemaster Signs from Australia spent the weekend creating this tribute panel to the Alphabetics Anonymous collective.Joe Coleman‘s inventive panel got everyone fired up.Gerald Whittaker created two panels for his grandchildren.Gerald Whittaker‘s sign box.Aaron Stephens‘ brush box.Jakob Engberg (Copenhagen Signs) at work, ahead of experimenting with some directional burnishing on this panel.Jussi Alasalmi‘s panel for the meet, originally created at Letterheads 2018: London Calling.Jussi Alasalmi co-ordinated a team to redecorate the vehicle of one of Joby’s friends.Colin Dundas putting the finishing touches to his second panel of the weekend.Getting painty.Out comes the auction stand for the Sunday afternoon bidding in support of Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service. In the background is an original Fred Fowle piece.Detail of Fred Fowle original.
Restored Fred Fowle, part of the working Carters Steam Fair.One of George Metcalf‘s panels for the auction.Bidding underway in the auction, with Joby’s father-in-law working his way towards the grand total of £8,000 raised.Hélène Valverde‘s piece (centre) raised £725, here flanked by two pictorials from Joby’s mum Anna which fetched £420 between them.Don’t be a prawn, get down to Carters yard next year. This piece by Adrian Perez, El Deletrista, from Barcelona.