Field Notes

Field Notes from BLAG: December 2025

Bozo Texino, gilding samples, Intarsia, an Indian ghost sign, and more from the field.

Better Letters

• 6 min read
Field Notes from BLAG: December 2025
Huaihai Signs, aka Sinks, on the Brush in Shanghai. Photo: HIDDEN.RSRCH.

Welcome back to Field Notes, my periodic member-only email with things of interest that I come across in my research and meanderings on the worldwide web. You can share your own discoveries for future issues via email to sam@bl.ag.

Contents

In this edition:

  1. Gilding samples from Gentleman Scholar Signs.
  2. Burds of the Brush in Berlin.
  3. On the Brush with Best Dressed Signs, Mark Oatis, Zohran Mamdani, and Miles Signs.
  4. Ye Olde Sign Shoppe: Atomic Signs.
  5. Press Gang, featuring Spooky Orbison, Gustavo Ferrari, Sinks, and Graham Booth.
  6. Lettering Location: Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, courtesy of Ed Ruscha.
  7. Featured Film: Who Is Bozo Texino?
  8. Ghost Sign Corner: Leisha and Gluco in Pune, India.
  9. Sundries, with wood graining, the incredible art of Intarsia, an immense public lettering installation, and more.
  10. PS. Now it’s spelled wrong.

Field Notes: December 2025

Gentleman Scholar Signs’ Gilding Samples

Gentleman Scholar Signs’ gilding samples.

After reading the piece on the gilding samples at the American Sign Museum, Andrew Lawrence of Gentleman Scholar Signs shared this panel. Setting everything on a single piece of glass makes it very portable, and leaving the background clear means he can hold it up on windows to talk with customers about what will work best.

“The rows represent the finishes — mirror, matte, and two-tone from top to bottom — whereas the columns have a different karat of leaf in each. The columns go from 23 karat down to 12 karat from left to right: 23k, 23k Red Gold, 22k Moon Gold, 18k Lemon, 16k Pale, and, finally, 12 karat.
“There's a copper dot and a strip of gold paint as additional elements. Occasionally folks will go for copper leaf, but I’ve never had anyone see the gold paint and choose it over the leaf.”

The Burds in Berlin

Chantel Jacquet (left) was the guest of honour at this year’s Burds of the Brush.

Inspired by volunteering at Valencia Letterheads earlier this year, Nil Müge packed her bags and headed to Berlin for the latest Burds of the Brush instalment. And she wrote up the experience for the Turkish Typography Society.

On the Brush

Best Dressed Signs have uploaded some new projects to their site, including this interior mural for Boston’s Lebanese restaurant, NAYA. Yalla is Arabic for ‘let’s go’.