BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & Culture
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4 x 4 array of photos showing various aspects of sign painting, lettering, illustration, and graphic design.
Events

Watch the Recordings from BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 04

Over ten hours of talks, interviews, studio visits, and demonstrations from contributors to BLAG 04.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters May 9, 2024 • 5 min read
View of a hand holding a brush painting a red shadow on golden block letters on a window.
Films

Meet Claude Dolbec: Montreal's Elusive Sign Painter

Short documentary feature about Montreal's most prolific, but elusive sign painters: Claude Dolbec.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters May 2, 2024 • 3 min read
India's Sign-Wallas: On the Brush on the Subcontinent
People

India's Sign-Wallas: On the Brush on the Subcontinent

Meena Kadri takes us to India to appreciate the flamboyant work of the country's 'sign-wallas'.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Apr 25, 2024 • 9 min read
Hand-painted grocery store-style showcard on top of a poster that shows various different types of letter shades.
BLAG

Why Everything Is(n't) Free at BLAG

BLAG is a reader-funded publication, which keeps most of the online content and events free for all.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Apr 18, 2024 • 5 min read
Lower two-thirds of bifurcated letters 'RO' with scrolls in their centres and gilded and outlined in black.
Projects

Bringing a Gilded Victorian Transom Window Back to Life

Andy at AJ Signs in Dorset gives a new lease of life to a beautiful piece of Victorian glasswork.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Apr 11, 2024 • 4 min read
Man and woman facing the camera, holding a framed sign that reads "Barker Signs, Est. 1964".
People

60 Years On the Brush: The Barker Signs Story

Maurie Barker founded Barker Signs in 1964, with his daughter Liane now keeping things hand-painted.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Apr 4, 2024 • 10 min read
Wall sign with tall sans serif letters painted dark blue with a yellow block shade.
People

Ye Olde Sign Shoppe: Gran Canaria’s Tomás Prieto Gálvez

Adventures in life, family, and sign painting with Tomás Prieto Gálvez in the Canary Islands.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Mar 28, 2024 • 6 min read
Horizontal purple banner in three parts with lettering, scrollwork, and decorative tassles.
Events

Meet the Letterheads: Keeping the Craft Alive

The Letterheads movement continues to go from strength to strength as it nears its 50th anniversary.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Mar 21, 2024 • 6 min read
Repetitive pattern of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal strokes of black paint on white.
Learning

Intro to Foundational Sign Painting Strokes: The Gothic Alphabet

Building the Gothic (Block) alphabet with tips on brush technique, materials, and practise strokes.

Jenna Homen Mar 14, 2024 • 8 min read
Letters cut out of cardboard and arranged in a line with a large 'R' and 'S' followed by a smaller 'R'.
Books

Peeling Back the Layers of Chrystel Crickx's Typographic Legacy

Chrystel Crickx's novel contribution to lettering and type history is celebrated in a new book.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Mar 7, 2024 • 6 min read
Picture book illustration showing a sign painter painting the sun which is making everything else hot.
Books

The American Folklore Legend of Slappy Hooper, Sign Painter

The telling and retelling of 'Slappy Hooper, World’s Biggest, Fastest, and Bestest Sign Painter'.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Feb 29, 2024 • 12 min read
Sign shop/artist studio with man at work, and signs and paintings on the walls and floor.
Projects

Algorithmic Art: The Sign Painting Project by Francis Alÿs

Artist's collaboration with Mexican sign painters challenges the idea of paintings as unique works.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Feb 15, 2024 • 6 min read
"Better Letters" in cursive white lettering with a black/blue/red block shade on orange background.
BLAG

An Origin Story of Sorts: Better Letters

A decade ago, Better Letters 'launched'. But it's origins go back further, as Sam Roberts reflects.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Feb 8, 2024 • 6 min read
Elderly man standing in front of a shopfront which is emblazoned with a huge fascia sign that reads "SIGNS".
People

Meet Earl Phillips: Cleveland's Greatest Living Sign Painter

Biopic of Earl Phillips, proprietor of Cleveland's U-Need-A-Sign Co. at 131st Street since 1960.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Feb 1, 2024 • 2 min read
Hand-lettered and illustrated advertisement showing three tins of paint (blue, red, yellow) pouring from above the text.
Learning

Why Lead Paint Makes Signs Last: A Toxic Legacy

An account of the enduring (and highly toxic) legacy of lead paint on signs, and sign painters.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Jan 25, 2024 • 16 min read
Hand-painted portrait of the Godfather holding a massively oversized cat smoking a cigar.
BLAG

Bonus Material from BLAG 04

Bonus content from the adventures in sign painting in Issue 04 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine).

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Jan 18, 2024 • 14 min read
Hand holding a magazine with the person's torso visible behind in a burgundy jumper.
BLAG

What's Inside Issue 04 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine)?

Between the covers of the adventures in sign painting in Issue 04 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine).

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Jan 11, 2024 • 7 min read
View from behind a woman's head as she paints black thick and thin lettering onto a white background.
People

Getting Into It: Sign Painters' Stories Around the World

Six sign painters tell the stories of their paths into the trade, and offer their advice to others.

  • Better Letters
Better Letters Jan 4, 2024 • 13 min read
BLAG Magazine: Adventures in Sign Painting Craft, Community & Culture © 2025
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