What's Inside Issue 03 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine)?
Between the covers of the adventures in sign painting in Issue 03 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine).
As well as 64 advertising-free pages of adventures in sign painting, there is something else inside Issue 03 of BLAG (Better Letters Magazine): a limited edition poster of The Sign Painter's Studio miniature by Danielle McGurran.
The magazine can be purchased individually in the BLAG shop, while Issue 04 currently ships exclusively to new Blaggers.
Read on for more from inside BLAG 03, and check out the recordings from BLAG Meet, the free online event where we met and heard from contributors to the issue.
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Danielle published her work to social media as I was finishing off the BLAG 03 feature about artists working with signs and lettering in miniature. I rushed to interview her via email, and stole her 'magic in the minutiae' phrase for the headline—thanks Danielle!
We then got talking about the poster idea, a format I had been developing as an option for advertisers. This was finessed with the inclusion of a 'map' on the reverse, detailing all the work she recreated in miniature for the diorama. This credits sign painters, artists, and publications that have inspired her, in addition to her mum, a former sign painter.
The cover of BLAG 03 references the feature inside about artists working with signs and lettering in miniature.
The miniatures feature also made the front cover, with Carl Fredrik Angell (aka Frisso) peering through the window of his tiny sign shop. (Frisso's work has previously featured here, and BLAG 02 profiled his book, Frisso's Risso.)
BLAG 03 Contents
Each issue of BLAG has 64 internal pages (80 from BLAG 04 onwards!), and the contents of these from Issue 03 are expanded on below. The magazine is kept free of advertising by paying members, patrons, and sponsors. This means that every single page is dedicated to our adventures in sign painting.
Paid members also get access to bonus content from each issue. There are 80 additional photos, a video, and two PDF downloads in the bonus material from BLAG 03.
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On the Brush
Spreads from 'On the Brush' in BLAG 03.
There are a dozen projects profiled in 'On the Brush', the section of BLAG which showcases interesting and inspiring work from around the world.
The pictures are accompanied by short texts that get under the skin of these, including lessons learned.
Inspired by the Past
Bath's Marvel Cycle Co. ghost sign, the Old Signs of Amman museum, and original Ross F. George artwork for The Speedball Textbook.
This issue's 'Ghost Sign Corner' features the marvellous Marvel Cycle Co. sign in Bath, while 'Ye Olde Sign Shoppe' takes us to Turkey to explore the surviving work of Enver Yücebalkan.
There are even more vintage signs at the Old Signs of Amman museum in Jordan, and 'Inside Letterform Archive' profiles the output of Ross F. George, including his original artwork for The Speedball Textbook.
Optical Illusions
In contrast to the piece on working in miniature, the second main feature scales thing up with a look at artists and sign painters working on murals with blocks, shades, and trompe l'oeil techniques. The three profiled artists discuss the evolution of their work, how they go about projects, and the routes they took into this niche.
People, Past and Present
'Meet the Letterheads' is dedicated to one of the movement's founding members, John Frazier. It is a tribute from fellow Letterhead Mark Oatis, with more work from the collection shared in this recent bl.ag online article.
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The new section, 'Shop Talk', introduces more people, with this issue profiling the partnership at Boston Painted Signs, and the gang from Bungo Sign Co. in Glasgow.
Mini Features
Features in BLAG 03, including: ''Tuscans on Sea'; 'The Secrets of Flieteado Porteño'; 'Women in Sign Painting'; and Alice Mazzilli's 'Interowriting'.
Reflecting on a year since her Burds of the Brush meet (see review in BLAG 01), Rachel E. Millar looks at the lived experience of women in today's sign painting trade.
Gustavo Ferrari's 'Secrets of Fileteado Porteño' column is a step-by-step for creating the acanthus leaf, while Timothy Maddox shows us how he uses paper signs to develop lettering and layout skills. There's even more to learn in Patricia van den Akker's piece on the benefits of owning your own website/shop and mailing list, versus complete reliance on social media.
Alice Mazzilli's 'Interowriting' column explores the notion of writing as art, and Justin Burns' piece about Tuscan letters places these in the context of his work on the typographic vernacular of English seaside resorts.
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Alphabet and Sundries
'Happy Hour' in Ultra, Rob Cooper's alphabet for BLAG 03, found with the poster in the magazine's centre spread.
Rob Cooper's third alphabet for BLAG is Ultra which he says he uses "a lot for punchy bar signs". The end of the magazine is then filled with various sundries, including: 'Wise Words' from Smart Alex Signs/Doc Guthrie; Jill Strong spelling it wrong; a response to the pangram challenge from Ben Arstad; another special pounce wheel; and much more.
Thanks
More than 45 contributors from 14 countries made BLAG 03 possible, and it was once again a pleasure to collaborate with so many brilliant people around the world. Thank you all.
Thanks also to the wonderful team that brings the final print magazine to fruition: Jenna Homen on sub-editing; Utile Studio on design; SYL L'Art Gráfic on print; and Ra & Olly on distribution.
Fonts in Use are Aktiv Grotesk by Dalton Maag and Utile by Sibylle Hagmann from Kontour.
BLAG Meet: Inside Issue 03
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