Featured Maker // Sylvie Signs
Esther North
Sylvie Signs
Esther North, aka Sylvie Signs, is a signwriter and lettering artist, making hand painted signs with gold leaf as well as prints, cards and pins based on her hand painted designs. She can paint on virtually anything but her preferred materials are wood, signwriting enamel and gold leaf.
Esther uses traditional sign writing techniques to create bold, modern designs and specialises in gold leaf. She first picked up her brushes in 2013 and hasn’t looked back.
For Esther, it has been a winding road to get to where she is now. In a previous life, Esther worked as a change manager in higher education, before leaving to work with her husband running a web development agency. After having children, Esther’s signwriting hobby became a side hustle, which in turn became her main focus. Now, Esther makes signs for weddings, as private commissions, for small businesses, as well as selling signs and merchandise through her website.
Here Esther tells us a little more about her processes, her inspiration and how her business has evolved over time…
Who is your customer?
My customers are all kinds of people! Small businesses and private individuals. All have an appreciation for traditional materials and techniques, as well as simple, bold design, and are looking for a modern heirloom to keep and cherish.
Why is creativity important to you?
Creativity is a cruel and fickle beast! For many years I barely made anything, and it felt as though a part of me was switched off. Finding my creativity again has been like taking a deep breath.
Can you tell us how you originally got into signwriting. Did you study it or are you self taught?
Sadly signwriting is no longer taught as a formal qualification. Instead I learnt through a combination of weekend workshops, books, paint jams, and experimentation. I’ve recently enrolled in Bespoke Signs’ Signpainters Online Academy, and I’d definitely recommend that for any signwriters just starting out.
How has your business evolved since the beginning?
One of the lovely things about being self employed is the flexibility. I have two small children and it was important to me that I could work around them. Up until now, I’ve mainly taken on private commissions or smaller pieces that I can work on in my workshop so that my hours are totally flexible. As my children get older though, I’m taking on more commercial, on-site work. The other major factor that’s affected my business is the pandemic - obviously! Previously about a third of my work was wedding related, and another third was delivering evening workshops. Both those revenue streams dried up over night and haven’t yet recovered. I started making prints and badges to supplement my main painting income, but my heart still lies with my brushes and my gold.
“The elation of finally hitting on a design that sings is hard to beat, but it’s the flow state when I’m painting that’s the most enjoyable part of the process for me... it’s like meditation.”
Talk us through your making process from start to finish
My designs are hand drawn - every letter. I rarely use computer generated typefaces, although I use Adobe Illustrator to speed up layout design. I transfer the design to the surface I’m painting on using chalk and paper - either tracing the pattern or pouncing (padding chalk through small holes made with a pounce wheel). If I’m painting on wood, the surface needs to sanded and varnished - usually 4 or 5 coats. Depending on the colour, the design might take two or three coats of lettering enamel. The gold leaf is applied by painting the design in gold size (an oil based glue), waiting for just enough time for the right amount of tack to develop (the magic touch) applying gold leaf and burnishing.
What inspires your design process?
I mainly draw on traditional painted letterforms for design inspiration. I like to combine the understated beauty of utilitarian letter forms - sans serif styles traditionally used for wayfinding or simple business branding, with gold leaf techniques more usually used in highly decorative lettering styles. Light and texture are really important features of my work, and I’m constantly searching for the tension point between highly controlled, neat lines and the organic shapes of hand formed letters.
What is your most enjoyable part of creating? Is it the process or the final product itself?
If I’m honest, I often find the design process really stressful. If I’m working on a new design, I’ll mull it over for ages, often weeks, occasionally months. The elation of finally hitting on a design that sings is hard to beat, but it’s the flow state when I’m painting that’s the most enjoyable part of the process for me. It’s like meditation and I’m always grateful that this is my real life actual job.
Do you find having a dedicated studio gives you a more focussed approach?
I cannot tell you how much I love my workshop, and how grateful I am to have a dedicated workspace. I can’t in all honesty say that it gives me a more focussed approach, as I often find myself procrastinating with tidying or reorganising. However, it also gives me the time and creative space to experiment, and this definitely contributes to my creative approach.
Visit the Sylvie Signs website: sylviesigns.com
Follow Sylvie Signs on Instagram: @sylviesigns
