Antique Sign Restoration

Our towns and cities are full of once forgotten pieces of architecture, whether that may be the work of the stone mason, carpenter or in our case the sign maker. We are too quick these days to disregard what’s there and start afresh yet we teach our children to recycle all of the time. We’re always thinking of ideas that might work best to create eye catching signage, but if we were to take a closer look all too often we would see that the answer is right there in front of us all along.

I’m fortunate to do work for Chester Renaissance, the heritage division of Cheshire West and Chester Council. Their role is to look after our heritage, preserve what we have, restore and if necessary give a new lease of life. This was the case with the old swing sign hanging off Godstall Lane. “What can we do with this?” was the simple but great question I was asked. I knew straight away that this was something special, the perfect canvas upon which to create a beautiful piece of advertising art. Their intentions were to direct shoppers up a tiny walkway where hidden lay a collection of quaint restaurants and bridal shops. It was my job to show them how powerful this century old piece of tin really could be.

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