BOOKDESIGN · PHOTOGRAPHY · 2014
Peintre en Lettres –
Sign Painters in Paris
Some of the hand-lettered sign-paintings you can find in the streets of Paris today were painted more than fifty years ago, others are quite new ones. Proof enough, that there are still sign painters (in French: peintre en lettres) in Paris fighting against the extinction of their profession.
In the year 2014 Kerstin and I spent a week documenting old and new sign paintings for a student’s project. Follow us though the streets of Paris and immerse into the fascinating universe of sign painting in Paris.
Collaborative project with Kerstin Ullrich.
A big THANKS goes to all contributors, who made this book possible:
Jean-Michel Drolon, Sandra, David Rager, Stéphane Casier, Tristan Kerr
and Bruno from BMD Studio.
Published on:
Design made in Germany — 08.2014
Table of Contents
1. History
The first chapter of our book is dedicated to the glory times of sign painting.
2. Collection
We spent a lot of time capturing pictures of sign paintings all over Paris.
3. Portrait
We met a passionated sign painter who can still make a living from his profession.
4. Lettering
We spotted a connection between the old profession and the upcoming hand-lettering trend.
Cover-Design
When you stand in front of a Parisian shop with a beautiful handlettering drawn on a window, you can often spot the next sign painting already at the adjacent shop with the outer corners of your eyes. We used this observation as our layout-inspiration.
Layout-Concept
Sign Painting is often done on window glasses. It looks beautiful from outside, but from inside you will experience the same work mirror inverted. We applied this concept on our cover.
