Ged Palmer
Lettering artist & sign painterowner of The Luminor Sign Co.
London, UK
A short walk from Bethnal Green station is the Luminor Sign
Co. store front. When I knock, I find Ged Palmer sweeping the floor. He had
decided that the shop was due a clean-up because I was coming by. We settle
into an easy conversation as he clears up and makes us coffee. The beans come
from a café in Paris, a client of his, whose packaging and branding he designs.
I was keen to meet Ged, whose expertise in custom lettering and sign painting seemed such a rarity in this digital age. His passion for the neglected art form is profound. Just one look around is shop and you’ll see the walls are filled with old books, typography charts and hand-painted signs. Their nostalgic designs and the jazz playing in the background all point to the fact that Ged is an old soul. Despite over 15 years of experience, Ged tells me that he is still learning. He only just started getting into colour in the last 5 years, and he’s looking to lean into experimenting with illustration in the near future.
What are his workspace essentials?
“Good music, coffee and the occasional joint. You need just enough coffee to be awake to paint, but not too much that you shake.”
“A line has a different flavour each time. You never get it exactly the same.”
While he used to agonise over getting his work right, he has learnt to accept that the unevenness and imperfections show that they are handmade, and not something off-the-shelf. It’s his way of standing out and resisting the uniformity of mass production and digital design and harkening to the tried and true methods of old.
︎
“The best sign I ever painted
is the next one.”
(Spotted these words faded at the bottom of his easel)
Ged considers his shop an ongoing personal project, and he is constantly creating new designs for his windows and walls.
He always wanted to open his own shop, and when the time came he was inspired to name his shop after The Luminor Sign Co, an illustration in a book called ‘High Street’ by British artist, Eric Ravilious. Further research revealed that the illustration was of a real shop on the corner of City Road and Old Street that had closed in 1938.
Ged’s work has brought him to many interesting places. He painted the lion enclosure sign for the London Zoo, and even got to paint for the hospital he was born in. Does he have a ‘dream project’ in mind?
“I’d like to paint for a funeral parlour. Designing gold leaf lettering on an old-school hearse would be pretty cool.”
He always wanted to open his own shop, and when the time came he was inspired to name his shop after The Luminor Sign Co, an illustration in a book called ‘High Street’ by British artist, Eric Ravilious. Further research revealed that the illustration was of a real shop on the corner of City Road and Old Street that had closed in 1938.
Ged’s work has brought him to many interesting places. He painted the lion enclosure sign for the London Zoo, and even got to paint for the hospital he was born in. Does he have a ‘dream project’ in mind?
“I’d like to paint for a funeral parlour. Designing gold leaf lettering on an old-school hearse would be pretty cool.”
Find out about Ged’s work here: http://www.gedpalmer.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/theluminorsignco/
Visited October 2018, published March 2019.