After seeing ‘Sign Writing Jack’ at a professional practice lecture on a Wednesday, I was quite interested to further research and look into more images of his work. Before the lecture, I had no idea really who Jack Hollands was, and was amazed by his age and what it is he does for a living. Whenever I imagine branding and signage these days I think of it to be very graphic and often made using computer software, however I was inspired by Jack’s extremely traditional and skilful ways of sign making. I had never really appreciated gold leaf signage before, as even though it is probably becoming less apparent, it is still definitely used as signage in shops and businesses around me all the time, especially in the likes of huge cities like London, with older and traditional and more upmarket buildings.

I was quite surprised that Jack had originally studied a graphics type degree, as I saw the type of signage he does now as much more practical and definitely more traditional art style based – much less computers. He taught us through the process of how he creates each signage, and I was surprised at how complex and long it was, a large amount of teaching, experience and skill has to go into this. I think that his work is impressive and looks fantastic, and although it is something I may never try, it is something I do want to archive.