Lettering / Ryans Editorial

I couldn't agree with Ryan's editorial more. Whenever I come across 50's-Early 60's dragstrip action here or other places on the internet I save them, and stare at them, and appreciate the lettering, even the most utilitarian. Here are a few of my favorites, lets see some of yours.

 

Well, I don't see anything... but I'll still comment on the editorial. Ryan has that unique gift of looking at something in a way that most people don't. That is one of the things I take away from this board... the ability to appreciate things in a way I normally wouldn't have.

 

That Plymouth is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen...........also one of the coolest.

 

I've always been entertained by the graphics on the cars in the (original, '50s) Mexican Road Race. They were certainly commercial, but whimsical too, and gave the cars a unique flavor. This Ferrari is my favorite of the bunch.

I have no idea what 1-2-3 was -- maybe a soft drink or an oil additive -- but this logo appeared on a number of Carrera racers.

 

I also stare at the old pictures in books and mags. Alot of times with a magnifying glass!
And for hand lettering, I'm partial to this.

 

Right on

 

There's a simplicity found in the early lettering and a purposefullness of it...

I think it goes back to "that's all they had"... meaning, sign painters.

There was an art form there... and a good sign painter could grab your attention in an instant with the "right" font...

That gave way eventually to guy who specialized in automotive paint jobs, and lettering... the 60's... and the need to get your attention over what the next guy was putting down.

I think it is this one-up-man-ship that guys like ourselves try to avoid... and in the guys from the past we find the beauty, the skill, the artisanship, workmanship and the ability for those guys to "GRAB" our attention with their style of writing.

It flat out amazes me when I see some race car art... or signage (even on a retro parts hauler) that GRABS my attention.

I can't put my finger on it... let alone duplicate it...I mean, those guys were truly amazing, having the ability to pull any one of a number of those fonts out of their head.

Sam.

 

Great editorial...and comments, too. Glad to see Sam bring up sign painters. I grew up learning design on a computer, and was lucky enough to meet an older guy early enough who told me that my design was "ok" but my typography sucked. Leading (the space between lines of type),
kerning (space between letters), use of upper and lower case (and when to use which)...all things that are lost when you can type your flyer or handbill or advertisement up on a computer, click your mouse to choose a font, and print it out as camera ready artwork.

I've attached a few signs I've done that are painted and lettered. It's all crap that I've posted before (because I haven't taken any pictures of anything I've done lately!) but I've tried to zoom in on the lettering. I'm still learning, but those little inconsistencies are what gives hand lettering character, right? Har har! Awesome thread though...looking forward to more pics.
Curt

 

...and by the way, Ryan, your sign isn't dead...just been busy this summer!

 

i liked this one so much i cut it off the car......hahaha.....
im gonna have my gasser lettered like this.
same name, same style.

 

ryan,
i couldnt agree with you more on this....

my "real" job is at a sign shop for a beer wholesaler...aka...all computer graphics...we do all the banners, posters, plastic signs etc....

my boss has a degree in art of some sort and is always trying to make everything "perfect"
she tries so hard to make crisp fine perfect letters...all that crap that makes it look like....well...unpleasing to me!

my signs...yes they are computer designed...not hand done by any means but i make the greatest attempt to replicate the big bold "get the point across" lettering of the past...it really makes me think how boring and the same this type of stuff is that you see out there in the real world

i grew up hanging around people who painted...spent many winter days in my friends shop while he hand lettered race cars...(winter is when they all get the new paint jobs) he'd talk on the phone, talk to me...make jokes...and just paint away...brush and paint...thats it.....

i think thats why i strive so much for that old hand painted look..it just amazed me that...thats all he needed to use and that car came out looking great....

i too have studied photos with magnafying glasses trying to redraw logos i see in the background ....trying to emulate the styles of the past.

it took me a LONG time to decide on the lettering style on my roadster...my relatives had a car with the slapped on numbers. and i almost went that route...but then as the car progressed and became what i think is more refined then theirs i decided to a bit more "thought out" lettering...

its my car...and i often think about fixing it up and painting it "nice" and all one solid color then i see it sitting in the driveway and im trying to work and i just keep going over to the window and looking out...just seeing it there...rubbed out numbers on a worn out paint job...something about it...again...even though its mine and i made it that way...it just makes me think its back 60 years ago...when all you had was a worn out hand rubbed paint job and worn out hand painted numbers

oh well...enough of my babbling..the poor old #44 is in peices with transmission gears strewn about the basement

keep up the great editorials...they really make us all think

zach

 

WWII era brush painted pin-up girls really fit in here also like on sinistercustom's truck...WOW...they vary so much where a perfect airbrushed one always looks so...well...perfect...

zach

 

The "304" on Kent Enderle's car always struck me as special.



Another one from the Ramchargers, very simple, and on a car a little more conservative than the High & Mighty .

 

Nothing special here, in fact some of it is kind of crude ( like the snake ) but I thought I would throw it in the mix.

 

this was some work done on a tri-five at a place i used to work at. too bad it got blasted off.

 

Here's one of my fav's...........love that lettering style with the gold......clean and crisp!!

 

SEEING THE ABBREVIATED PHONE NO.S SAYING THIS IS "OLDER THAN DIRT"...."WHAT YOU HAVE A 3 DIDGET PHONE NO? WHATS THIS WORLD COMING TO!.

WE HAVE A LOCAL SIGN PAINTER WHO IS SAVING ALL OLD TRUCK DOORS AND SIGN'S -TAKES PHOTOS IF HE CAN'T HAVE THE ORIGINALS' JUST SO HE HAS A REFERENCE TO OLD WORK!
PAPERDOG

 

My greatgrandfather was a sign painter and letterer in philadelphia. He became a house painter when the depression hit and never went back to his artistic roots.

I have his old painting box. It still has has alot of brushes in it and they are still covered in oil and grease. There are also a few tubes of old lead paint. And it still squuezes out.

The crown jewel is about 50 or so 4x4 (roughly) squares of geniune german gold leaf. Its preety damn neat.

 

HaHaHa....Quinn Epperly misspelled!

 

Man, those are some cool cars with some nice lettering. I miss lettering. I've kinda dropped it, since most people want fast and cheap vinyl. I know exactly what you're saying about a nice block, or " Sign Painter's Gothic", lettering job looking so clean in it's simplicity. The only thing cooler than the actual lettering is watching an old timer paint it...it's like he was born doin it.

 

i've been working in the vinyl sign business for like 6 years..

if i would ever personally use vinyl for an sign or car, it would be as an template and paint it for real and then hand pinstripe etc..

vinyl on cars or for taxis and trucks.. no place on an hotrod

 

My problem with vinyl lettering is that I always recognize it from MS Word. Handpainted letters are always unique, if only just a little bit, the difference is always perceptable.

 

i love this one

http://stb.msn.com/i/A3/BD59FC2E2B48263A3D85110C922.jpg

 

I started out in graphics just prior to the APPLE age. While I agree 100% with Ryans love of hand painting on the cars, I am just as impressed with the early printed lettering. Not the typeset stuff but the "commercial art" as it was known. The finished product may have been reproduced on a press by the thousands, but some guy sat at a drawing board and hand lettered the artwork in the first instance. You just can't get that feel with a computer. The proportions, spacing, kerning etc might not have always been spot on but you know that the guy that did it made a decision about those things at the time.

Pete

 

Here's dad's racer from '65. I don't recall who did it, and it may even have been his own on some of it. very few indeed that even care to let alone have the ability to still do this stuff.

 

Nothing beats a hand-painted sign by an artist. And that's what it takes to do hand-lettering. I remember the sign painter who did the store signs and windows in my Dad's two drug stores. Beautiful. Those two stores were in the boondocks in Southeast Arizona, Bowie and Willcox. And this sign painter made a living painting signs. I don't know how, but he did. I was impressed, even at eight years old with the gold-leaf letters he did in the windows, that was 1955. Oops, I'm giving away secrets.

I have a picture of the building sign on the drug store. When the truck's done, I'll have my engineering company name painted on the doors in the same style and fonts. It'll be a neat way to honor my Dad.

 

LOVE that Plymouth. Was flipping through some old mags last night and saw a pic of it running at the 1959 Motor City Spectacular. Didn't have all of the lettering that it does in these pics. It's called the "Ram Rod". I think it won top speed for C class altereds that year.