In a more digital world, handcrafts tend to die off as automation and digital design provide a quicker way to produce logos, art and products. But some people feel like value is lost in this transition, and are determined to keep the old traditions alive. Pontus and Henrik are the duo behind Sthlm Signs, a company that produces signs (well, obviously), wall art, logos and other design products the old-school way, with handcrafted design, typography and production. Their work is popping up more and more all over the city, so we went down to their lovingly-messy workshop and studio at Slakthusetområdet to learn all about reviving the old arts.
Ok, to start off with the basic question, how does one get into signs and sign art?
Pontus: I think you have to have an interest in lettering and typography. And the know-how of how to create letters in material, the techniques of that. As a profession, there’s a lot of difficulties, especially here in Stockholm, in making this your profession, due to the extinction of the craft.
Henrik: It almost died out as a craft here in Sweden. In the states and the UK, even if they computerised digital work and moved onto vinyl-cut signs [signs created digitally and printed as vinyl stickers], they always kept the tradition alive. But here there was a total wipe-out.
So how did you guys get started in this?
Henrik: I had a background in graphic design, and both Pontus and I have a passion for lettering, for typography. When Pontus was on paternity leave, he found out about this culture [of old-school sign-craft] and he presented it to me and asked: “how could this pass us by without us noticing?”. Then I also got caught up in it, and we asked ‘why doesn’t anyone in Stockholm do this. Why don’t we do this? Let’s give it a try!’.
Pontus: “The first months after I discovered sign-painting, I was always so mad that this had gone so far without me noticing it or the culture around it. I was totally absorbed and obsessed with the idea that this would be my profession. And I thought: “how am I gonna make this happen?”. Henrik and I have, bit by bit, found out how to do this, both in terms of the techniques and materials and how to make a company go forward.
Henrik: The traditional way would have been to take an apprenticeship with a master for five years or so, that’s how it used to be. But that doesn’t exist anymore, because we don’t have any sign-painters in Sweden. So we had to learn in other ways. Now you have the internet, and you have this world-wide sign-painting culture.
Pontus: You could say the internet has been our master. But I also have to say we have gotten a lot of help from other sign-painters, like Jakob Engberg of Copenhagen Signs. The culture is very friendly and open, and if you have any questions so many people are willing to help you.
Henrik: That’s what I’ve heard is the big difference from the 60’s maybe, when every sign-painter kept their special techniques to themselves, it was like a big secret. Now everybody knows that to keep this going, we have to help each other.
Pontus: I think that’s maybe a natural way of acting when you are close to extinction!
So because it’s less competitive, people have become more of a community?
Henrik: I think so.
Pontus: Also Von Sven helped us, with material and techniques. He’s an American-born sign-maker here in Stockholm.
So what are the benefits, in your opinions, of this more handcraft approach to sign-making and logo art?
Henrik: Well, all design comes from handmade techniques from the beginning. Digital is just a way of developing that. Looking back in history, almost all of the fonts we use today originated in handcraft design. But it’s a question we ask ourselves every day I think, and it’s hard to point the finger at what the exact benefits of making it by hand are. It’s more about feel.
Pontus: To be honest, it’s not like all signage automatically gets better though doing it by hand. For some cases it’s easier and less expensive to make it digitally, and in that case you should make it digitally. But when it comes to the aesthetic aspect with handcrafted signs, they look better, they’re more authentic, more real and more genuine. There’s also benefits with the technique. If you talk about gold leaf, for example, you can’t do that in a way other than the traditional.
Henrik: If you have a brick wall or a really rough outdoor wall, you can design with big letters, which you can’t do with vinyl. So it’s both about feeling and techniques.
Do you think it makes you more creative, when you’re working on it in real life physically, rather than just on a computer?
Henrik: I worked with computers for a number of years. When I started to do it this way, I started to get a better sense of how the letters are built up. The construction of letters, I never thought about as much as I do now. I think though every curve and every line in another way, than you do when you’re just typing font on your computer.
Signs are obviously a part of your name, but you also work with wall art, logos, whatever. What are some of the most interesting projects you’ve been working on recently?
Pontus: We really want to develop the usage of gold leafing. It’s a material you almost never see in Stockholm, because people don’t know how to use it. We did the windows and the entrance door in gold leaf at Katarina Ölkafe.
Henrik: That’s a thing that we can do that the normal signage factories can’t. Of course you can put big vinyl stickers so it that it looks almost hand-painted. But gold leaf is impossible to do with vinyl. That’s the kind of thing we want to do more of in the future.
Pontus: It’s pretty difficult also. It’s a great challenge to make every time.
How long does a project like that take? From commission to finish?
Pontus: Time depends on how much design we have to do ourselves.
Henrik: Sometimes we’re just doing the craft for a design another designer made. Sometimes we’re doing the whole process ourselves. That’s obviously a longer process. But making a gold-leaf logo for a window, that maybe takes two days.
Say you get a project where you do the whole thing, a company comes to you with just a name and says ‘do the whole logo, everything’. What would be your typical process for that?
Pontus: We have actually talked about this a lot lately. We start with listening to the customer, and then we come to the creative ideas stage, and we present a visualisation of what the assignment will be.
Henrik: We do some research. Pontus is very good at coming up with ideas, and I usually start executing them on the computer, because hand-sketching takes a very long time. And from that I take the best versions and sketch them on paper. Then we show the customer the design, maybe a couple of options. They choose the best option, we maybe twist the design a bit and then execute the painting.
Pontus: The only thing that connects all our projects, is that at some stage we always use hand-design in the process. If we’re doing something like the design for a beer label, then the result will obviously be printed, but as some point we’ll use hand-design in the process.
Henrik: Sometimes the outcome is hand-painted, and sometimes the process is handcrafted but the result is digitally made.
Do you tend to have typical client?
Henrik: A lot of companies that work with handcraft themselves, and want to show that they do their thing by hand. Like a tattoo shop or a micro-brewery, or a bakery.
Pontus: Also, companies who are in the forefront in their field. Ones that want to stand out from the rest.
Ok, and to wrap it up, why should we hold onto these old forms of craftwork, like the one you work with? What are the benefits to keeping these traditions alive?
Henrik: Because otherwise they’ll die out! I think there’s a cultural historic benefit to keeping traditions alive, as a start.
Pontus: I also think it’s about giving the city a beautiful face. That’s important. We want to have a beautiful city. If you just have vinyl everywhere, it won’t look as good as it could.
Henrik: It’s part of our vision, to make Stockholm more beautiful.
All photos excluding Katarina Ölkafe shot: Austin Maloney
