Peintre en Lettres—Sign Painters in Paris

FH Mainz (now HS Mainz) semester project by Kerstin Ullrich and Oliver Rothenhäusler.

Not long ago, you could see craftsmen painting signs in the streets of Paris, which had a big influence on the typical street scenery of this city as we know it from pictures or movies. Back in the days, everyone who visited or lived in Paris used their signages in order to decide where to eat or where to go. Nowadays, these hand-made works became a rarity due to their replacement by cheap vinyl lettering. For this reason, we should pay more attention to these unique works for we are the contemporary witnesses of a dying trade: the profession of Peintre en Lettres — also called Sign Painter.

Some of the signages you can find in the streets of Paris today were painted more than fifty years ago, others are quite new ones. This is underlining the fact that there have to be some peintres en lettres out there still fighting the extinction of their profession. So, there is no better time to follow us through the streets of Paris in 2014 immersing into the fascinating universe of Peintres en Lettres.

A big THANKS to all contributors, who made this book possible: Jean-Michel Drolon, Sandra, David Rager, Stéphane Casier, Tristan Kerr, Bruno from BMD Studio