The jobbing sign makers with a creative flare

Sign Update assistant editor Cameron Beech sat down with Paul and Julia Hughes of Western Signs to find out more about the couple’s venture into sign making and their expansion into the creative sphere.

With the establishment of Telford-based Western Signs over 20 years ago, co-owners, sign makers and married couple Paul and Julia Hughes have amassed substantial knowledge of the industry.

Commencing his journey into sign making in 1988 with a third-generation sign writer and a creative passion, Paul started out working alongside a local signwriter at Andrew Field Signs in Oakengates, eventually moving on to work in a shop heavily invested in vinyl cutters during a period which witnessed the vinyl cutter takeover. After seven years, Paul took the plunge, endeavouring to venture out on his own.

In conversation, Paul said: “We classed ourselves, until very recently, as jobbing sign makers. We would do pretty much anything and everything. It could be tiny little labels, stickers on the go right the way through to signs for the sides of factories, coaches, HGVs and everything in between.”

The solo venture began at the rear of a hardware store, with Paul being given an opportunity to meet an array of different industries from various sectors, who would come to Paul in need of signs for their company vans or the premises they worked at. Paul was situated at the epicentre of trade. The high street position offered him work straight from the street. This was until 2013 when the hardware store shut, and when the couple decided to share a 5,000sq ft industrial unit with one of their good customers. This move subsequently enabled Paul and Julia to fit vehicles into their shop for the first time in the company’s history. Julia said: “We were able to construct the workshop the way we wanted it to be, to then help the flow of work, to help deliveries come in and out easily. It meant we could do the larger jobs.”

Julia joined the business in 2013, after 12 years of being in a relationship with Paul. Prior to this transition, Julia worked in High Court Enforcement. Julia said: “It’s quite funny, a lot of our customers know what I used to do. We make light heartedness of it.” Before making the full transition over to working for Western Signs full time, Julia would help out where she could while also working her full-time job.

Inspiring towards sign making

Paul’s growing interest in sign making coincided with his love for steam trains as a teenager. Paul said: “We have a heritage railway in Telford. I did volunteer there. One of the guys there said they needed some signs and I painted them.” Paul had always favoured the humanities and creative subjects in school, including art. He discovered a like for working with signs.

Paul had decided he was not attracted to pursuing further education, wanting out of the educational system, opting instead to complete a Youth Training Scheme. It was from this scheme in which he was introduced to Andrew Fields.  

Paul had always had a liking for steam trains. In fact, Paul’s favourite old train company was the Great Western Railway, and it was from this train company that the name Western Signs was born. This has been the company’s name since its founding in 1997. When talking about the creation of the name, Paul said: “I went with what had a meaning to me.”

A creative drive

It was at this point in the Western Sign’s history that a growing interest for the creative was beginning to rise to the surface.

The pair began venturing into building set pieces for events. Paul and Julia made mention of attending Family Attraction Expo at the NEC, Birmingham in November 2023. It was at this event in which they noticed there was a gap nobody was filling in the show, a gap they decided to fill with a 4m high Rapunzel tower, showcasing what was possible with the materials they were able to use.

The magnificent set piece towered high above the surrounding stands, specifically catching the eye of Merlin Entertainments on behalf of Warwick Castle. Julia described the moment Merlin eagerly approached their stand, describing them as simply putting their phone down in front of the couple and asking ‘can you make this?’ to which both Paul and Julia answered yes.

The photograph on the phone would later be revealed as the sign and crest of the 16th Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, also known as Warwick the Kingmaker. The sign was included as part of a large project undertaking to revamp the Kingmaker attraction’s 30th anniversary at Warwick Castle, displaying Warwick the Kingmaker as he prepares his army for the War of the Roses.

However, it was not just Warwick Castle which was mesmerised by the impressive grandeur of Rapunzel’s tower. Representatives of a crazy pirate golf course were also entranced by the couple’s statement piece and enquired after their services as a result. The show firmly established Paul and Julia not only as knowledgeable sign makers, but as knowledgeable sign makers with a marvellous creative flare. It’s clear to see why.

When talking about their creative inspiration, Julia said: “We love theatre as well. We’ll go to a show and go ‘how have they done that?’ Or we’ll watch the lighting and go ‘that would work well’, picking up those bits from our theatre background as well, to know the materials that can be used.” Paul added: “It really is the creative side that drives me on.”

What also made clear by the pair, is that the creative passion never leaves, it is not something which can simply be turned on and off, but is something which becomes embedded within the way they see the world. Julia said: “We’ll pick ideas from the strangest of places. We would take pictures of everything. It may be that five years down the line you will then look at something again and go ‘oh we can add this in’.”

However, it was not just a flare for creativity which followed the pair, but a keen, precise eye as well. Julia described driving down the M6, looking at vans and how they would often ask themselves if the signage on the van was straight.

Paul made humorous mention to his local Co-op, and how it would drive him mad reading the sign ‘Co-op High Street’ knowing every time he read it, he noticed the ‘S’ was upside down. He said: “Most people would never know, would never notice it. I look at it and see it instantly. That is a trait of the sign industry.”

What makes a good sign?

In line with acquiring traits from the industry, the two seasoned professionals offered advice on what makes a good sign, to which Paul said: “People tend to try to make things too big and they don’t understand negative space.”

Paul’s advice for budding sign makers was to look toward packaging for inspiration. He stated: “Packaging has prioritised its message really well. It’s all about prioritising the message.” A duty often neglected is a responsibility to manage and organise the space, fundamentally establishing what section of the text becomes the priority. Is it the company’s name, the trade, an image?

Interestingly, Paul explained the theory on Neutral Layout, with the basics being to make a sign which looks like a face. Paul explained that the reason behind this is because: “When we’re speaking, we’re looking at each other’s eyes. We’re naturally programmed to do that. So, if we put the eyes as the priority in the sign, then it all flows.”

He then stated: “We’ve got so much visually competing with us for our attention every day and you’ve got to be able to know what a sign is telling you in a split second.”

The pair advised for anybody new to the industry to research into the basics of graphic design, saying: “It’s too easy just to input something into a computer and let them do it for you.” It should be you leading the computer, not the computer leading the business.

Advice for those breaking into the industry

To end, Paul and Julia offered advice for those hoping to break into the industry or those already in the industry who were wanting to evolve as sign makers.

Julia’s immediate response was: “Don’t give up. If things seem hard, don’t give up.”

Paul added: “There’s days where you would do nothing else in the world than what it is you do, and there’s days where you could gladly give the keys to the business to the next person who walks through the door.” His sentiment couldn’t have rung truer to Julia’s.

I asked where Paul and Julia saw themselves and the future of Western Signs in five years’ time, to which the couple said: “We actually enjoy working, we’ll probably still be working because we like it that much and neither of us can just sit at home and do nothing.”

Overall, their philosophy on sign making parallels what they state to be their approach to customers: a combination of old fashion craftsmanship and a modern-day approach to solve any challenge.