Clover Signs Blog

When I received an enquiry from Canada for a large Church sign, I thought: this couldn’t be real. As a traditional house sign maker, we haven’t done a lot of Church signs to date. We designed it and didn’t hear back for a long time. The congregation must have eventually come to an agreement because they confirmed the order and the elegant sign is now hanging on their elegant edifice.

St. John's Anglican Church of Canada

Notice the classy Canadian Crest that has been made out of a seperate piece of material and fixed to the sign (on both sides).

Have you ever wondered what inspired (or possessed) Charles Rennie Mackintosh? I have often pondered his exquisitely unique style and found nothing even remotely similar. Whereas in the sign industry we mainly utilise the font that bears his name, he was primarily an architect, and a quite successful one at that.

Born in 1868 in the Townhead area of Glasgow, Mackintosh was a working class boy and one of 11 siblings. From an early age, he demonstrated an obsessive passion for art, relentlessly drawing the flowers his father grew on his allotment. It’s thought he also suffered from a mild form of autism, which could explain his reputation for mood swings as well as his attention to detail seen in his artwork.

Along with three other art students, Mackintosh established the “Glasgow Style”, first shown in a collection of metalwork panels, posters, furniture and silver work at the 1896 Arts & Crafts Exhibition in London. From there, “The Four’s”  notoriety grew and together they developed a repertoire characterised by stylised motifs of Celtic, Oriental, Egyptian and natural inspiration, including the iconic Glasgow Rose.

Here are a couple samples of our own Rennie Mackintosh designs which have proved increasingly popular.

Clover signs is proud to announce that we have now made over 2000 signs in our short history. It was just under two years ago that founder and former manager Bernard Hibbs and his wife Rachel travelled to the United States to learn from sign makers there. Among other things, they were introduced to a new material – High Density Urethane (HDU)- which has been used extensively, not only in the USA, but also in Canada, Germany, and Australia. Currently, all of our signs are made of this tough synthetic wood which can be carved and machined much like wood, but will last much longer on your house.

When we reached the last milestone of 1500 signs, all the employees at Clover Signs made a prediction of when we would top 2000. August proved to be an unusually successful month with many people buying their house signs in between vacations. As the month drew to a close we all held our breath and on the last day we hit the mark, fulfilling the prediction of one of our most senior employees. The customer received a generous discount and if you are ever vacationing in Shropshire, you may just stay in one of these Luxury Holiday Cottages.

Many people looking for a classy house sign want some kind of artwork on it. Perhaps an animal sign? On our business website, we have an art gallery with a selection of images of painted flowers, birds and other animals. What customers may not realise is that we can actually carve and gild the image they want on their sign. Here are two examples that we have done recently, one for a home owner in America, the other for an organic food store in Northern Ireland. You decide which one is which.

Although primarily a traditional house sign maker, Clover Signs has also expanded into the business market, making pub signs and bed and breakfast signs. In October of 2007, Martine approached us for a hanging sign for her new B & B which she clevery called “Martinn”.  The Martinn, located in southwest France, opened its doors on March 20th 2008 and we are pleased to see our sign gracing its entrance. I can assure you, the inside is much more attractive than the outside, featuring a pool, gourmet food and many great activities.

Usually when someone requests a house sign which is to incorporate a beloved pet, that means painting its picture onto one of our traditional house signs. However, when we received the order for the sign below, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the picture of those particular pets, much less meet them personally. More than feeling nostalgia for some childhood playmate, I was reminded of some other more famous dogs. Pavlov’s dogs, to be precise.

In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician was investigating the gastric function of dogs. He used a technique of training or “conditioning” wherein he would ring a bell and then give the dogs some food. After a time the dogs would actually start salivating upon hearing the bell, without ever getting their food. Hopefully this sign produces the same results if you happen to visit this customer’s home.

Most Londoners or visitors to the capitol have surely seen the Blue Plaques that comemorate figures of partcular historical importance and the buildings that they inhabited. According to English Heritage:

They open a window into another time by showing us where the great and the good have penned their masterpieces, developed new technologies, lived or died.

In the 140 years of its existence, the blue plaques scheme has errected over 800 plaques. English Heritage receives about 100 proposals every year, but it can take between 2 and 6 years from the initial suggestion to the erection of a plaque.

Luckily it didn’t take quite so long for one of our customers to receive his House Plaque. He received his plaque less than one month after his initial inquiry. His request, however, did not stem from the noble desire to celebrate “the great and the good”, but merely to have a laugh. Regarding his plaque he explained:

It’s actually a copy of a sign I saw in San Fransisco when we were there three years ago; I crossed the road to read it and really smiled as most Americans do not get the english type of humour very well and this example crossed all boundries.

Well, we here at Clover Signs, also smiled at this “Blue Plaque”. We just hope that Engligh Heritage doesn’t track down our customer and remove his unapproved plaque.

Even if you own a private estate, a set of signage (as long as they are nice signs) will only enhance the property.  Clover Signs was recently commisioned to make 16 signs for a country estate.

Here is what the client already had:

And this is what we did:

Those are just a couple examples of the signs.  If you are looking to have a set of signage made for your estate, please don’t hesitate to try out our free design service.

When selling signs, we mostly get the payment by credit card.  However, when Gina from Gina’s Cakes asked us to make them a sign, we couldn’t resist.  We accepted payment for half the sign, then charged the other half in “cake.”

Gina was thrilled with her part of the deal and the cake was most delicious!  Clover Signs certainly recommends Gina’s Cakes as the source for your celebrations.

Of course, if you are looking for a sign, not a cake, you can get a hanging shop sign from us!

It has become popular to have a home bar these days. Once you have the room, equipment and drinks, a hanging home bar signs is all you need to finish it off.

We make the brackets ourselves as it is very hard to get custom metal work done these days.  The signs are all made out of HDU, a tough synthetic wood, which is hand carved and gilded.  Any artwork is done by hand. The hanging hardware is all stainless steel.

If you are wanting to add that finishing touch to your home pub then a home pub sign is for you.