For a simple, no frills house sign, this real-gold on sand-blasted slate is hard to beat. It is highly visible, with an elegant, uncluttered look. Best of all, it is made of real 23 ½ carat gold on best quality black slate and could easily last 30 or even 50 years.
For more signs like this one, have a look at our range of slate signs.
Are you thinking of the movie, the song, or the drink? Its funny how some words or phrases just sound good. Tequila Sunrise is a 1988 Robert Towne movie starring Mel Gibson. It is a single by the Eagles (1973) and by Cypress Hill (1998). Most commonly, however it is a cocktail, and quite a nice one. The name comes, of course, from is appearance as the grenadine and orange settle fading from red at the bottom to clear tequila at the top.
According to the International Bartenders’ Association (IBA) it is a ‘long drink’ meaning it contains rather more mixer. The official recipe is as follows:
Clover Signs has also made its own (humble) contribution to the scene with the sign below:
Like it? Find another Gold and Black Carved House Sign.
It is getting to be that time of year again. As Remembrance Day comes closer, poppies start appearing on nearly every suit and jacket.
Each year, I remember these lines from John McRae’s famous poem - maybe my favourite war poem of all time:
…To you from failing hands we throw
the torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
The full text can be found at inflandersfields.be
Here is quite a nice sign from our range of cream and black house signs.
Everybody knows that one of the most important things in any business (not to mention the rest of life) is networking. We used to call it working together. In any case, my wife and I spent a long weekend last week with signmaking acquaintances at Sannerz Designs near Frankfurt, Germany. They also work in HDU, the synthetic wood we use for our carved signs, but focus on business signage as the Germans haven’t yet caught on to the habit of naming their houses.
Although their business structure is quite different to reflect differences in the nature of the markets, we learned a lot from each other, as well as having a smashing weekend, and not neglecting to invest in a little German quality beer and chocolate.
Some of their work is absolutely breathtaking, like this crest - they made a set for this brewers various outlets.
In the networking line, I recently stumbled upon a forum for HDU signmakers. Hopefully we can share our knowledge in this rapidly growing area of business.
As the Germans say: Sie und Ihr Geschäft sind einmalig
Every Englishman’s home is his castle…. The adage has been in use for at least four hundred years. According to a blog post on Quoteland, the earliest recorded use is found in a 1581 guide to early years education written by a man named Richard Mulcaster. As early as 1642, Thomas Fuller used it with a tone of disillusionment. In any case here’s a sign from someone whose house still is, at least in name, his castle:
This style of artwork - gilded outline drawing - is rapidly increasing in popularity. Request yours through our custom signs service.
Although they only bloom in the springtime, daffodils are clearly an all-year-round favourite on peoples houses. While signs with flowers such as primroses and azalea are popular only during the bloom season, daffodil house signs are still being requested now, while the leaves are falling.
Here is a typical example, ordered by a customer in the US:
Have a look at some of the other flower designs on offer in our gallery.
Holidays are never long enough. We just made a sign from someone who wished to extend theirs with a picture. Our artists were able to copy their favourite holiday snap, creating a long-lasting reminder of a summer day in Spain. Unfortunately, the first attempt by our artists was in the wrong proportions, not leaving adequate space for the desired text. The painting was so stunning, however, that we could not face simply binning it. Somebody had the bright idea to put it in a driftwood frame to produce a brilliant piece of art. The frame is not real driftwood, but a more durable HDU imitation. Check out the final house sign, as well as the one we messed up - decide for yourself which came out nicer!
On our house signs website, we offer a lot of standard signs for people to choose from. However, we can create almost anything (like the above example shows.) The best way to get something like this is to fill in the form on our custom signs page.
“Mashup” is a word you often hear these days on the web. For those who don’t know, a Mashup is:
A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia also mentions that a Mashup was originally a music term, for aggregating 2 or more songs or tracks into one.
Hence I would like to tell you about my favorite mashup. For anyone who hasn’t listened to or watched Les Misérables, you should. The characters all have various songs they sing during the performance, then just before half-time, they all sing the song “One Day More”.
You can listen to the song on the Les Mis website here. Turn up the volume and let it blast. It is a truly inspirational piece of music. Here are the lyrics so you can read along:
VALJEAN
One day more!
Another day, another destiny.
This never-ending road to Calvary;
These men who seem to know my crime
Will surely come a second time.
One day more!MARIUS
I did not live until today.
How can I live when we are parted?VALJEAN
One day more.MARIUS & COSETTE
Tomorrow you’ll be worlds away
And yet with you, my world has started!EPONINE
One more day all on my own.MARIUS & COSETTE
Will we ever meet again?EPONINE
One more day with him not caring.MARIUS & COSETTE
I was born to be with you.EPONINE
What a life I might have known.MARIUS & COSETTE
And I swear I will be true!EPONINE
But he never saw me there!ENJOLRAS
One more day before the storm!MARIUS
Do I follow where she goes?ENJOLRAS
At the barricades of freedom.MARIUS
Shall I join my brothers there?ENJOLRAS
When our ranks begin to formMARIUS
Do I stay; and do I dare?ENJOLRAS
Will you take your place with me?ALL
The time is now, the day is hereVALJEAN
One day more!JAVERT
One more day to revolution,
We will nip it in the bud!
I will join these little schoolboys,
They will wet themselves with blood!VALJEAN
One day more!M. & MME. THENARDIER
Watch ‘em run amuck,
Catch ‘em as they fall,
Never know your luck
When there’s a free for all,
Here a little `dip’
There a little `touch’
Most of them are goners
So they won’t miss much!Students (2 Groups)
1: One day to a new beginning2: Raise the flag of freedom high!
1: Every man will be a king
2: Every man will be a king
1: There’s a new world for the winning
2: There’s a new world to be won
ALL
Do you hear the people sing?MARIUS
My place is here, I fight with you!VALJEAN
One day more!MARIUS & COSETTE
I did not live until today.EPONINE
One more day all on my own!MARIUS & COSETTE
How can I live when we are parted?JAVERT(overlapping)
I will join these people’s heros
I will follow where they go
I will learn their little Secrets,
I will know the things they know.VALJEAN
One day more!MARIUS & COSETTE
Tomorrow you’ll be worlds awayEPONINE
What a life I might have known!MARIUS & COSETTE
And yet with you my world has startedJAVERT(overlapping)
One more day to revolution
We will nip it in the bud
We’ll be ready for theseSchoolboys
THENARDIERS(overlapping)
Watch ‘em run amok
Catch ‘em as they fall
Never know your luck
When there’s a free-for-all!VALJEAN
Tomorrow we’ll be far away,
Tomorrow is the judgement dayALL
Tomorrow we’ll discover
What our God in Heaven has in store!
One more dawn
One more day
One day more!
Anyway, some mashups are great, some are just useless, but I would vote this as the best mashup of all time.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and some of our customers obviously agree. In addition to ordinary house signs, we are occasionally asked to make signs which have no words, just a hand painted image. Here are two examples, a fish and three badgers, painted in a matching style:
To see a gallery of available artwork, or to request a custom picture, go to our image gallery.
A house name for the imaginitive: ‘The House’. There do seem to be some houses called this, which could lead to a rather (un)interesting address:
The House
The Street (yes - there are several streets in England with this name)
The Village (in Greenwich)
or The Town (a part of Enfield)
I doubt you’d get very far with ‘the county’ but it might be worth a try. In any case, here’s a sign with a slightly more descriptive name: ‘The House at West Green’.
Find out more about house names. Read this article on the History of House Names.