Time:

Monday 1st September 10-5:30pm

Location:

Nettle Cafe

93 Greendale Rd, Merseyside, Birkenhead, Wirral CH62 4XE

This full‑day workshop is perfect for beginners. We’ll cover the fundamentals of brush control and traditional signwriting techniques, giving you the skills to create a clean, versatile lettering style used across professional signwriting, commercial lettering, and your own artistic practice.

Past participants have included graphic designers, calligraphers, illustrators, and curious hobbyists – proving that brush control and a good eye for design are valuable skills across many creative disciplines.

The day will begin with a short demonstration of the tools and a brief introduction to the history of the craft. You’ll then get hands‑on with guided exercises to practice brush strokes and painting techniques on paper.

After lunch, we’ll move on to a drawing session where I’ll introduce two classic letter styles and explain the basics of sign layout. Each participant will choose a short word (3–6 letters) to draft and transfer to a prepared wooden board.

The rest of the workshop will focus on choosing colours and painting your one‑word sign, which you’ll proudly take home at the end of the day.

To make sure everyone gets plenty of guidance, the class is limited to just 10 places. Nettle is a beautiful space and the brain child of my good friend Julia – she’ll be looking after us all day.

Included:
1 x ply-board sign
2 x Painting Brushes + Painting stick
Free tote, 1 x Pun Shop print and my 34 page Typecraft handbook to take away with you.
Lunch, speciality coffee and refreshments provided.

Student reviews from my previous lettering workshops:

“Excellent! Covered everything I was hoping for and more!”

“Loved it! So interesting to learn the basics of lettering. Great snacks!”

“Thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and I got a lot from it. Inspired me to get into dabbling with this”.

⭐ Enjoyment: 9.3/10
⭐ Value for money: 9.1/10
⭐ Would recommend: 9.5/10
⭐ Learned something new: 9.0/10

“As a new/apprentice sign painter, I’ve done a few workshops with Joshua. His willingness to share the necessary steps to get started as a sign painter has been invaluable. From the fundamentals of brush work to the more detailed aspects of business marketing and ownership, Joshua has been an open book. He’s patient and humble in his approach so you immediately feel at ease and comfortable working with him. Joshua is an excellent coach!” – Chris Collins.