Over the past couple of years, I’ve been gradually adding to the wonderful Dumfries Museum through a series of painted letter information displays and exhibition signage. Each of these small jobs has involved creating bespoke lettering using samples of found lettering from the Museum’s collection, samples of heritage fonts and texts – highlighting some of the many discoveries that can be made in this lovely museum.
Technically, these are interesting projects as most of the lettering needs to be hand drawn to emulate or evoke the items associated, from hand drawn labels used in earlier days of the museum, to hand carved letters into stone and slate – these provide curious starting points for developing unique and unusual lettering combinations.
As part of the Dumfries Women’s Signwriting Squad, we are keen to promote the special qualities that hand painting can add to an environment or space – helping spaces like the Museum create their own visual identity and stepping away from generic, mass produced information displays.
I recently made a short video reel on instagram to help you locate some of the current lettering projects we’ve worked on around the Museum, but not all of them are there to stay – the temporary exhibition space has already had three variations painted by the DWSS over the past couple of years, and some of the changing display sections are also on their second variations. Hand painting also has it’s place in the temporary!
Most recently, I’ve been working on a large information display for a very special object within the Museum, a sundial from 1623 (which, curiously was also the inspiration for some of the work within my Tattiefields project). The lettering style is taken directly from the dial’s face, and helps to highlight some of the many strange and wonderful details contained within this piece.
The current temporary exhibition, The Ever Changing, Changeless Sea includes marine and natural histories – including a full dolphin skeleton – and the title for the exhibition was designed based on a beautiful book cover in the Museum’s collection before being painted onto the underside of their Observatory Tower spiral staircase that leads up to the Camera Obscura. The design also features objects and birds that can be discovered in the main museum’s natural history section.
Special thanks to Museum Curator Judith Hewitt for the opportunity to work on these lovely projects, and all of the museum staff team for being so accommodating!
Katie Anderson 