Friday 3 April 2009

It's a sign

I've been busy. So a quick post just to show I haven't died yet or given up blogging. I went to the Newcastle Beer Festival on Wednesday, which I wasn't too impressed with. The venue was rubbish and the beer not well kept. Perhaps I wasn't that enthralled because I had to drive 3 hours to get there and three hours to get back, so little in the way of real drinking. But still, the company I found there was good.

On the way there I picked up my new signs. The previous ones were donkey's years old and getting increasingly tatty. They were a negative advert.


Jeff talks about getting his pub sign redone here. He wanted a hand painted one. Theses days of course you can get a standard size painting scanned and printed out poster size. This is what we did. Several people have asked who painted it thinking it was done full size. Kasia and my computer is the answer.

The number of bloody screws we dropped off that roof was starting to get annoying. I'm just glad we didn't drop the battery drill, I've already got through too many of them.

15 comments:

The Beer Nut said...

Oh no! Comic Sans! Run!

Unknown said...

Oh well, it's what we've used for 5 years. Unfortunately, I like it. There's just no accounting for taste you see.

Funnily enough, I was talking to the next door neighbour about changing the font just today, apparently he has a stock of thousands on his Mac. Pah! He could have told me last week before I sent the JPEGs off.

Whorst said...

Will it sustain pissing rain?

Unknown said...

Sausage, I'll let you know in 12 months time.

The print copes with white spirit as we found out when we got gloss paint on the sign. It's U.V. set solvent free ink(!). The board it's printed on is diabond aluminium (pronounce that properly now) laminate which I suspect is bomb proof. The structural stuff is good old fashioned WBP ply and will probably disintegrate in about 10 - 15 years unless we repaint it.

Whorst said...

Good, it looks nice.

Remember, extraneous co2 is your friend!

Brewers Union Local 180 said...

As you well know, Christi and I could've helped out. She could've painted the sign and I could've fixed something in The Void.

Unknown said...

BUL180, no doubt you have thousands of fonts on your Mac too.

The VOID, oh no, that's worth a post all by itself. But then perhaps it can just remain a little intrigue for readers to guess about.

We've still got stuff Christi could do next time she's over......

Christi said...

REALLY?!?!?!? Let me know when, and I'm there. But only if Ted can come along, he keeps talking about The Void. Beer Nut: hmmmm yeah, Comic Sans...but it's worlds better than Apple Chancery.

John Holland said...

Dave,

Which beers did you sample to conclude that “the beer not well kept”; I am interested as being a volunteer worker there I tried quite a few and do not agree at all with your conclusion. More importantly though I have heard nobody else say the same; beers that were not to customers taste yes but “the beer not well kept” no.

By the way I do agree with the time it would take you to drive there from Cumbria and the fact that the Newcastle University Students Union is far from the most suitable beer festival venue in the country. It is however without any doubt the best venue available to us in the city.

But anyway as I picked-up your business card at the Trade Session at least with the beer being free then you at least did not have to pay for (the small - I hope ) amount of beer you had which should go towards the cost of your petrol!

Cheers,
John Holland.

Unknown said...

John H,

Batesmans Dark Mild didn't taste quite right. I can't quite remember what the others were. I felt they all lacked condition.

I had a Mordue, probably 5 bridge, which was good.

I did have one American style IPA thing that could have been good with more condition band without floaters in it.

Obviously, as I was driving, the number of beers I had was small. Perhaps I was unlucky.

Beer festivals venues are difficult. I understand that to find a place big enough, at the right price and that can let you in a couple of days beforehand narrows down options.

Perhaps next year I'll manages to get across to stay overnight and give the event a better chance.

Actually, I got there 20 mins before the end of the trade session so I only had one free half. The rest were paid for.

I should do a better post on festivals in general and the purpose they serve. Not to attack you understand, but to explore the problems and benefits.

John Holland said...

Dave,

Noted.

I'll pass-on your comments to the team that look after our beers; I don't really have time now to check back with anybody else as I'm due to go to the venue soon to help finish the take-down.

Cheers,
John Holland.

Leigh said...

nice ingenuity, by the way.

bigun said...

Many years ago now, I worked in a studio in Leeds, along side my brother, we spent every day painting pub signs for a sign company who were contracted by Tetleys and Whitbread. The steel panels would come in ready primed and we would use quick drying oil paints and paint two sides in full colour, both sides being identical of course. we were payed the sum of £70 per side, god nows what the mark up was by the time it got to the brewery. We also had to research the name and paint a minature version in watercolour which went away to be OK'd and you would get a stack back in one go, not always your own. We got £25 a pop for those. I could do 2-3 signs a week, my brother was faster and could do considerably more. They had a predicted lifespan of 10 years.

Jeff Pickthall said...

The American-style IPA Dave refers to was probably the Thornbridge Jaipur that I suggested to him. I also thought lacked condition, was too warm and had bits in.

Unknown said...

Jeff, thanks, it was indeed the beer you suggested to me.