Another day, another book about sign painting added to my wishlist! This time from the typography heroes over at Letterform Archive. The San Francisco-based non-profit’s mission is to share the joy of letters, with their latest book doing just that though archiving the work of French sign painters from the 19th and 20th centuries. Lettres Décoratives: A Century of French Sign Painters’ Alphabets features dozens of monumental alphabets, serving as a portal to the past and resource for sign painters and designers today.
Lettres Décorative features an introduction by modern-day French sign painter Morgane Côme who’s the perfect person for the job, considering she’s currently writing a book on the history of French sign painting herself. It’s set to be published by L’Échappée in the fall of 2026, so stay tuned for that! The book design was carefully crafted by french design studio Violaine & Jérémy to appropriately honor the ambition of the original lettering work therein.
The book contains a century of design at the height of the sign painter’s craft in France, and is a must-have for any type fiend. It composes an anthology of letterforms that once adorned streets throughout France, including over 150 plates drawn from chromolithographic albums published between the 1830s and the 1930s.
Featuring reproductions from twelve large-format albums originally published as inspiration and teaching aids for working sign painters, Lettres Décorative preserves lettering styles ranging from classical
to art nouveau and art deco. It also contains dimensional alphabets and eccentric signboards that reflect the time period’s experimental spirit, which produced dramatic lettering that often transcended time and place.
Lettres Décoratives: A Century of French Sign Painters’ Alphabets is available for purchase now for $65 on the Letterform Archive website.
The post Letterform Archive Honors the History of French Sign Painting in Latest Monograph appeared first on PRINT Magazine.