Better Letters at TEC, Denmark

12 November 2015

Bent Grølsted, David Kynaston, Denmark, Mike Meyer, Nielsen & Kromann, TEC, Technical Education Copenhagen, Tivoli, Workshop,

Immediately after touching down from the Better Letters Circus Tour in the USA, we packed our bags and headed over to Copenhagen, Denmark, to run a workshop for Technical Education Copenhagen (TEC). This school runs a number of vocational courses, including, to our knowledge, Europe’s only dedicated sign programme. This rounded curriculum includes everything from design, to fabrication, to painting and is all run in partnership with key industry employers.

We had 26 people participating in our workshop, a mixture of industry practitioners and school tutors. It was the first time we’d used water-based paints for a workshop, and the first time that Mike Meyer and David Kynaston had worked as a double act. Our wonderful hosts also lined up a full programme of extra-curricular activities for us, meaning that we got to see more than just the inside of the school. Thank you for inviting us over, here’s a little photographic documentation of the experience.

NB. You can buy Bent Grølsted’s book Fra penselstrøg til print here. The sign shop we visited is Nielsen & Kromann, and more about Tivoli is here.

: Ahead of the workshop David Kynaston painted one of his brilliant panels

: A tour of the long-established sign shop, Nielsen & Kromann, featured plenty of eye candy on the walls

: The famous Tivoli Gardens is one of the Nielsen & Kromann clients, this test piece was hanging at the shop

: Over to TEC to check the set-up for the workshop – immaculate, including these fetching home-made mahl sticks

: Students at the school learn a variety of sign techniques during their studies

: This piece was spotted hanging in the bookshop opposite our hotel

: The name of the sign company in the bottom right corner of the gold and glass piece

: The workshop gets underway

: Mike Meyer looks perplexed by the perspex…

: Another piece of perspex being used to practice the Gothic alphabet according to Mike Meyer’s Mazeppa print

: Our first special guest was retired local signwriter Bent Grølsted. He used his mahl stick for straight lines like this.

: Bent Grølsted playing around at the workshop

: Bent Grølsted also bought three signed copies of his book about the history of the Danish signwriting industry

: Bent Grølsted with his signwriging history book, Fra Penselstrøg Til Print

: Team photo with Mike Meyer, David Kynaston, Bent Grølsted and Sam Roberts

: David Kynaston was inspired by the vernacular Danish script and had to have a go

: David Kynaston’s Danish Script using water-based paint

: After the first day we walked to dinner and spotted a large carved shopfront with this detail

: Not once but twice etc:

: Carlsberg is the famous Danish beer but this old sign was hanging in our dinner venue where we sampled traditional Danish fare

: Some very characteristic lettering spotted on the walk home above a doorway

: Day two of the workshop and it’s on to casual and script

: The workshop in full swing and Mike Meyer being interviewed by a local journalist

: Tutors from the school pulled out some of the archival teaching resources they have, including this set of cards comparing Gothic and Roman letterforms