This film done while he was at college and later picked up by an ad agency for use on a campaign for the Royal Mail. It won numerous awards and was ground-breaking in it simplicity and beautifully crafted animation. It was the beginning of a whole genre. I was blown away by it back then and 25 years later, it’s still stunning.

They came together during the London Games to get key basic kit to disabled athletes from developing nations who didn’t have a financial sponsor or equipment sponsor. They are now working to support athletes from developing nations in para-sport in the run up to major international competitions.

I saw them interviewed on the BBC Breakfast Show right after the Games and contacted them through twitter to see if I could volunteer my design services. To my delight they accepted my offer and I proceeded to design an identity and then the website which launched today. I was aided on the development of the wordpress based site by Jim Fitzsimons of Ring Forth, who did an amazing job of taking my design and making it work, a job he has done before.

Kit Us Out wanted the design to look fresh and clean with a nod to the London 2012 games. The illustrations were made up from shapes that resemble the International Paralympic Committee logo.

I was fortunate to attend both the Olympics and Paralympics in London. It was a wonderful time and the Paralympics was particularly inspiring. I’ve been delighted to be part of this project, and I really wish them every success in providing kit to athletes who need it.

A movie about sign painters? Sounds good to me, although not sure my kids are going to go for it, not unless it’s animated and in 3D. It’s great to see that this craft is still going, despite the mass produced vinyl rubbish you see all over the place. It’s a vanishing art that will hopefully get a small boost from this film.

The sign painter documentary & book is an independently funded project by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon and will be released sometime this year.

Also it was nice to see a book I own, which I posted about, highlighted at 1:53 in the trailer.

A couple of years ago I posted a video of David A. Smith the amazing sign writer based in Torquay in South West England. It was nice to get sent this video by the equally talented lettering artist Alison Carmichael and see that David is still doing ridiculously great work. This video shows the process he and singer John Mayer went through to create the album cover for Born & Raised. Great stuff and worth watching.

Watch the videos below that take you through the unique process of three different artists, Helms Workshop in Austin, Jon Contino in Brooklyn and Golden West Signs in Berkeley. Phenomenal work. Have a Jack Daniel’s and happy 4th of July!

Great quote from Mitchell “My dad taught me from square one if you going to do something, you’re going to do it right or you don’t do it.”