Harry happy to give stores the brush off...and they're all for it

ARTIST BRINGING BACK TRADITION TO SHOP FRONTS

- By DANNY GUTMANN

As thousands flood the streets of Liverpool city to centre to complete some last minute Christmas shopping or sip a couple of pints in one of Liverpool's proud array of boozers, there is one common theme that ties many of them together.

But you'll have to take a brief look up to spot it.

For the last decade an ever increasing amount of the city's shops, restaurants and pubs have been calling on the services of husband and dad-of-two, Harry Mytton, 36, to carefully bring life to their store fronts.

For decades, hand drawn and painted signs had adorned the front of almost all businesses throughout the city, but the craft has become something of a dying art in recent times as technological advancements have seen a move to vinyl and embossed signage.

However, in recent years there has been a significant reversion from local businesses back to the more traditional and considered approach of hand crafted signage.

While the art of sign writing continues to become an ever increasingly niche skill, Harry said he believes there might be a growing trend across certain areas of the country for the more considered approach to the design of store fronts.

Harry told the ECHO: "I think it makes such a big difference to a place when you've got people who are painting stuff and it's a bit more considered for the heritage of the area, and the buildings that you're working on.

"There is obviously a history of signwriting in Liverpool, but I don't think it's been massive in recent years. It's nice to try and put that human feel back in to it, so it's not all computer generated and printed."

He added: "I think it puts that human touch back onto things, you go to other cities, like London, Bristol, maybe even Glasgow as well, there's a real talent pool of sign writers there."