Have you ever noticed the blackboard of your favorite bar?
In the age of the internet, the blackboards at street level survive more colorful than ever. The hoteliers know it well: on all fours on the cobblestones or hanging from the facade, they occupy a portion of the urban space and are, together with the signs, one of the most visible parts of their business for passers-by. Its menus, its lunch menus and its many offers they shine in full color thanks to a wave of artists who are making these supports a real attraction where to rest your eyes with pleasure.
It is for these reasons that today, so many bars and restaurants have a blackboard or other support worked by a professional. Gone are the incomprehensible bad handwriting or the inevitable blots of time. The blackboards painted by Óscar Pérez, Germ Benet, Cristian Roldán and Diego Apesteguía whet the appetite and, without a doubt, they leave a mark on our memory.
A wave of artists are making these supports a real claim
“I feel more like a craftsman than an artist”, comments Germ Benet . An architect by training, he has been illustrating whiteboards full-time since 2014. “ Chalkboards are the icing on the cake: they give a premium finish, but aesthetics are not everything . That is why I adapt to the needs of the client, I visit him, I see his premises and I do an assessment on what could be for him”.
How does one make a living from advertising illustration? “I came to the sector by chance, when a colleague asked me to do something for Espinaler. That gave way to a project and since I've always liked to draw, I didn't think twice. Architecture gave me knowledge about distribution, weights and harmony that I have taken advantage of, and I have also trained in lettering and illustration courses with Iván Castro and Hugo José María Corral.
“Neither Paris nor Berlin have our level” , affirms Germ Benet. “I think that among the European countries, we have developed it more because in most of Spain it rains less than there. Also, I have the theory that Due to the large number of bars per inhabitant that we have, differentiating oneself is sometimes the key”.
More than a blackboard, a work of art.
To find out what is being done around the world and collect ideas, the internet is your greatest ally . He would like there to be a school of lettering and slate painting, because we continue as before, where there was not a lettering specialist either, but the painters, to earn extra money, would label and make the decorations that were requested. It was the case of Joaquim Corominas, the grandfather of Trisha Sellerés , painter of pictures who went bankrupt and to trace his life he began to paint signs for bars in Plaza Universidad, Las Ramblas and La Boquería in Barcelona.
In case anyone still has doubts about whether blackboards are booming, attentive to the case of Oscar Pérez . At 48 years old, he has spent 25 years dedicating himself in a self-taught way to the decoration and craft lettering of blackboards and murals , mainly for the hospitality sector. “I was always very good at drawing and previously I dedicated myself to the illustration of comics for adults and to the design of web pages and video games. At the age of 21 he learned about hand-decorated blackboards when a friend traveled to Australia, he saw them and told me about it”.
Since then, Óscar has used chalk, markers and paint to trace everything: from croissants to martinis, through gildas, coffees, hams, cakes, salads, sandwiches and more, on wood painted in a style that he defines as "his own, interspersing different fonts and eye-catching drawings , which works very well commercially”.
These blackboards leave a mark on the memory
What is the reason for this renewed success of carefully crafted, lovingly treated lettering? According to Diego Apesteguía, who defines his style as classic and especially influenced by the lettering between 1920 and 1970 ("time of special development in advertising language that marked a before and after in visual communication"), this boom it started about 10 years ago.
"Makes sense: interior design in the hotel industry and the decoration of commercial spaces has been becoming increasingly important, It has been gaining a lot of importance, but the blackboards were a factor that was left aside. Super elaborate spaces were designed in detail and the blackboard was still a shabby element, which anyone could do and in any way. Paying attention to the blackboards, as well as the signs, and treating them as one more marketing piece, was something to be expected.".
For Cristian Roldán, lettering was a life change in 2017 . Until then, and despite the fact that he had been passionate about drawing and painting since he was a child, he had worked as an audiovisual technician. At that time, in his spare time, he painted small signs to give away, which he began to publish on the internet. He soon started receiving so many orders that it paid off for him to leave his previous job. to pursue lettering and slate full-time.
Germ Benet working on one of his blackboards
“When I work on an assignment, I take a trip back in time. . It may seem a little weird, but I identify my main aesthetic influences in the hand-painted signage of yesteryear. I look at the posters that appear in period films , like the classic 'Saloon' of cowboy movies, and it's not uncommon for me to pause the movie to take an image capture that I'll then study or, directly, start drawing it."
Also passionate about modernism and fileteado porteño (great passion since his childhood, so much so that he learned at the age of 15 from a master filleter who marked him: Héctor Bonino), compiles the pieces that most attract his attention in a huge bank of images, among which are also the labels contemporaries that so many collectors upload to their Instagram accounts. “I have been learning on my own and also with improvement classes, since there are techniques such as gold leaf that are especially complicated”.
Roldán, who tries to bring his aesthetic vision to the labels, applying artistic winks, ornaments, colors and shadows , he manages to present quality blackboards to which he erases the ephemeral quality that chalk usually gives them. “ I prepare some slates that resist the sun and the rain using special tools that require a particular technique. In glossy or satin paints, they usually look really good if they know how to combine”.
For Cristian Roldán, lettering was a life change in 2017
Blackboards in bars and restaurants are just the tip of the iceberg , the visible and most identifiable part of the gastronomic offer of a local from the street. These design artisans work also windows, shop windows, interior blackboards, murals and signs for all types of businesses, from barbershops to tattoo parlors, among which the hospitality industry stands out: specialty coffee shops, wineries, restaurants, bars, breweries, taverns, bakeries and more. It is about time that we consider them as part of the urban graphic heritage that they are.