(click pictures for an  enlarged view)   Letterheads - Field Sign Company Ltd, Ellerslie, Auckland 27 February to 1 March, 1998 Reaching New Heights

I guess it’s the same with any first time event - at the last minute there’s always a bunch of stuff you realise still has to be done. 

In my case it was getting the coffee urn, name badges and paperwork to host Chris Fields’ premises in the Auckland suburb of Ellerslie before he went home for the day. Perhaps luckily, Chris was in the same position as myself - catching up on the last minute items that ultimately make the difference to the way the event will pan out.  In Chris’ case it was the golf shirts for participants which were ready for pick up at 5.15pm the day prior to New Zealand’s first Letterheads meeting. 

By 6.30pm things were looking good.  The sign shop had been re-arranged, a good clean up had taken place, even some of the fittings and fixtures were spruced up with a lick of paint.  Chris and his staff, apprentice Cherie Barnett, tradesman Mark James and trainee Julian Lissiman could just about call it a day.  That’s when we started writing the list of ‘must haves’ for tomorrow - extension leads, multi boxes, tea spoons, etc., etc. 

Day one of Letterheads started at 6.00am with a quick shower, a hastily eaten breakfast and a slow trip through heavy traffic to Auckland airport to welcome our fellow letterheads from out of town to the powerless North (although Auckland’s crippling power cuts were not going to affect Chris’ sign shop which is located well outside Auckland’s CBD).

Joshua Cowley, out of Bennett Sign and Display in Wellington, was easily recognisable, he was the guy sitting near the coffee shop with a large sign kit.  Joshua’s plane had got in at 7.40 and there was a forty minute wait until Roy Harrison from Gerald Horton Signs in the South Island township of Rangiora arrived.  Josh and I got to talking and actually missed the arrival of the flight from Christchurch but managed to locate Roy from the description given to me by Horton Signs - he has short hair!!  It figured he must be the chap with the number one haircut and the sign kit sitting patiently waiting for some late Aucklander to pick him up! 

After introductions all round it was a case of cramming sign kits and baggage into the boot for the trip to Field Sign Company’s premises in Ellerslie which, given the hour, did not take as long as I thought it might. On arrival Chris was still setting up and juggling trestles, signgloss panels, paint, ladders and a host of other paraphernalia in advance of the twenty plus people who were going to be resident at his sign shop during 8 to 10 hours of the next three days. 

After another round of introductions and the off-loading of sign kits we headed for the Ellerslie Gateway Motor Inn, the base for out of town visitors and each evenings meal, to register Joshua and Roy knowing that we had an hour or so to kill before the pace picked up at Chris’ sign shop.  On our arrival back at Chris’ we were met by Michael Jackson-Potter from Sign Solutions in Auckland, Ruth Coxhead from New Image Signs in Hamilton and Dean Lovich from Manukau City Signs in South Auckland. 

Over the next forty odd minutes signies from the Hawkes Bay, Whangarei, Wanganui and Auckland drifted in to be greeted by Chris and offered coffee and biscuits and presented with their Letterheads golf shirts duly embroidered with the Letterheads logo.

During this time Dean Lovich was unloading and setting up one of the weekends projects in the form of a 10m by 2.4m mural that was being created by participants as a gift to the local business community.  I had identified the prospect of this project at Chris’ request when he had first come up with the idea of a Letterheads meeting in New Zealand and then Chris had met with the President of the Ellerslie Businessmen’s Association to agree on content.  Chris and Dean had designed the mural to their basic specification of youth and adult recreational activities enjoyed by the community along with a local landmark and Dean had pencilled in the characters and features the day prior so as a decent head start was afforded those who would work on the project over the next three days. 

With all but two people in attendance, Chris welcomed all Letterheads participants and detailed what was on offer which included watercolour signwork, foam carving, sand blasting, air-brushing, calligraphy, the almost obligatory pinstripe racing and of course the mural.  Being the only non-signwriter in attendance I was designated Mum for the weekend - being in charge of goffering and smokos!

Participants portfolios were put on display in the otherwise redundant computer room, its air conditioning proved to be a haven for many on more than one occasion, along with entries into the logo competition.  People then headed off into various interest groups to learn and participate in new endeavours. 

The mural made some rapid advances with Dean, Ruth, Cherie and Roy being joined by Ross Probert from Probert Signs and Murray Wilson from Wilson Signs both from Napier, and air brush artist Brad Walters from Whangarei all working on the background and main features.  Shortly after the start of the mural a reporter and photographer from the Eastern Courier showed up to check out the story with the photographer taking some early shots and undertaking to come back on the Sunday when work would have progressed. 

Mark Hobson from Artearoa in Auckland and Shane Gibson from Ad-Impact Signs in Hastings started on a 1.2m by 1.8m attendance register in water colour while pretty much everyone else went outside to watch Neil Laffoley from ArtFX in Auckland carve foam before choosing projects of their own to work on over the next three days. 

At 12.30pm lunch was delivered by Steve from Carellis Bar and Grill.  It consisted of salmon and salad, ham and salad rolls and croissants, triple decker beef and mustard sandwiches and home-made sausage rolls all washed down with tea or coffee.. 

After lunch, Allison Furnnuger from the Calligraphy Studio in Auckland lead an enthusiastic group through some calligraphy, detailing pens styles and uses, colour flow, letter styles and layout design.  Many spent an hour or two with Allison before heading back to projects already underway or on to start something new. 

Just prior to lunch our last two participants arrived.  Fred Zoutenbier from Signs and Screenprinting in Picton and Martin Kostuik from The Visual Image in South Auckland.  Martin had brought an old fridge along and he and Fred were busily masking off a set of hot licks from the base and what appeared to be dripping paint was outlined on the upper panels.  What was to follow would take the rest of the weekend. 

Among the foam carvers, Vince McGrath, an apprentice from Ad-Impact Signs in Hastings, was putting the finishing touches to a perfect left breaking surf wave and starting on the surf rider and his board.  Michael Jackson-Potter was well on the way to finishing a finely detailed hand while Julian had started what looked to be a major undertaking in the creation of a Honda Nifty Fifty motor scooter, which saw him nick-named Scooter for the rest of the weekend.  Mark James chose a moon decoration that would ultimately reside in his kids’ bedroom.  Brad had moved away from the mural and had started a Picasso style view of a head in a hand, (hand on a chin?), while Neil Laffoley was adding legs and feet to an already started project. 

About this time Rob Barrington, from RobArt in Auckland, settled himself off to one side and started working on a felt pen rendition of a letterhead at work. 

Home made chocolate cake and biscuits made for a welcome afternoon smoko while the balance of the working day was given over to either projects started earlier or the finishing of smaller projects until people drifted off home or back to the motel to freshen up before dinner at Carellis Bar and Grill. 

By 6.30pm people began to congregate at Carellis, which forms part of the Ellerslie Gateway Motor Inn.  After a few drinks courtesy of ‘ mien host’ Chris Field, a couple of four man teams played petanque (or Ker Plonk as it became called).  The aim was an elimination series but the games took longer than the natural light would hold so the balance was held over until the following night. 

Come 9.30 a Bar-B-Que meal was served consisting of some very tender steak, chicken wings, foil baked fish, sausages, jacket potatoes, and pasta and green salads followed by fresh fruit in brandysnap baskets all during which tall tales and jokes abounded before some very tired signwriters drifted off to their respective beds for the night. 

Day two started at 8.00am as people arrived to continue various projects started the day previously.  The mural was now being treated to the finer details as Brad, Neil, Dean and Murray got to work with air-brushes and Ross Probert, Joshua, Ruth and Peter Reardon from Magic Signs in Auckland, worked on some of the mid-sized features utilising their brush skills.  (Not before I drove Joshua over to see one of the local landmarks to check colouring for the mural as it had been created with a B&W photo of one area!) 

Chris’ wife, Jane, had knocked together a batch of scones at the crack of dawn and these, once liberally covered in butter, whipped cream and strawberry jam, made for a welcome morning smoko.

After the break Fred, Shane, Cherie, Ross Vallely from Rossco Signs in Wanganui and Alan Clarke from Alan Clarke Design in Auckland started on foam carving projects while Michael set up some foam board for sandblasting. 

Roy, along with Martin, continued with the fridge which was now getting some serious motorcycle graphics created that led one to believe that we had a staunch ‘Meatloaf’ fan in our midst with a Rat out of Hell graphic taking pride of place on the door before Roy headed back to his 3D foam carving of a pit bull terrier! 

A brilliant lunch was again provided by Steve from Carellis before three new water colour projects were started by Chris and Mark Hobson.  These were 600mm x 1200mm signs thanking the three sponsors, Plywood City, Signwriters Supplies and Graphi-Cal Auckland for their support in making New Zealand’s first Letterheads meeting possible by providing materials and assistance.  Chris and Mark were joined by Ross Probert, Murray and Michael who added their personal touches to the project. 

Towards the end of the day the mural really began to start looking close to finished in part and there was a real expectation that the community project would come in on time. 

Participants drifted off to prepare themselves for the evening gathering at Carellis where the status of their prime beef eye fillet steaks had taken on legendary proportions.  With a dry till ticking over at a healthy pace the uncompleted games of petanque were played with a view to finding two more finalists to play the previous nights winners in a play off.  Once again darkness won as the outdoor areas were not particularly well lit.  The finals never eventuated. 

The meal itself was superb with attendees being offered the choice of Bluff oysters, satay or soup as an entree, eye-fillet, chicken or lamb as a main and chocolate fudge or fruit salad for dessert.  Each table of diners was also treated to a fine selection of East Coast Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons. 

Between courses Chris awarded a couple of ‘paint pot’ prizes he had made similar to an award he saw while at Letterheads in Australia last year, plus the prize for the logo competition.  Paint pots were awarded to Shane and Julian with Brad taking out the major prize for the logo competition.  While some headed off just after 10.30, Chris and a handful of hardy types propped the bar up until 2.00am, a couple of others headed into town reportedly hitting their beds at 5.00am! 

The start to Sunday was S L O W with Chris and one or two others at his sign shop by 8.00 with most of the signies showing up just in time for morning smoko and the home-made cake that Jane had made. Martin had made some major advances on the fridge which now sported a House of Colour logo, the Letterheads logo and the Rat out of Hell graphic in finely detailed airbrush work. Rob was putting the finishing touches to his felt drawing and others worked diligently towards the completion of their chosen undertakings.  After smoko it was time to crank up the racing swords and set up the pinstripers racetrack that Mark James and Chris had created with a view to passing it on to future Letterheads hosts. 

There’s a moot point as to whether one judges a pin stripe race by speed or quality of the stripe.  The object of the race was to complete half a lap hugging the outside curve of the race track and the balance of the race by switching to the inside curve thereby allowing two racers to start on opposite sides of the track and complete one lap without bumping into one another.  Boys being boys, speed was ultimately judged to be substantially more fun than trying to execute the perfect curve at a prestigious pace.  I think the level of laughter decided the winner as it sure as hell wasn’t the quality of workmanship on this occasion!!  Michael was crowned top eliminator and awarded a Letterheads paint pot by Chris and participants took the opportunity to thank Chris for putting on an awesome weekend and introducing Letterheads to New Zealand. 

A filling cooked lunch and salad arrived along with Cherie Bennett, the last of the attendees to surface on Sunday which, considering Roy and Shane didn’t make it to their cots until 5.00am that morning, was a bit of a surprise as they quite clearly could have been excused for arriving at lunch time. 

After lunch the Letterheads 98 attendance board was hand printed in glorious water colour by all who attended (including Ed the dog!) and signed.  The photographer from the Eastern Courier showed up to take more photos of the mural.  After he departed the attendance board was placed with all the projects undertaken throughout the three days of Letterheads 98 so that the inaugural participants photograph could be taken.  This in itself took up the best part of half an hour as yours truly operated nine or ten different cameras for attendees.  (It’s hard to hold a smile for half an hour!).  It was now getting close to departure time for those with longer distances to drive. 

Business cards were swapped and goodbyes made with promises to catch up with each other at the next Letterheads wherever it may be. 

First to depart were Murray and Ross Probert who had some 300kms to travel before their day was over.  They were closely followed by Shane and Vince heading to the same destination.  Those that flew into Auckland were, by pure luck, all departing at 5.30pm so only one trip to the airport was going to be required.  This allowed Roy, Joshua and Fred to assist Chris, Dean, Brad, Alan and Ruth to add the finishing touches to the mural. 

By the time 4.15 rolled around, Ruth had departed for Hamilton and one or two of the Auckland based attendees had also left after making their goodbyes.  I then took Fred, Joshua and Roy to the airport before heading back to Chris’ to help with the clean up.  On returning to Ellerslie everyone else other than Dean and Chris had departed.  Come 6.30 it was pretty much all over - there was just the canopy outside to dismantle and the final touches to be done on the mural which Chris, Dean and Mark James would undertake during the following week. 

Before Monday was over, a sign shop based in Hastings on the East coast of the North Island, plus a South Island sign company had contacted Chris with a view to hosting the next event in 1999 - so watch this space for Letterheads 99!!