Eye Magazine

‘Dad had started a photographic career in New York in the 1970s on a whim and a hope, so I thought maybe I could do the same.’ While studying design at Bristol’s UWE (2007-10) he travelled back and forth to the United States, hawking his physical portfolio around Manhattan agencies, hunting down his heroes to learn how they had forged viable practices.

Back in the UK, the late lettering artist James Cooper (Dapper Signs) was a big influence on Palmer. Cooper taught him to ‘go for it’, to be more ballsy with a brush. ‘James embodied the rock’n’roll style,’ says Palmer. With the brush, you commit to the line you make. There is no ‘Apple-Z’, there are no second chances.

After graduating, Palmer made his living from designing logotypes and in 2012 went out to California for a stint with Derek McDonald at Golden West Sign Arts. He recalls that McDonald would sleep on the shop floor, wake up, fix a coffee and put on an old shellac of Billie Holiday. ‘We’d spend the whole day painting – productivity was crazy – then go off to a job in an old van. You have to be a bit of a romantic to get into signwriting in the first place.’ Except that this was not foppish romanticism but hard graft, sometimes dirty (some of the processes are extremely toxic) and downright focused.

Back in London, he redesigned the Folio Society’s monogram while working in-house for the publisher. Then Palmer set up The Luminor Sign Co. in London’s East End, a neighbourhood sign shop and design studio that he ran with a small team from 2016 until it closed in 2024. Luminor was a typophile’s shrine to old-world aesthetics and the beauty of imperfection as well as a buzzing studio, creating work that ranged from headstones to signs for Brick Lane bagel shops.

More recently, Palmer designed a custom wordmark and packaging for whisky brand Johnnie Walker. As creative director for campaigns, packaging and merchandise for coffee artisans Belleville, in Paris, he sketched and art directed Belleville Sans, a custom typeface for the brand. (Further design and development was carried out by Bobby Tannam, with whom Palmer teaches at NCAD Dublin.)

With Palmer’s work, especially now, there is a gravitational pull back towards that starting spark, that unfiltered mark that honours the impulsive gesture. He will soon be launching a series of silk squares, featuring his lettering, imagery and patterns, as ’Palmer Editions’. After the talk, we discussed the idea that ‘perfection is unlovable’. Rapidly executed sketches are, ‘more honest, more unfinished … good enough.’ Palmer’s lettering has something special – it has the life of the line.

Ross Clifford designer, writer, Hastings

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