Everyday Street Art: Mesmerizing Manual Road Lettering Gifs & Videos

There is something deeply and inexplicably satisfying about watching workers hand-paint street signage. Some use straight edges, stencils or templates to draw straight lines. Others simply go by feel, using sketched outlines, intuition and experience as their guides.

London designer Tom Williams saw a crew of painters working their way down the street and set up his camera to record their work.

The short film above is well worth watching, perhaps on loop … forever.

Along similar lines, Roadliners is a “film about inspiration and craft, and the un-celebrated typographers of the road.” Its creators “documented a day in the life of Glasgow roadliner Thomas ‘Tam’ Lilley.”

Tam is a veteran painter. He uses no guides at this point, just teamwork. One partner steers the line and the other pours the paint.

Some workers still use side guides, but do the curves (arguably the most difficult part) by hand, but without relying on an outline. [Bonus: watch another captivating manual lettering video here on Twitter].