What’s in a name?

It‘s that moment where you’re at a party and someone asks what you do for a living. While I’ve got used to the puzzled look when I explain I’m a signwriter/letter nerd the origin of my name is a little more difficult to explain.

“Why Muchamuckle?” is something I’ve heard a few times before and to be honest I have thought about changing it. It’s not that easily read, it‘s been a bitch to design or make legible ( I gave up as you can see!) and it was more of a joke to start with. When signing up for a google email account many years ago I had to think of something quick and this sprang to mind. A random sketch from French and Saunders was

the first time I heard the expression “many a mickel makes a muckle” delivered in a strong Scottish accent. It had always amused me but why it stuck and came to mind who knows.

On one occasion, fellow signwriter Mia Warner asked me and for once I didn’t evade or swerve by making a joke or making some excuse and before I knew it an explanation emerged.

The saying itself essentially translates as “many small things make a big thing” and maybe this explains what I do, what I believe and the process of lettering and sign making. For many years I’d seen mistakes as detrimental to my practice but really they are the variations that make my work mine and as a lettering artist this is the process. How many times have I written the letter A or the letter R... each time its different from the last. All those letters make a word, all those words make a sign and all those signs make a body of work. We build everything on our those mistakes. Many a mickle makes a muckle.