Traditional Signwriting & Murals

A printed sign looks like every other sign on the street. Signwriting doesn't. A hand-painted shopfront, window or mural has character a printer can't copy, and it tells people a business cares about how it looks. We're Melbourne signwriters and mural painters, and we've been painting by hand since 1969.

Signwriting is where we started

John Lewis began as a ticket writer for Myer and Darrell Lea in 1955. In 1969, the business that would become Alpha Lewis Signs opened its doors. Paul Lewis joined as an apprentice in 1980, when brushwork was still how most signs were made. Three generations later, we still paint signs by hand in our North Melbourne workshop and on site across Melbourne.

What we paint

Shopfront and fascia signwriting

Business names, trading hours and lettering painted straight onto fascias, awnings and walls, in traditional styles or matched to your brand.

Window lettering

Hand-painted lettering on glass for shopfronts, pubs, cafés and offices.

Heritage sign restoration

Faded ghost signs and old painted signs restored or repainted, matching the original lettering as closely as possible.

Painted line marking and ground graphics

Painted EV charging bays, dog park zones and other ground graphics where a decal won't last.

Something else you'd like painted? Ask us.

Murals in Melbourne

The same brushwork that goes into a shopfront sign scales up to a whole wall. We paint murals for businesses, councils and communities, from a feature wall inside a café to large outdoor walls and public spaces.

Business and commercial murals

Branded feature walls for cafés, offices, gyms, shops and venues. A mural can carry your logo, tell your story or simply give people a reason to stop and take a photo. We can paint from your own artwork or logo, or design the mural with you.

Laneway and community murals

Outdoor walls, laneways and community artwork, painted with exterior paint systems and finished with an anti-graffiti coating where it's needed.

Ground and road murals

Painted paths, road surfaces and play areas, including street, path and road murals for councils and public spaces.

Working with artists on public art

Many artists tendering for council and public art projects work at studio scale. Turning a canvas or digital design into a large outdoor wall is a different job: access equipment, surface preparation, permits, insurance, and paint systems that last outdoors. That's where we come in.

We work as the artist's delivery partner. Depending on the project, we paint the artwork from your design, or you paint alongside our team while we handle the scaling, setup and site. We transfer the artwork by grid, projection or pounce patterns, depending on the design, the size and the wall.

What we handle

• Support with your tender: costings, methodology and a letter of support
• Site assessment and surface preparation
• Scaling and transferring your artwork to the wall
• Access equipment, safe work at heights and site management
• Insurance and on-site permits
• Exterior paint systems and anti-graffiti coating
• A maintenance plan for the finished work

You're credited as the artist. If you'd prefer the work presented as yours alone, we're happy to stay in the background. If a wall isn't suited to paint, we'll recommend another way to reproduce your work, such as printed wall graphics.

How a signwriting or mural job works

1. Design. We draw up the lettering or mural design with you, sized to the wall or window.
2. Check on site. We check the surface, access and any council requirements before we start.
3. Prepare and paint. For larger walls, we prepare the surface, transfer the design at full size, then paint it in stages so your business can keep trading.
4. Finish. Exterior work is finished to handle the weather.

Signwriting or a printed sign?

Hand-painted signs suit businesses that want character and longevity, heritage buildings, and walls too large or uneven for print. Printed vinyl suits photographic artwork, short-term promotions and tight deadlines. Plenty of shopfronts use both, and we do both, so we'll recommend whatever suits the job rather than the one we happen to make.