Visiting the SOFAP company, paint manufacturer :
a sign painter in action !
tour of the factory
Contacting the Permoglaze company came to us after coming across their really creative ads, while taking a stroll in town.
After taking its first steps in the painting industry in 1988, the Sofap group slowly but steadily grew into one of leader on the mauritian market.
Sofap manufactures and sells paints from the Permoglaze brand licensed under Crown Paints UK. Sofap also exclusively supplies Mauritius with renowned paint
brands used in the car and marine industries.
We managed to visit their factory and even meet one of their sign painter, (big!) thanks to Selina Musa, marketing director and Eric Adam, managing director.
Harry put ut a small demonstration, showing us what one of his usual project would look like.
Here, the Permoglaze logo, followed by their slogan "We speak your color".
He begins with the creation of a pouncing pattern :
He has to reproduce each projected letter pattern on a blank sheet.
Then, he perforates the sheet, following precisly the outline of each letter. This will allow a thin powder to get through, easily marking the right area to paint.
The sheet has already been used multiple times, as the orange hue left by the powder can attest.
The back of the sheet sticking to the soon painted area
Then comes the primer. Here, we need a white surface with rounded corners
He fastens the perforated pattern to the surface with adhesive tape, smoothing the powdering process
The powder unveils the letter shapes.
Here’s a small animated gif, and the "two handed" painting of the Permoglaze letters!
The end of the word looks a bit skewed...
Pretty normal, considering I’m the one drawing the letters :p
No fancy lettering brush here, we work we pretty standard short wirehaired paintbrushes, making the task that much harder, to Harry’s credit.
Painting those letters as perfectly as he did with such tools is no small feat!
A big thanks to Harry for this great technical demo and for sharing his work.
To wrap it up, we get to enjoy a small tour of the private facility, usually closed to the public eye, where the paints are invented, manufactured and tested all day long.
We even discover surprising kinds of paints, with various effects ranging from sand-like to small crystals glittering soflty..
The outside building displays very colorful walls.
We also glimpsed a few handpainted logos and billboards on the walls of hardware stores in town, further evidence of the dedication Harry and his colleagues put into their work.
RSS website