Keen-eyed members of and visitors to Gonville & Caius College will have noticed new signage following a changing of the guard.

Following the retirement of Terry Drake, Richard Law became the new signwriter at Caius. He has already made his mark – adding names of offices in Tree Court to support College members and visitors following an updated policy. Previously there was just the staircase initial.

Richard has been a signwriter for 42 years, since leaving school aged 16 to serve a five-year apprenticeship. He has been signwriter at Pembroke College, Cambridge for 32 years and at Balliol, Oxford for six years. He works on honours boards at schools as well, but his main task is rowing – and decorative blades. 

Richard estimates he paints “a few hundred” oars a year for his business, Trophy Blades, in work which “really never ends”. He says each oar takes eight to nine hours, but in stages. He decorates blades for rowing clubs around the world.

“From an old oar to a presentation oar, you come to an end result and a lot of people are pleased to have that oar and really appreciate it,” he says.

Some of his satisfied customers are Olympic champions, as Richard is the chosen signwriter for the Leander Rowing Club in Henley which counts Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent among its distinguished alumni. His blades have also been sent to the United States, Australia and the Bahamas.

His blades work takes place in isolation in his workshop south of Cambridge. So Richard enjoys working at colleges and the interactions with students, staff and academics, many of whom are thrilled to see their names painted in the traditional manner.

“Everybody’s friendly and they’re interested in what you’re doing. You do have quite a lot of conversations,” he says.

A lot of Richard’s work comes through word of mouth and he is always busy. He is saddened by the decline in the number of signwriters and would like to take on an apprentice.

“If somebody’s interested in art and design it could suit them. They would need to be patient,” Richard says. 

“There’s a lot of satisfaction – there’s always an end result and it’s nice to see people’s pleasure from what you do.”