From Signage to Switchplates

We blog to tell stories, old and new. Today we’re going deep into our studio’s history, before the time of blogs. Luttmann Studios began in 1983 producing some of the finest signage in the country for the hospitality industry. Artifaqt was added in 2005 out of all that knowledge and experience when we had an itch to design and make serveware and other products for the home.

We have a lot of stories . . . like when, where and why did John ever learn to wield a wood chisel? And what were we doing between 1983 & 2005? But today is a photo-heavy introduction to Luttmann Studios, jumping into the 1990’s, where there’s a nice bridge to Artifaqt.

Back then we were helping a whole lot of people find their hotel rooms around the world.

We were doing a lot of other sculptural signage for each of these hotels, but a huge portion of the job was room numbers – the average project had 1000 rooms. Each number was a combination of reproducing the basic design plus a custom number with its Braille equivalent. The numbers are integrated into the castings, not added or painted on later. These were a tremendous opportunity to hone skills in sculpting, rubber mold-making, composite casting, layered casting and custom composite development (to mimic stone and other materials).

In 2002, we started to explore an additional line of business to supplement the ebb and flow of this kind of project specified contract work.  We sought production that capitalized more fully on our reproduction capabilities and looked for new markets for our designs and ideas. Hmm…

At the time, my dad (John) was looking for switchplates for our house that could stand on their own as intentional design elements. After searching the marketplace and finding mostly kitsch and commodity, he decided to make them. When my mom heard this she said, ”we won’t live here long enough for that to happen!” In 2005, we started Artifaqt, developing a decorative accessory line to complement our contract work. We’re still doing contract work as Luttmann Studios and have added a link on Artifaqt.com for the curious.

We all understood why my mom said that, but 15 years later my house has switchplates and we are still making them from our shop in Phoenixville, PA.

Now that you’ve heard the process behind the product…

Here is our full line of switchplates, rich in history and design.