Louth-born Ashley designs front cover of national magazine

Talented Ashley Willerton has excelled over the past few years in traditional sign writing and hand lettering, which lead him to his recent big break working with the well-known publication - read by thousands.

The 29-year-old, who now who now lives in Newcastle, attended Monks Dyke School in Louth and his parents still live in the area.

Proud mum, Sheila Willerton from Great Carlton, said: “I am so proud of my son and the skills he has gained have all been self taught.

“It just goes to show that you can do anything you want when you set your mind to the end goal.”

Ashley studied media and marketing at Leeds university, but half way through his degree realised the subject was not what he wanted - instead it was the creative side of things that inspired him.

After graduating he was fortunate to secure a marketing job with a local web design company, which opened lots of doors and helped him to become one step closer to his dream job.

Ashley stumbled upon a web design blog on hand lettering and he was instantly hooked on the prospect of pressing forward with this as a career.

Ashley said: “The idea of hand lettering and sign writing fascinated me and I needed an outlet outside of my day-to-day job to expand on it.

“It then became a constant mission to learn all that there was to know about the art.

“I wanted to educate myself on all of the traditional methods, getting it perfect - and it spiralled on from there.”

Ashley added: “I managed to leave my job in August 2014 to make hand lettering and sign writing into my main career.

“I have ended up having some fantastic opportunities during the last year.”

Ashley’s most recent opportunity was designing the front cover of the Boxing Day magazine for The Independent .

He said: “This chance has been absolutely amazing.

“I am now excited to see what the craft takes me next.”