Staff at a Hove-based sign company are celebrating an invitation from the Queen today.

Best Signs will attend the Bankside Gallery to celebrate the bicentenary of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS).

The RWS approached the company in January to manufacture and install a 32ft-long banner, which would normally cost hundreds of pounds, to hang outside the gallery.

The company, based in Victoria Terrace, donated the sign for free.

The firm later received a call from the RWS inviting them to the event in the presence of The Queen.

Co-owners Fraser Thomson and Marc Munier will mingle with just 70 other people from across the UK at the invitation-only event on London's South Bank.

Fraser said: "It's really nice to be appreciated for something but to get to meet the Queen is incredible."

Wednesday February 18, 2004