Sam Roberts

Jo Tomkins

Earlier this year Jo Tomkins, then a student from Ravensbourne College, got in touch for some advice on her graphic design project focused on Stoke Newington ghostsigns.  I tried to help out as much as I could and so I was really happy when she sent through the final output of the project, a folding […]

18 Nov 2009

The Ritual Project

Stella Artois and Colossal Media are collaborating in New York to use hand painted advertising over 21 days to demonstrate the ‘ritual’ of pouring a glass of Stella.  This ritual involves nine steps and by day 11 they’re on step three, mainly due to adverse weather conditions. It’s going to be a busy ten days […]

18 Nov 2009

Londonist

I was interviewed by Jaz over at the Londonist blog a couple of weeks back and this was published on Monday.  It’s always nice to get some profile for the project, even nicer that this came as a result of other bloggers citing it in their earlier interviews for Londonist. Anyway, check it out here.

18 Nov 2009

Ghostsigns on Facebook

I’ve created a page on Facebook for the project which contains videos, photos, links and more. If you use Facebook then you can become a ‘fan’ which will add updates from the page into your news feed. Have a look at what’s going on and join. Ghostsigns on Facebook

15 Nov 2009

Surrey Mirror

The appearance of this sign in Redhill, Surrey acted as a catalyst for an article on the subject of ghostsigns in the Surrey Mirror.  This was kindly sent to me by David Griffiths as it wasn’t published on their website. Some pictures of the other signs that get referenced can be seen here. Click on […]

14 Nov 2009

Emmanuel Nouaillier Update

Just under a year ago I featured the work of Emmanuel Nouaillier whose artistic treatment of the ghostsigns in his native France is fascinating.  It’s worth having a read of this site to understand some of the meticulous technique that goes into producing his work. Emmanuel describes the final print output as, “a mix between sculpture, […]

14 Nov 2009

Gillette/Criterion (RIP)

Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 (July 2007) Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 (November 2009) Two RIPs in one day, what’s happening! Again, this happened a little while ago but it was only today that I managed to get out with my camera to take a photograph. This was once one in a series […]

12 Nov 2009

BP (RIP)

BP, Kings Cross Road, London, WC1 (July 2007) BP, Kings Cross Road, London, WC1 (November 2009) It’s been a while since this happened but those based in London may have noticed the erection of some new flats on Kings Cross Road which now obscure the vast majority of this BP sign that was once there. […]

12 Nov 2009

Concord Painting

The ever prolific Frank Jump who blogs on ghostsigns over in New York has uncovered a nice piece of history having been contacted by a relative of someone who painted this sign [update: link no longer available] over there. It turns out that the company that he worked for (Concord Painting) is still in business and […]

12 Nov 2009

Forms Received

Just a quick update on the progress of the archive. So far over 90 forms have been received from those who have been contributing to the Flickr group. Thank you all, the plan is for the online archive to be launched in January 2010. There’s still some way to go in order to ensure that […]

3 Nov 2009

The Cobbled Yard

I was tipped off about this new hand painted sign and got these photos some time ago. The Cobbled Yard sells all sorts of antiques so it’s quite fitting that they should use traditional signwriting to tout their wares. I have been given the contact details of the signwriter who produced this so hope to […]

3 Nov 2009

Bath Ghostsigns

A short visit to Bath and Bristol over the weekend allowed me to visit a handful of west country signs. These maybe aren’t the best examples from that part of the world but if you want to see more then I would recommend checking out Aztec West‘s collection over on Flickr (Bristol and Elsewhere). The […]

3 Nov 2009

Trades & Hospitality

I’ve been a little tied up with changing jobs and planning a wedding but am now back to blogging and pushing the archive forwards again. First up is the final montage in the current series, this time celebrating signs from two categories, Trades, Builders, Plumbers, Handymen and Hotels, Cafes, Restaurants.  These have been combined under […]

22 Oct 2009

The Archive, Phase 2

[The following blog post was written in August 2009 and signified the second phase of the effort to create a Ghostsigns Archive. This has been realised with the archive opening for business on 19th Mrch 2010. Visit this page for more information.] Commit your photos to the Ghostsigns Archive. Just under five months ago I set […]

8 Aug 2009

Ghostsigns and the long tail…

I’ve been doing a bit of work on the archive and recording the number of photos contributed by each photographer involved.  (These are from of an edited set of about 1,500 selected from the c.2,500 so far in the Flickr group.) The graph above plots each photographer along the bottom and the number of photos […]

8 Aug 2009

Latest Locations & Some Missing

Following the previous mapping of the archive postcodes, here’s an update representing the c.600 signs catalogued for the archive across the key categories being worked on. There are also quite a few that are still waiting on location information, specifically street names and postcodes. These are listed below (alphabetical by county). If anyone can help […]

19 Jul 2009

Ariel / Writers update

Photos courtesy of Graham Parker. Following some of the information provided by Jerry in the comments on this post about the Ariel/Writers sign in Kennington I’ve been sent a couple of fascinating pictures by Graham Parker. The first of these shows the front of the shop as it once was, although looking pretty closed down […]

6 Jul 2009

My Merton

Yelfy over at Faded London has just had a nice piece published by local magazine ‘My Merton’ which includes a picture of the full sign above with the covering billboard removed.  Also read Yelfy’s post about the article. Nice work Yelfy!

6 Jul 2009

Media & Shops

This montage is again a little bit of a mixed bag featuring signs from the Media, Cinema & Entertainment and Shops & Retail categories.  See more images in the Flickr group being used to set up the Ghost Signs Archive. Thanks again to everyone contributing their images, keep them coming! If you have any interesting […]

3 Jul 2009

Interesting Perspectives

These three images were submitted back to back into the ghostsigns pool being used to establish the archive. They stood out because of their very unique perspectives on three signs that are frequently photographed. For comparison I’ve included my own photos for two of them. This is michaelpickard‘s photo of the Donovan Bros sign from […]

27 Jun 2009

Odds & Sods

This montage is a little bit of a mixed bag featuring signs from the Razors & Stationery and Pets & Feed categories which also include some for paint and coal companies.  See more images in the Flickr group being used to set up the Ghost Signs Archive. Thanks again to everyone contributing their images, keep […]

23 Jun 2009

Mapping Ghostsigns

Here’s a neat little thing, all the postcodes in the archive so far plotted onto a map.  This gives a really good sense of just how much this is becoming a nationwide project thanks to all the efforts of those submitting their photos to the Flickr group. If you go to the map proper then […]

22 Jun 2009

Chemists & Health

Some great signs in the category of Chemists, Medical & Health.  See more images in the Flickr group being used to set up the Ghost Signs Archive. Here’s a little montage featuring some of the most interesting signs. Thanks again to everyone contributing their images, keep them coming! If you have any interesting ghost signs […]

20 Jun 2009

Services & Financial

Some great signs in the category of Services, Banks & Financial.  See more images in the Flickr group being used to set up the Ghost Signs Archive. Here’s a little montage featuring some of the most interesting signs. Thanks again to everyone contributing their images, keep them coming! If you have any interesting ghost signs […]

20 Jun 2009