Inspired by Signs
Artistic and other interpretations of ghost signs.
-
Ghosting with Ghost Signs: An Experiment in Risography
One of the things I most enjoy about my work on ghostsigns is getting involved with student projects using the signs as a springboard into other creative processes. I’ve helped on a number of these, most recently the work of Gloria Soria at London College of Communication. She has now completed her studies and took […]
13 Aug 2014
-
Faux Ghostsigns for Coca-Cola’s London HQ
Ghostsigns for Coca-Cola are found all over the USA and other parts of the world, although I know of only one in the UK. However, there’s now a few inside the company’s London head quarters, although these are strictly in the ‘faux’ category. I was involved in advising on its creation and finding the team […]
2 Jul 2014
-
Scotland in Detail: Vintage Signs from Dave Cowan
This fabulous montage of Scottish ghostsigns was created by Dave Cowan of Scotland in Detail. It is available as a print from his store and he says the following of his work and this creation [Links expired]. I’ve been fascinated by these old signs for a few years now. They’re glimpses into the past and […]
26 Mar 2014
-
Moving Walls to Save a Ghost Sign
In an effort to save this fading and rusting shop front, Beth and Tony Walls moved the entire building 150ft to allow for a highway widening project. Martin Garfinkel of Roadside Gallery has captured it beautifully in this fine art print, available to buy here. Martin tells the story as follows. RE Ringer General Merchandise, […]
14 Mar 2014
-
Rediscovering Club Labrynth on a Type Safari
This is my creation following Sunday’s Type Safari in Dalston with Type Tasting. It is a composite of various pieces of public lettering and signage that I photographed while on ‘safari’ with Type Tasting’s Sarah Hyndman. The brief was to bring a phrase that represents Dalston for me, and then to seek out its letters […]
21 Jan 2014
-
Cassannet: A Dubonnet-Inspired Typeface
This film is promoting the typeface Cassannet, inspired by the iconic Dubonnet triptych found on numerous ghost signs across France. The campaign was originally designed for the brand by the artist Cassandre and this typeface has been designed by Atipo in Spain. Thank you to Jess over on the University of Wolverhampton Visual Communication blog for passing this […]
24 Nov 2013
-
Anarchy on the Walls: Ghostsigns, Street Art & Graffiti
Kasey Smith’s ‘Perception Filter‘ blog is well worth a follow for all ghostsigns enthusiasts. Her dispatches from San Francisco have been a big influence on me, as evidenced by the number of times I’ve decided to highlight her observations, insights, investigations and mapping efforts here on Ghostsigns. Her latest post concerns the work above by artist Augustine […]
27 Oct 2013
-
Inch & Co Chemists Inspires Poetry
Coming back from my visit to South London I also spotted this ghostsign advertising Inch & Co Cash Chemists on Kennington Park Road. As I was trying to recall the location I searched for the company name and found a couple of references to it on the Formerly blog. The sign has provided a springboard […]
20 Oct 2013
-
Beanfeast: Ghostsigns at Type Tasting
This is my/Ghostsigns’ submission to an inspiring project from Type Tasting, part of this year’s London Design Festival. It will be displayed alongside works from myriad designers and artists, including Alan Kitching and Ralph Steadman (Wow!), at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 14-19 September. The brief was to create a word that completes the sentence […]
1 Sep 2013
-
Liminal Space: past/presence by Mari Boman
Mari Boman, a photographer, took ghostsigns as the subject matter for her project titled ‘Liminal Space: past/presence’. The result is this series of nine beautiful images of some of London’s most well known ghostsigns. Not only that but the titles offer cryptic clues as to the stories these signs tell us about London’s history and […]
25 Aug 2013
-
Faux ghostsigns, authenticity and the passage of time: Guest post from Best Dressed Signs
‘Faux’ ghostsigns are a relatively new phenomenon but are appearing with increasing frequency around the world. I invited Meredith Kasabian, of Boston’s Best Dressed Signs and The Pre-Vinylite Society, to share her thoughts given her and Josh Luke’s recent work on the example above. Several months ago, Josh and I received a request to paint […]
21 Jul 2013
-
Ghost Signs of Kidderminster by Laurie Abraham
This collage, ‘Ghost Signs of Kidderminster’, by Laurie Abraham scooped first prize in a competition to depict the heritage of Kidderminster in the Midlands. It puts together a number of signs of different types from around the central market area, including those painted by hand, chiselled from stone, relief lettering and even brick colours used […]
20 Oct 2012
-
Lyndsey Smith and the signs of Bath and Lewes
The Circulating Library sign from Bath is certainly one of the most popular and regularly photographed ghostsigns in the UK [See comments on this post for some more on this sign]. However, this is the first time I’ve seen it appear in watercolour. This painting by Lyndsey Smith was the runner up in the Bath […]
5 Sep 2012
-
Dana Forrester, ghostsigns and classic cars
Work on my book means that I haven’t been blogging as diligently as usual so this is getting back to it. Through William Stage (author of ‘Ghost Signs‘) I became acquainted with American watercolour artist Dana Forrester. Dana is an artist who uses ghostsigns in his original works, alongside a number of other artists who […]
22 Aug 2012
-
American Roadside sign art from Bill Martin
Bennie Frazier’s retro fashion store in Sweetwater, Texas, is an unlikely home for a collection of original artworks from Bill Martin, late resident of the same town. These depict the colourful roadside signs that once characterised American highways, often using neon and sometimes as big as the buildings they were positioned on. These were referred […]
22 Jul 2012
-
Fuller, Smith & Turner: Chiswick Ales & Stouts
This new hand painted sign on the building housing the Union Tavern was sent to me by regular correspondent Ross Corben. It is advertising the famous Fuller, Smith & Turner brewery from nearby Chiswick and has clearly been produced to have a dated look, in keeping with some of the ‘faux’ ghostsigns discussed previously. It […]
7 Jul 2012
-
Faux ghostsigns
Sometimes hand painted signs on buildings are created to look old and weathered intentionally. The example pictured (original photo on Flickr) was produced in 2003 for the Disney film, ‘Miracle’. (Does anyone have a clip showing where and how it features in the film?) Another Disney example is this sign for the ‘New Orleans Trading […]
1 Jul 2012
-
East End shop fronts exhibition profiled on Spitalfields Life
Photo: Alan Dein Interview with Alan Dein and more preview images of this exhibition on the Spitalfiends Life blog.
21 May 2012
-
Photographic exhibition of East End shop fronts opens today
I’m gutted I won’t be able to visit this exhibition (pdf flyer below) of Alan Dein‘s late 1980s images of shop fronts in Tower Hamlets. If anyone writes a review then let me know and I’ll link to it here. (Hat tip to Lorna at History Workshop Online for the discovery.) Download exhibition poster.
17 May 2012
-
Dr Ken Jones’ mosaic technique for ghostsigns photography
Dr Ken Jones is a former NASA imaging expert whose work in the 1970s included digitally photographing the surface of Mars. This required the use of image ‘mosaics’, a technique which he is now applying to the more terrestrial subject of ghostsigns.Dr Jones’ work starts from a fairly simple concept of what he wants from the […]
18 Apr 2012
-
Penge Fashion House Considers Hand-Painted Signage Options
Anyone know if this and/or this have been followed through to execution?
17 Apr 2012
-
Rick Janzen of Streamline Studios creates a ‘ghostsign’ from scratch
Photos: Rick Janzen This photo essay shows the various stages in recreating the effect of a ghostsign using water-based paints (the rest of the blog is worth checking out too, especially this post and this one). This appears to be a different technique to that employed by Colossal Media at the end of this video. […]
11 Mar 2012
-
The Swear: ‘Ghost Signs’
My web crawlers sometimes throw up completely unexpected references to ghostsigns, this one being a song by gothic rockers, The Swear. I contacted singer/songwriter Elizabeth Elkins to ask if there was any connection to Ghostsigns of the painted form and sure enough there was… “Ghost Signs takes the idea of physical ghost signs and turns […]
5 Mar 2012
-
Article charting the history and early photography of advertising painted on walls
Daniel Lohmann posted an article he’s written to the ghostsigns Facebook group. It is in german and the original can be found here [Link expired] with links to full size copies of the diverse set of images referenced. The pdf of the original as it appeared in published form is also available here. I’ve run the […]
26 Feb 2012
