Sign Collections

The Greatest Wonder of the World

While on my recent travels I was lucky enough to stumble upon The Greatest Wonder of the World exhibition at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The banner outside in big gold letters of various scripts obviously attracted my attention, and what a treat it was (and still is until 12th […]

5 May 2013

Sydney ghostsigns from Finding the Radio Book

This and a number of other ghostsigns images from Sydney, Australia, are featured on the Finding the Radio Book blog. Stefan notes that he didn’t find a huge number on his visit there, many overlapping with those on the Preserve site. This could be due to the nature of the places visited i.e. more central […]

1 Dec 2012

Liverpool Ghost Signs by Caroline and Phil Bunford

Today sees the publication of the UK’s first ghostsigns book. Liverpool Ghost Signs by Caroline and Phil Bunford is “a sideways look at the city’s advertising history” and features over 150 images of fading, crumbling and disused signage. Caroline and Phil were almost single-handedly responsible for the material from Liverpool in the History of Advertising […]

15 Nov 2012

Ghostsigns from Invisible Bordeaux

Tim Pike runs the Invisible Bordeaux blog. I recently helped him find some locations in the area for a new series of posts about ghostsigns. In addition to this first blog post about ghostsigns in Bordeaux, Tim has cleverly plotted them all on a Google map which he will add to as he makes more […]

3 Nov 2012

Jamaican Dancehall Signs by Maxine Walters

Gabriel Heatwave sent me a treat of a link to this article about a new book and exhibition celebrating the hand-painted signs used to advertise dancehall events in Jamaica. A copy of the book is on order and will be reviewed at a later date. (Order yours here.) These signs are amazing and come from […]

6 Oct 2012

HAT Ghostsigns Archive upgrade

The Ghostsigns Archive has been updated as part of the wider upgrade to the History of Advertising Trust website. There are not only more photos available but also a new search function which allows you to browse just the ghostsigns pages. This is not the main site search but the one pictured above immediately before […]

3 Oct 2012

Hamburg Alphabet by Chris Campe

Hamburg Alphabet by Chris Campe is a delightful expose of one German city’s signage and public lettering. Featuring 220 images it catalogues these examples in alphabetical order according to the word spelled on the sign. The pages are visually striking, offering both similarities and sharp contrasts between different signs. This is testimony to Campe’s work […]

29 Aug 2012

Sample pages from ‘Hand Painted Signs of Kratie’ book

Here are some sample pages from my forthcoming book, ‘Hand Painted Signs of Kratie’. It is a study of the hand painted form in a small provincial capital in North East Cambodia, currently my home. (Read more blog posts about hand painted signs in Cambodia.) The book is set to be about 100 pages long […]

4 Aug 2012

Mark Spurgeon’s Preserve project in ProDesign

I’ve just come across this article in ProDesign magazine which profiles Mark Spurgeon of the Preserve project in New Zealand. I’ve written about Mark’s work before and how there are parallels with my own interest in ghostsigns.  This article reinforces those similarities. You can visit Mark’s site at www.preserve.co.nz, it is a real treasure trove […]

3 Aug 2012

French ghostsigns blog: Les murs peints s’affichent

Les murs peints s’affichent is a blog written by Philippe Célérier on the topic of ghostsigns in France. He adds updates quite regularly and it is well worth following if you are interested in hand painted signs on buildings from this country which seems to have so many. The image above is taken from this post […]

29 Jul 2012

Los Angeles murals photographed by Ernest A. Long

Daniel Lohmann kindly shared the link to this archive of Los Angeles mural photography from Ernest A. Long. There is an introductory article on the Getty education blog and the collection contains 200 images, all taken between 1973 and 1883. Like London it seems that Los Angeles also has a proud tradition of mural art, I […]

28 Jul 2012

More San Francisco Ghostsigns mapped

The latest research by Kasey Smith of the Perception Filter blog is now plotted on a map with images and research available by clicking on each marker. It’s building into quite a collection and shows at a local level part of my vision for a global mapping of hand painted advertising on buildings.

25 Jul 2012

Ghostsigns from Krakow in Poland

Areta Kovalska’s ‘Shadows of a Forgotten World’ blog continues to offer up excellent material from Eastern Europe. This time she has travelled to Poland and documented some of the beautiful ghostsigns of Krakow, after the previously featured examples from Lviv in Ukraine. I love the one shown above for its innovative use of the large brick […]

24 Jul 2012

Melbourne’s Ghostsigns with Finding the Radio Book

Finding the Radio Book is a fascinating piece of work being undertaken by Dr Stefan Schutt of Victoria University. It all started with a piece of paper floating in the wind and has now evolved into a research project focussed on the archival records of the Lewis & Skinner signwriting company who ceased trading in the […]

20 Jul 2012

Fort Collins and Watertown Ghostsigns

Building on the various tours and trails already published on this site, here are some more: Download a pdf of the Fort Collins Ghost Signs Tour (1) Download a pdf of the Fort Collins Ghost Signs Tour (2) Download a pdf of the Watertown Murals and Ghost Signs Tour Besides the two walking tours above, […]

17 Jul 2012

Melbourne’s Milk Bars and the signs that adorned them

This is one of the shop signs found in this article which profiles the decline in Melbourne’s Milk Bars, retail outlets that once dotted the streets.  The article features a collection of 22 other shop signs and fascias and was spotted by Stef on the investigatory Finding the Radio Book blog.  The comments suggest that […]

28 Jun 2012

What signs say in Cambodia, a selection from Kratie

I’m planning a book to profile a collection of photos of hand painted signs that I’ve taken in my current hometown of Kratie in Cambodia.  As part of this I’m working with a local called Chhay to translate the text from the signs from Khmer to English.  It is proving a worthwhile exercise, both for […]

21 Jun 2012

Five years of Ghostsigns and a new website

Today is the 5th birthday of this blog following the first ever post on 16th June 2007.  In that time, including my stints on blogger, google sites and posterous, I have uploaded 415 posts, an average of seven per month. As a birthday present I have upgraded the site to a hosted WordPress content management […]

16 Jun 2012

Ukrainian Ghostsigns: Shadows of a Forgotten Past

Areta Kovalska just added a link to this post about ghostsigns from Lviv in Ukraine to the Ghostsigns Facebook page.  It not only has some fascinating images but also some insightful observations on the meaning of these pieces of painted advertising from the former Soviet Union.  See more from Areta on the Shadows from a […]

14 Jun 2012

The ‘Books of Clio’ is a great blog for ghostsigns in France

I’ve just started to follow this blog which is regularly throwing up interesting material.  Above and below are three of my favourites from the last couple of months (from here, here and here), the first for the interesting arrow shape, the Zanussi one because I’ve never seen a washing machine brand advertised in this way […]

12 Jun 2012

Hand-Painted Gambia (and Jamaican Bonus)

A recent trip to a wedding in The Gambia, West Africa, was another piece of delight for a hand painted signage enthusiast like me.  In a similar fashion to my February visit to Bangladesh I was often distracted by the variety of forms found in the small part of the country we visited.  Also like […]

27 May 2012

William Stage investigates some of the ghostsigns of St Louis ahead of forthcoming book

Photo: William Stage This article offers a preview of some of the material that is lined up for the forthcoming book, Ghost Signs of St Louis.  I’m very honoured to have been invited by William Stage to write a forward to this follow up to the definitive ghostsigns book and the postcard book from last […]

22 May 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