Sign Collections

Australian ghostsigns profiled in this 2008 Stephen Banham article

Photo: Stephen Banham (Makes me want some Monty Leisurewear!) Full article here mainly focused on the hide and seek nature of many ghostsigns, including this line which echoes mine and Sebastian Groes’ urging against nostalgia: Instead of feeling mournful about the demise or entombing of these letterforms, perhaps we should embrace the dynamics of the ever-changing […]

14 May 2012

Melbourne’s signage in beautiful book form

Characters by Stephen Banham looks to be one of the must have new books on signage and public lettering.  It is high on my want list after reading this review sent to me by Geraldine of Birmingham Graphic DNA and this review picked up by Faythe of The Sign Painter Movie.  There is an accompanying […]

12 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

Ghostsigns of Winnippeg, Manitoba

Rick kindly sent me this collection of Canadian ghostsigns, including one that appears to be painted on the side of a lorry.  He gives some background: “Here are some photos I took while working on a movie call ‘The Assasination of Jesse James’ in the City of Winnippeg, Manitoba.  The City is full of these […]

15 Apr 2012

Walls by Deidi von Schaewen

Deidi von Schaewen’s ‘Walls’ is a lovely hardback book that documents hand painted advertising on walls in the 1960s and 1970s.  It’s geographical coverage is noteworthy with examples from Berlin, London, New York, Paris and elsewhere in France.  Most of the photography is in black and white with a handful of colour images, all of […]

11 Apr 2012

Digital Engagement & the Ghostsigns Archive: History Workshop Article

Laura Carletti and I have written a short paper for History Workshop Online.  This builds on the survey and offers some reflections on the development of the archive in 2009-10.

4 Apr 2012

Hand painted propaganda from Chairman Mao and the cultural revolution

Collection of seven images here.  Apparently these large handpainted and wall mounted posters were called ‘dazibao’ which means big character poster.

4 Apr 2012

Mapping San Francisco’s Ghostsigns

This project [Link expired] is seeking to create a comprehensive google map of ghostsigns in San Francisco.  It is run by Kasey Smith of the Perception Filter blog (recommended) and has already made significant progress. Many of the stories surrounding the documented signs are published on the blog, including the reveal of the one pictured […]

25 Mar 2012

Parkinsons Pills signs from across the UK: ‘They will buck you up’!

This is a great set of photos for the Parkinsons Pills brand from a site dedicated to the company.  A couple of these appear in the archive but the others are new to me, including one where the photographer claims to have got bored part way through restoring it.  A follow up post reveals this […]

23 Mar 2012

Chicago Ghostsigns mapped online and photographed for thesis

This website [Link expired] allows you to browse locations in Chicago and find the neighbourhood ghostsigns there.  It was created by Nicole Donohoe for her thesis and has some great examples from this city which I haven’t previously seen many signs from.  I’m not sure if the project is still active but there is a […]

17 Mar 2012

Vernacular Typography interviewed by Vanishing New York

Photo: Molly Woodward, Vernacular Typography Read the interview here.  Further good news is that this project is now fully funded so expect more news in the coming months…

12 Mar 2012

More Vancouver Ghostsigns and related article

Following this post on the main blog I stumbled across this small collection of Vancouver ghostsigns and a link to this article [Link expired] where some of the local heritage and conservation issues are discussed.  The situation in that respect is very similar to that in the UK.  (A variety of blog post related to […]

28 Feb 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

Record Breaking Roofad

I’ve been sitting on this for such a long time that I almost completely forgot about it. In fact, Mark sent me details of it back in June 2009 so hands up for my complete slackness on that front! It is another example of a ‘roofad‘ but one with significant exposure, being situated on top of […]

11 Feb 2012

No Relevance: Hand-Painted Signage, Gallery and History

More photos and this nice bit of history at: http://www.norelevance.com/current-exhibits/signs/ Albrecht Dürer, in the dedication of his 1535 treatise “Of the Just Shaping of Letters,” expressed such a sentiment with regards to the lost Greco-Roman art of lettering: “In what honor and dignity this art was anciently held amongst the Greeks and Romans, the old authors […]

4 Feb 2012

Hand Painted Bangladesh

As part of my work with VSO I recently attended a study tour to Bangladesh, a country with many similarities to Cambodia but also many differences.  The study was great but I have to admit that I was perpetually distracted by the sheer quantity and (often) quality of hand painted signage, decoration and other forms […]

2 Feb 2012

HAT Archive: January 2012 Additions

A number of new additions have been made to the History of Advertising Trust Ghostsigns Archive.  Some of these are new photos of signs already covered in the archive but many are completely new material for the collection.  Here are a handful of my favourite new additions, the rest can be found by searching for […]

31 Jan 2012

Stoke Newington Ghostsigns: History Pin Tour

After discovering the ‘Ghost Signs of Louisville’ Tour on History Pin I couldn’t resist having a go myself. The preliminary result is my first tour, ‘Stoke Newington Ghostsigns’.  I reckon the walk would take a couple of hours depending on how long you stop to photograph the 18 featured signs and former locations of signs. […]

18 Dec 2011

Ghost Signs of Louisville

Following last week’s post about Phil Baines’ London lettering tour I came across this ‘Ghost Signs of Louisville’ tour. It has been created by the University of Louisville Photographic Archive (in particular their Ghostsigns collection) using History Pin. I’m keeping a list of all the tours and trails I discover and these are listed in the […]

16 Dec 2011

Public Lettering in Central London: Phil Baines’ Walking Tour

This well know Kings Cross palimpsest features in Phil Baines‘ updated walking tour of public lettering in London (thanks to Geraldine Marshall for the link on the Facebook page). He’s now created this as a ‘Map Tale’ which can be viewed below or in full screen here [Links since expired]. This adds to a handful […]

10 Dec 2011

Signs of Cambodia

Over a year since I first wrote about hand painted signs in Cambodia I thought it was time for a brief update. First are some examples from my travels around the country, followed by some other pieces of signage that amused me in one way or another. First to Kep, a nice use of the […]

25 Nov 2011

Fading Ads of New York City

The eagerly awaited release of Frank Jump’s ‘Fading Ads of New York City’ book is almost upon us. I was fortunate enough to be offered a sneak preview by Frank himself so here are some reflections on the book to whet your appetite and hopefully encourage you to get a copy as soon as it’s […]

4 Nov 2011

Love Local Landmarks and the Hackney Society

To protect or not to protect? As I’ve discussed before, my interest in Ghostsigns started in my home borough of Hackney in London. The concentration of specimens in Stoke Newington intrigued me and I had to learn more about them. I was soon finding and photographing great examples not only in Hackney but across the […]

29 Oct 2011

49 New Signs

Since handing over day-to-day responsibility for the archive to the History of Advertising Trust there has been a steady influx of new material. 49 new signs have been uploaded to the online galleries and this means that c.750 are now documented through the collective efforts of photographers across the country. I’ve listed the codes for […]

5 Aug 2011