Sign Initiatives

Food & Drink

So the Food & Drink category was a popular one with plenty of material submitted to the Flickr group being used to set up the Ghost Signs Archive.  Here’s a little montage featuring some of the most interesting signs, adding to last week’s on Booze & Fags. Thanks again to everyone contributing their images, keep […]

16 May 2009

Booze & Fags 2

Since creating the montage of signs received in the Booze & Fags category a handful more have been added to the pool which are worth sharing (see below). I’m currently working on Food & Drink and it feels like the archive is finally arriving. A striking gable end for Hemmingways brewery in Leeds taken by […]

13 May 2009

Booze & Fags

So the archive is going well, there are now over 130 members who have collectively contributed over 850 pictures.  Thank you all, keep up the good work. If you not involved yet then get on board and find out more before adding your pictures. The approach I’m going to take from now on is to […]

10 May 2009

The Archive Kicks Off

The response to getting this archive off the ground has been fantastic, thank you all for your enthusiasm and efforts so far. There are already 60 members in the Flickr Group and over 450 images contributed. Below are some of my favourites so far, just some of the evidence that the archive is going to […]

23 Mar 2009

Maggie Jones joins the archive

Maggie Jones has signed up to contribute her work to the UK Ghost Signs archive.  Here’s one of my favourites from her set, a new addition to the Hovis collection, this one from Tooting in South London. You can get involved too, more information here and the Flickr group here.

22 Mar 2009

Ghost Signs, The Archive

[The following blog post was written in March 2009 and signified the start of the effort to create a Ghostsigns Archive. This has been realised with the archive opening for business on 19th March 2010. Visit this page for more information.] So, what’s this new look banner on the blog? It’s the start of a […]

21 Mar 2009

Exhibition & Press (USA)

Letitia Street at Market Street in Olde City, by Lawrence O’Toole Lawrence O’Toole from the The Philadelphia Ghost Sign Project has secured a month long exhibition at the PRIMER Microstudio.  For those readers who live anywhere near this it would be worth getting along, above is one example from Lawrence’s collection. In addition to this […]

7 Feb 2009

One Year On (www.ghostsigns.co.uk)

It has now been a year since I started writing this blog and making posts relating to research and other areas of interest. My first ever post showed the sign that first inspired me and, as fate would have it, has been selected by youtube for the still to introduce my latest Ghost Signs video/slideshow […]

16 Jun 2008

Frank Jump Interview

Just came across this on youtube, an interview with Frank Jump about his work in New York. Great to see some of his pictures full size and to hear some of the background to his fascination with the Ghost Signs or Fading Ads. I still need to schedule my trip over there, everyone who comes […]

2 Jun 2008

Diesel Wall

The fashion brand Diesel have picked up on the outdoor, big wall format with a creatively focussed competition, Diesel Wall, to fill the spaces they’ve booked on prominent locations in Manchester, New York, Zurich and Barcelona. The underlying premise is a revolt against the ‘pollution’ of public space with commercial messages by providing a canvass […]

28 Apr 2008

University College Falmouth

Last week I went to give a talk to the future copy writers and art directors on the University College Falmouth MA Creative Advertising.  This is a well respected course with graduates typically getting recruited into the creative departments of some of the best advertising agencies in the world. Thank you to Carolyn and Chris […]

26 Apr 2008

Jack Daniel’s

Some time ago now my uncle sent me two photos he took while visiting Newcastle (see below). These show Jack Daniel’s reviving the hand painted advertising medium by using a stencil to replicate the label design on walls across the city.  Comparing the two signs reveals that they are stencilled, most probably they did a […]

18 Jan 2008

Auckland Billboards

Dean wrote to me following the ban in Sao Paulo to let me know that it is now the politicians in Auckland, New Zealand, that are looking to outlaw billboards. However, they didn’t expect the advertising industry to fight back with a bit of characteristic creativity and develop a campaign to highlight what lies beneath […]

12 Oct 2007

ARUP Presentation

Last week I was kindly invited by Rebecca to come in and give a talk to some of her colleagues at ARUP. The particular division I spoke to are focussed on building facades and so there was some interest in this old way of using wall space. Again there were some interesting questions at the […]

19 Sep 2007

Literary London

Today Sebastian Groes and I presented a session on Ghost Signs to c.40 international delegates at the Literary London conference.  This is an event run by the Literary London journal and the key focus this year was representations of London in literature. Despite some technical difficulties early on we eventually got the projector working, albeit […]

20 Jul 2007

Ghost Signs Society/Club/Group

[Update: This idea has taken life in the various online locations for Ghostsigns.] I visited Louis Sheldon-Williams last night and saw some of his photographs which featured in his exhibition. There are some lovely shots including some that have since disappeared (this example can still be seen on the garage on this street). We talked […]

10 Jul 2007

Ghost Signs UK Video

Inspired by JDProductions’ Ghost Signs video I had to have a go myself. Here’s my first effort featuring “Loving Love” by Patsy Todd and 14 of my favourite signs from around London. It was made using MemoriesOnTV software. What fun, more to come! Also see the Only Fools & Horses video with a collection of […]

3 Jul 2007

Shop Local

Not all Brickads are Ghost Signs and the most recent examples I know of are from artist Bob and Roberta Smith as part of his ‘Shop Local’ campaign at Peer Gallery.  This involved bringing together artists and sign writers to recreate the old style of advertising on behalf of local Hoxton businesses. This photo is […]

18 Jun 2007