Sign Preservation
Preserving, protecting and restoring ghost signs.
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Fonts Inspired by Ghost (and other) Signs
Earlier this year I was lucky to attend the launch of Lost & Foundry, a collection of fonts created and published by Fontsmith in collaboration with M&C Saatchi. They are inspired by various of pieces of historic signage in Soho, and funds raised from their sale all goes to support the charitable work of the […]
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It’s All Popping Off in Deptford Market Yard
In Deptford, South East London, the processes of development/gentrification are having an impact on the area’s walls, including ghost signs. The following is cribbed from two Twitter threads, here and here, largely focused on the Deptford Market Yard. First up is this shelter sign from WW2. On 16 July the Deptford Society tweeted in a […]
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Recycling & Rearranging Ghost Signs
The above fragment of a ghost sign was revealed by the demolition of the adjascent building in Melbourne in 2014, as documented by Al Briggs at RMIT… “The majority of existing ghost signs that remain in suburban Melbourne are signs that were originally painted on the side walls of our Milk Bars – local shops […]
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Brilliant at Las Vegas’ Neon Museum
[This is a reposting of the original blog post on Better Letters.] Since 1996 Las Vegas’ Neon Museum has put the city’s decommissioned signage on display in its ‘bone yard’ exhibit. It was already a ‘must visit’ lettering location but has now been boosted by an innovative treatment of the historic pieces found there. Craig […]
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64,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Cave Paintings
Continuing the occassional exploration of ‘ancient’ signs, I was thrilled to hear of this evidence that Neanderthals were busy painting the walls of caves across Spain. This species, almost dubbed Homo Stupidus (yes, stupid man!), were not previously known for this type of cultural activity, and this remarkable work has discarded that prejudice for good. […]
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The Enduring Legacy of the Joshua Brothers Distillery
Pickles Street in Melbourne was once home to the Joshua Brothers Distillery, and later United Distillers. The latter adorned the building with a series of painted bottles depicting the products that they distributed in Australia. The pieces were painted in the 1960s by signwriter Keith Martin and are wonderfully detailed pieces, reminiscent of Colossal Media’s […]