Art

Painted Ad Site

Wm Stage is back and this time he is taking his work online with the launch of his new Painted Ad website/blog. For those unfamiliar with Stage’s work then you should read a bit about his latest book, and also know that he authored the single most comprehensive volume about hand painted wall advertising back […]

10 Sep 2011

Brad Blackman

(PA)RK (H)ERE Oil on canvas, 5 x 7 inches © 2011 Brad Blackman It’s been a while since I’ve come across a new artist using Ghostsigns as a springboard for their own work. Today, one came into my inbox, this time from Brad Blackman in ‘music city’, Nashville, USA.  It is part of a series […]

24 Jan 2011

Lincoln

Photo: Paul Turner Another one bites the dust, this time for Blue Star/Regent in Lincoln. This sign had real star quality, if you’ll excuse the pun, and featured from the Travel & Transport gallery in the series of postcards produced to celebrate the opening of the HAT archive. This is another piece of evidence for […]

9 Sep 2010

Street Art

sarflondondunc, ever alert to the gradual shifts in our Ghostsigns landscape, alerted me to this new piece of street art positioned on the great Boyd Pianos sign on Shacklewell Lane, Hackney. It’s by the Canadian artist Specter and is part of the ‘If I saw you in heaven’ project. This attempts to “address the issue of […]

11 Aug 2010

Annette Smith

On the back of my post about the interview in Bath for BBC Radio 4’s Making History program I have been contacted by Bath artist and photographer Annette Smith.  By pure coincidence she currently has an exhibition running until this weekend at the Octagon in Bath as part of the ‘Fringe Arts Bath’ festival. She […]

9 Jun 2010

Tom Bland

In the course of researching and documenting ghostsigns from across the country I have come across many distinctive ways of interpreting the signs, via photographic means or in broader media such as paint and sculpture/models (see Martin Thompson, Stuart Free and Emmanuel Nouaillier for example). Recently I have discovered the work of photographer Tom Bland […]

19 Feb 2010

Martin Wilson

Fascinating work from Martin Wilson discovered in Ultrabold (see previous pieces on ghostsigns here and here).  Ultrabold is the quarterly journal of the St Bride Library which is just off Fleet Street. I discovered the library a couple of years ago and it really is one of London’s hidden treasures, especially for those interested in […]

4 Feb 2010

Stuart Free Interview

The Independent on Sunday have an interview with Stuart Free, the artist who created this painting of the Donovan Bros sign in Spitalfields before it was repainted.  (My original post about Stuart has more commentary and he is also mentioned in the ‘Interpretations’ segment of my recent talk at Middlesex University.) Read the full interview […]

17 Jan 2010

Jo Tomkins

Earlier this year Jo Tomkins, then a student from Ravensbourne College, got in touch for some advice on her graphic design project focused on Stoke Newington ghostsigns.  I tried to help out as much as I could and so I was really happy when she sent through the final output of the project, a folding […]

18 Nov 2009

Emmanuel Nouaillier Update

Just under a year ago I featured the work of Emmanuel Nouaillier whose artistic treatment of the ghostsigns in his native France is fascinating.  It’s worth having a read of this site to understand some of the meticulous technique that goes into producing his work. Emmanuel describes the final print output as, “a mix between sculpture, […]

14 Nov 2009

Interesting Perspectives

These three images were submitted back to back into the ghostsigns pool being used to establish the archive. They stood out because of their very unique perspectives on three signs that are frequently photographed. For comparison I’ve included my own photos for two of them. This is michaelpickard‘s photo of the Donovan Bros sign from […]

27 Jun 2009

Emmanuel Nouaillier

One of the best things that has happened since setting up this blog is people sending me ghost sign related materials from around the world. The most interesting of these are when the signs have been used as a springboard for artistic and other creative activities. Most recently I got a series of emails from […]

8 Dec 2008

Stuart Free

For my birthday earlier this week my girlfriend bought me a limited edition print from north London artist Stuart Free. It is a painting depicting the distinctive Donovan Bros. shopfront in Spitalfields which has always been one of my favourite sites in London. [Update here.] Stuart clearly produced this painting before the sign was recently […]

11 Sep 2008

Bile Beans Part 2

Although I’ve been aware of this Bile Beans sign for some time I was struck by Andy Johnson‘s picture seen here as it really highlights the brightness of the sign versus the surrounding area.It has been tinkered with slightly but provides an insight into how much the original signs must have stood out against an […]

30 May 2008

Herbrand Street ‘Mural’

Biking home along the now congested cycle lanes in Bloomsbury I couldn’t help noticing this huge mural on the side of the terrace at the corner of Herbrand Street and Tavistock Place. I went back to it the next day with my camera and took these pictures. At the same time I went up to […]

25 May 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

John Henstock

I got in touch with John Henstock recently as he’d started uploading some of his pictures on Flickr. Here’s one example from Brixton for Our Sons Menswear (funny, I’d always read it as Dursons Menswear!). They interested me because of their very distinctive look and so I asked how he had achieved the effect. He […]

27 Mar 2008

Its All Art

‘Goods in the City’ by Keith J. Hampton Keith Hampton over at It’s All Art kindly sent me this example of some work he has produced inspired by the ghost signs found in Indianapolis, USA. When I first saw this one (there’s another called ‘Miami Alley’) I assumed it was a collage, either digital or […]

9 Mar 2008

Jerry Johnson

© Sign painted and photo taken by Jerry Johnson Frank Jump over in NYC has just posted a collection of ten outstanding images from the work of experience signwriter (or “wall dog” in USA) Jerry Johnson.  Some of these are genuine pieces of advertising and some, like the one pictured, are spoofs. The craftsmanship, or […]

23 Feb 2008

Ghost Signs in Literature

Although not published until 7th August the following quote comes from chapter two of William Gibson’s Spook Country. “The old man reminded Tito of those ghost-signs, fading high on the windowless sides of blackened buildings, spelling out the names of products made meaningless by time.” William Gibson, from Chapter 2. Ants In The Water, Spook […]

3 Aug 2007

Martin Thompson

Martin Thompson is an artist who has done a series of pieces based on his photography of predominantly London Ghost Signs. He calls them “urban fossils”. There was an exhibition in 2006 at the Bettie Morton Gallery in Brixton which I went to and was impressed with some of the signs. I would have loved […]

21 Jun 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