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Chasing Ghosts for the Coca-Cola Company

I was recently invited by the Coca-Cola Company to write a piece about ghost signs for their website. It turned into something of a summary of my journey over the last 11 years since noticing my first ever fading painted advertisement. Read it here [Link expired], and see more of my writing on signs and […]

19 Jan 2018

What is a Ghost Sign?

‘What is a Ghost Sign?‘ is the title of the second chapter of our book, Advertising and Public Memory. It is an attempt to provide a logical approach to formulating a definition, and a formal response to the many times I’ve been asked, ‘Does this count?’. The article started life a few years ago as […]

11 Feb 2017

Restoration Period in the Monotype Recorder

Last year I was invited to contribute an article on ghostsigns to the reincarnation of the Monotype Recorder periodical. It focused on issues of protection and restoration which I have covered regularly on this blog and continue to maintain an active interest in. A couple of weeks ago I brought these issues to my first […]

23 Jan 2015

Dr King: The Story of a Melbourne Ghostsign by Nick Gadd

This Melbourne ghostsign is a recent reveal and was captured by Nick Gadd, the writer behind Melbourne Circle. Nick’s research into the sign was recently published in an anthology of papers titled ‘Melbourne Subjective‘. He investigates the sign and creates a tentative hypothesis about who Dr King was with reference to a fictitious, but plausible, […]

17 Sep 2014

Anarchy on the Walls: Ghostsigns, Street Art & Graffiti

Kasey Smith’s ‘Perception Filter‘ blog is well worth a follow for all ghostsigns enthusiasts. Her dispatches from San Francisco have been a big influence on me, as evidenced by the number of times I’ve decided to highlight her observations, insights, investigations and mapping efforts here on Ghostsigns. Her latest post concerns the work above by artist Augustine […]

27 Oct 2013

Faux ghostsigns, authenticity and the passage of time: Guest post from Best Dressed Signs

‘Faux’ ghostsigns are a relatively new phenomenon but are appearing with increasing frequency around the world. I invited Meredith Kasabian, of Boston’s Best Dressed Signs and The Pre-Vinylite Society, to share her thoughts given her and Josh Luke’s recent work on the example above. Several months ago, Josh and I received a request to paint […]

21 Jul 2013

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

Ghostsigns in ‘Down Your Way’ magazine

Yorkshire is the focus for this three page spread on ghostsigns in Down Your Way magazine from earlier this year.  Thank you to Mark Whitley of Country Publications for allowing me to republish this piece here.

10 Jul 2012

Signwriter Bruce Buckley profiled in 2007 Signcraft magazine

This article about signwriter Bruce Buckley of the Chicago Sign Company is worth a read.  (Thanks Andrew Cordani for this link to this page which led me to the article.)  More press about the Chicago Sign Company can be found on their website and here is the home page of Signcraft magazine.

3 Jul 2012

Astronomical charts and calculations on 9th Century Mayan wall paintings

This article discusses the recent discovery of these wall paintings in Guatemala dating from AD814.  More images in this guided tour of the site.  See also this past post on the walls of Pompeii.

24 Jun 2012

The stories behind some of the intriguing ghostsigns of Clapham and Battersea

A few years ago I spoke with Russell Norris who, at the time, was writing an article on ghostsigns for  a local free circular publication in South London.  Like him I was waiting for its eventual publication which never came until this week when Russell took matters into his own hands and published it on […]

6 Jun 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

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