Faux

Getting Closer to André Perot’s Faux Ghost Sign on Park Street

A ‘faux’ ghost sign for André Perot near Borough Market prompts an investigation of films and TV series using the location for sets.

5 Apr 2021

Social Decay from Andrei Lacatusu

Digital artist Andrei Lacatusu has created Social Decay, a series of images depicting a possible future of washed-up digital companies and their derelict signs. They are ‘faux’, although in a different sense to those that I’ve documented in the past. An article on Digital Arts contrasts them “to the slick, shiny digital versions we see […]

10 Aug 2018

Faux Ghostsigns for Coca-Cola’s London HQ

Ghostsigns for Coca-Cola are found all over the USA and other parts of the world, although I know of only one in the UK. However, there’s now a few inside the company’s London head quarters, although these are strictly in the ‘faux’ category. I was involved in advising on its creation and finding the team […]

2 Jul 2014

Défense D’Af: Faux Ghostsign from John Downer

John Downer is a master sign painter and typeface designer. He kindly shared the above faux ghostsign that he produced in 1999 for the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Those better versed in French will notice that the sign is incomplete and the full text should read, ‘Défense D’Afficher’. John shared the following […]

22 Dec 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

Fuller, Smith & Turner: Chiswick Ales & Stouts

This new hand painted sign on the building housing the Union Tavern was sent to me by regular correspondent Ross Corben.  It is advertising the famous Fuller, Smith & Turner brewery from nearby Chiswick and has clearly been produced to have a dated look, in keeping with some of the ‘faux’ ghostsigns discussed previously.  It […]

7 Jul 2012

Faux ghostsigns

Sometimes hand painted signs on buildings are created to look old and weathered intentionally.  The example pictured (original photo on Flickr) was produced in 2003 for the Disney film, ‘Miracle’.  (Does anyone have a clip showing where and how it features in the film?)  Another Disney example is this sign for the ‘New Orleans Trading […]

1 Jul 2012

Rick Janzen of Streamline Studios creates a ‘ghostsign’ from scratch

Photos: Rick Janzen This photo essay shows the various stages in recreating the effect of a ghostsign using water-based paints (the rest of the blog is worth checking out too, especially this post and this one).  This appears to be a different technique to that employed by Colossal Media at the end of this video. […]

11 Mar 2012