This elegant painted sign adorning the stonework above the entrance to 154 Bishopsgate, London EC2, is no more, recently replaced by mounted metal letters (see picture below). Although it isn’t what most would refer to as a ghostsign (see my chapter, What is a Ghost Sign?, in this forthcoming book), it was a striking and …
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, largely due to work on the book taking over for the last six months or so. Following a week in Amsterdam with Better Letters I enjoyed a long weekend in Porto, Portugal. Here is a slide show of some of the signs (‘ghost’ and otherwise) that I found …
Back in 2011 an old 1920s shop fascia was revealed on Kentish Town High Street. The nature of the E.Mono business remains a mystery but the new occupants, a kebab shop, decided the sign was worth keeping and named their shop after the historic proprietors. (Andrew Whitehead has written detailed pieces on the reveal on …
Joe Thompson emailed me these fascinating photos of lettering on unusual objects, namely a dead whale (1919) and a shipwrecked oil tanker (1926). They are from San Francisco, recently donated to the Western Neighbourhoods Project. Read more about the photos and the project on SF Weekly News. As a bonus, an exploding whale video below. …
Not ghostsigns, but I thought that readers of this blog would also appreciate some of the fantastic lettering at Carters Steam Fair that was recently posted to the Better Letters site. Staggering work and a wonderful example of traditional styles and techniques thriving in the modern era.
On 21 May, before my Type Talk at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, I helped lead a walk through the city’s historic Jewellery Quarter. This was in collaboration with Geraldine Marshall of the Birmingham Graphic DNA Project, and focused on the ghostsigns and public lettering that can be found in the quarter. It was …
Ghost Signs and Public Lettering in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter Read More »
In the course of my research into painted signs over the last eight years I have become increasingly aware of the brilliant work that is being done by contemporary signwriters (sign painters in the USA). This started with the early profiling of the Shop Local campaign by Bob & Roberta Smith and was swiftly followed …
While creating this beautiful new signage for Casa Blue, Ash Bishop of The Brilliant Sign Co. alerted me to an astonishing discovery inside the premises of this newly converted bar. It is a fragment of some Victorian painted lettering, which Ash proposes dates from the 1880s or possibly 1890s. Check it out below or, even …
History Repeating: A Stunning Reveal on Bethnal Green Road Read More »
This is my creation following Sunday’s Type Safari in Dalston with Type Tasting. It is a composite of various pieces of public lettering and signage that I photographed while on ‘safari’ with Type Tasting’s Sarah Hyndman. The brief was to bring a phrase that represents Dalston for me, and then to seek out its letters …
This is my/Ghostsigns’ submission to an inspiring project from Type Tasting, part of this year’s London Design Festival. It will be displayed alongside works from myriad designers and artists, including Alan Kitching and Ralph Steadman (Wow!), at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 14-19 September. The brief was to create a word that completes the sentence …