Lettering

RIP: 154 Bishopsgate EC2

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 […]

27 May 2016

36 Porto Signs

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 […]

16 Mar 2016

E. Mono in North London

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 […]

28 Feb 2015

Writing on the Whale and Other Novelties

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. […]

4 Feb 2015

Fairground Lettering at Carters Steam Fair

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.

27 Jun 2014

Ghost Signs and Public Lettering in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter

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 […]

4 Jun 2014

Introducing Better Letters

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 […]

27 Feb 2014

History Repeating: A Stunning Reveal on Bethnal Green Road

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 […]

29 Jan 2014

Rediscovering Club Labrynth on a Type Safari

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 […]

21 Jan 2014

Beanfeast: Ghostsigns at Type Tasting

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 […]

1 Sep 2013

Public lettering walk with Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon

Yesterday I had the pleasure of joining Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon on their latest Public Lettering walk, organised through the excellent St Bride Library events programme. As with my earlier walking tour in this part of London (Type Tour West) it started at the library but then took a different route to weave through Smithfield before […]

24 May 2013

Born and Raised from David A Smith, John Mayer and Danny Cooke

This has left me speechless. Sublime. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. Thank you to David, John and Danny for bringing the story of this piece of work to life through film. An incredible follow up to the last one.

19 May 2013

It’s Alive: Gilding with Ken Davis

Ken Davis – It’s Alive from Taylor Morgan on Vimeo. Hope you enjoy this short film about the gilder Ken Davis and his piece on glass for Empire 7 Studios in San Jose, California. Find more video content on Ghostsigns.

28 Nov 2012

Hamburg Alphabet by Chris Campe

Hamburg Alphabet by Chris Campe is a delightful expose of one German city’s signage and public lettering. Featuring 220 images it catalogues these examples in alphabetical order according to the word spelled on the sign. The pages are visually striking, offering both similarities and sharp contrasts between different signs. This is testimony to Campe’s work […]

29 Aug 2012

Creating the cover for Hand Painted Signs of Kratie

Today, after three weeks of checking back on an almost daily basis, I caught Kratie signpainter Chouk Rachana at work on the cover for my forthcoming book, ‘Hand Painted Signs of Kratie’. It has taken a bit of back and forth to get towards a common understanding of what I’m looking for and I think […]

7 Aug 2012

Flamboyant calligraphy from Luca Barcellona & Francesca Biasetton

In a slight departure from painted lettering here is a film by Marco Puccini showcasing some flamboyant examples of inked lettering using a variety of calligraphy tools.  While on the subject, it is also worth checking out this film profiling master calligrapher Paul Antonio on the Guardian.

6 Jul 2012

Declarations of Independence campaign from Jack Daniel’s

Today is Independence Day in the USA.  Last year, to celebrate, Jack Daniel’s worked with letter-press experts Yee-Haw Industries and the team at Colossal Media to first produce poster designs and then to scale these up into large scale pieces of hand painted advertising around New York.  The videos at the end of this post […]

4 Jul 2012

Lead lettering from Caroline’s Miscellany

Photo: Caroline Derry A fascinating new form of public lettering (at least for me) on this blog post from Caroline’s Miscellany.

26 Jun 2012

Spirit (Ouija) Board lettering from Ira Coyne

This is one of a collection of brightly coloured Ouija boards from Ira Coyne on Faythe Levine’s blog.  It appears that even spirits can swear when they want to…

20 Jun 2012

Melbourne’s signage in beautiful book form

Characters by Stephen Banham looks to be one of the must have new books on signage and public lettering.  It is high on my want list after reading this review sent to me by Geraldine of Birmingham Graphic DNA and this review picked up by Faythe of The Sign Painter Movie.  There is an accompanying […]

12 May 2012

When letter-press meets hand painted advertising on walls: San Miguel Fresca posters

I’m briefly back in London and it is hard not to notice this poster campaign for San Miguel’s new summer beer, Fresca.  (That might have something to do with the fact that 10,000 locations feature the work.) Created by the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi it has involved a collaboration with letter-press artist Alan Kitching to give a distinctive […]

13 Apr 2012

Is this the easiest hand lettering technique possible?

Geraldine discovered this lovely little film from British Pathe, a ‘how to’ guide for a simple block lettering form.  It even doubles as a secret code…

10 Apr 2012

A Clever Twist on Hand-Made/Painted Lettering

This fascinating project explores the relationships between upper and lower case letters, and the transitions between them, using hands and paint.  (Found via Creative Review.)

8 Apr 2012

Graphic DNA documents the visual language of the street

I’ve recently been in regular contact with Geraldine Marshall whose project, Graphic DNA, caught my attention.  It is the topic of her PhD thesis, under the supervision of Dr Caroline Archer.  I took the opportunity, before she gets too busy, to ask Geraldine some questions at her base in the Midlands, from mine in South […]

25 Mar 2012