USA

The Painted Ad

Twenty-two years on from publishing the definitive Ghostsigns book, William Stage is back. ‘The Painted Ad: A Postcard Book of Vintage Brick Wall Signs’ builds on his own professional work in the postcard industry. He has pooled 25 of his best Ghostsigns images to create a book of cards which can be used to send […]

10 May 2011

Geoslideshow

I’ve been slowly pursuing the Ghostsigns Worldwide idea and, in the process, came across a new web application being developed. It’s called Geoslideshow and, in response to my suggestion, they’ve cracked the code to generate a map of all geotagged photos in a Flickr group. Click here for the application of this to the Ghostsigns […]

9 Apr 2011

Haggai Osewe

I always enjoy a video with some signwriting, so I was chuffed to find this from Kenya, through Charlie, and thought I’d share. Alongside my discoveries in Cambodia it just goes to show that the art and craft is still alive and kicking in much of the world. It would be great to include some […]

17 Mar 2011

Cambodia

As you may have seen from my post last month I’m now based in Cambodia for the next two years. While I haven’t yet come across many hand painted signs on walls the hand painted form is alive and well here. They are everywhere I go, offering simple illustrations for those who can’t read and […]

4 Oct 2010

Mapping Ghostsigns

This free application offers some of what I’m looking for, allowing my own geotagged Flickr photos to be easily plotted on a map. When you click on any image in the bar at the bottom or pin in the map you get a direct link to the Flickr photo and any information given in the […]

29 Jun 2010

Ghostsigns Worldwide, Part 2

I’ve added this sketch diagram to the initial brief and also built a mockup of a page format that could be used.

28 Jun 2010

Ghostsigns Worldwide

Imagine a map like this plotting examples of hand painted advertising from across the world… (Image from Panoramio) I’ve been doing some thinking about the project and how we can move it to have global reach in a quick and collaborative way. This is new territory for me and I’m looking for ideas, help, advice […]

26 Jun 2010

Preserve

Fischer Strube, Luzern Switzerland (Photo: Erik Wallace) While mine and the History of Advertising Trust’s efforts have focused on hand painted advertising from the UK and Ireland it’s always worth remembering that Ghostsigns are a global phenomenon. In fact there are others around the world attempting to capture them for posterity in much the same […]

1 May 2010

Preserve NZ

The latest contributions to the Preserve project in New Zealand have just been uploaded including this great photo of the famous Kings Cross ‘Scales, Weights & Weighing Machines’ sign taken by Sam Hardacre.  I’ve been in touch with Mark who runs the project and will write more about him and his work soon. In the […]

2 Mar 2010

Chatting with the Ritual Project

I did an interview with the New York project as it reaches its climax. Read it in full here and find out more about their work here.

1 Dec 2009

Ritual Project Update

The project is into its final few days and there are some interesting snippets of the painters at work, both close up and in time lapse. Here are a few highlights, more here and here. I’d personally like to see some longer clips with perhaps some discussion from the painters about the techniques employed. I […]

26 Nov 2009

The Ritual Project

Stella Artois and Colossal Media are collaborating in New York to use hand painted advertising over 21 days to demonstrate the ‘ritual’ of pouring a glass of Stella.  This ritual involves nine steps and by day 11 they’re on step three, mainly due to adverse weather conditions. It’s going to be a busy ten days […]

18 Nov 2009

Concord Painting

The ever prolific Frank Jump who blogs on ghostsigns over in New York has uncovered a nice piece of history having been contacted by a relative of someone who painted this sign [update: link no longer available] over there. It turns out that the company that he worked for (Concord Painting) is still in business and […]

12 Nov 2009

Colossal Media & Gentrification

Picked this up over on psfk where they reckon this is an ad for Colossal Media. The observations on gentrification could easily apply in London and perhaps many other cities around the world.

17 Feb 2009

Exhibition & Press (USA)

Letitia Street at Market Street in Olde City, by Lawrence O’Toole Lawrence O’Toole from the The Philadelphia Ghost Sign Project has secured a month long exhibition at the PRIMER Microstudio.  For those readers who live anywhere near this it would be worth getting along, above is one example from Lawrence’s collection. In addition to this […]

7 Feb 2009

Ghost Signs Received

Having been busy on my dissertation I have been neglecting to feature all the signs that I get sent by friends and readers of this blog. The last time I did a profile like this was back in March 2008 when I showed some examples from London, Europe and the USA. So here are some […]

29 Jan 2009

Colossal Media Update

I’ve written lots about Colossal Media in the past but a visit to their website today revealed a whole load of new content including lots of videos, mainly time-lapses of their work being painted but also this new promotional trailer. Although it features some of their most recent work I still think the old one is […]

1 Dec 2008

Landmarks Commission Update

Looks like the hearing was a success…depending on your stance regarding protection…

10 Sep 2008

Frank Jump Interview

Just came across this on youtube, an interview with Frank Jump about his work in New York. Great to see some of his pictures full size and to hear some of the background to his fascination with the Ghost Signs or Fading Ads. I still need to schedule my trip over there, everyone who comes […]

2 Jun 2008

Ghost Signs Received (USA)

Having been fairly busy over the last few months at work and on my course I’ve only been making the occasional posts of things that people have sent to me. What has resulted is a slight backlog of pictures and so these posts will pull these together along geographic lines (London, UK, Europe and USA). […]

11 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

Restoration Debate in USA

The National Trust of Historic Preservation over in the USA features an article on their site discussing the debate over the preservation of Ghost Signs.  This is particularly focussed on the question of whether there is a need to restore or repaint the signs to bring them some way back to their original form. Nothing […]

1 Feb 2008

Dewars by Frank Jump

© Frank H. Jump Those guys over at Colossal Media go from strength to strength, this their latest creation in the Dewars campaign, photographed by Frank Jump. See the short film about the campaign here.

27 Jan 2008