Black Cat Audio

Fascinating audio giving some history behind the Black Cat sign on Dingley Road, EC1. This includes the observation that the growth of the cigarette industry in the early part of the last century was partly fuelled by the fact that soldiers fighting in the war were given fags in their rations. They then got hooked and demanded more which meant boom time for manufacturers such as Carerras who made the Black Cat label. Also interesting is that EC1, now fashionable Finsbury (not Park), was once the dominant force in cigarette manufacturing.

This is one of a number of sound recordings on what is known as the The Black Cat Trail which traces a path from Old Street to Roseberry Avenue passing other points of interest along the way. See also, the St John Street Trail.

Anyway, have a listen for yourself, thank you to David Green of the 'One History' project for alerting me to the file.

Ghostsigns (Most Wanted)

Here are six Flickr galleries of signs not yet ready for inclusion in the Ghostsigns Archive. The archive is set to launch in January 2010.

To date there have been almost 3,000 photos added to the Flickr group from over 300 photographers. Many of these have also been confirmed as gifts to the History of Advertising Trust (HAT) by photographers completing and returning this form. This means that the vast majority of the signs can now be kept safe by HAT and given a home where they will be permanently accessible by all interested parties around the world. This is massive achievement and was only possible through the combined efforts of people all across the country. Thank you.

Looking through the photos of signs that aren't yet ready for inclusion in the archive there are some that I feel would really add value and that it would be a shame to exclude. This is therefore an appeal to the photographers who took them to complete and return the form but also for others to get involved and head out to snap these signs before they dissappear (I know that some of them are already gone).

Please have a look through this 'Most Wanted' list which is broadly grouped by geographical area:

• Ireland, Scotland & Wales
• London
• Midlands
• North & North West England
• South, East & West England
• Yorkshire

Beside each image are the location details (where known) to help those who want to take their own photos. I hope we'll be able to get most of them into the archive in January!

Keep in touch with the project via:

• Facebook
• Youtube
• Twitter

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 guess the time pressures and focus involved in producing a piece of work of this scale doesn't allow that.

First, the latest time lapse showing the piece developing over the days and then whitewashed to make way for the next instalment.



A brief glimpse at the process of creating the lettering.



And some of the illustration, this time the head of the beer.

Jo Tomkins

Earlier this year Jo Tomkins, then a student from Ravensbourne College, got in touch for some advice on her graphic design project focused on Stoke Newington ghostsigns. I tried to help out as much as I could and so I was really happy when she sent through the final output of the project, a folding Stokie tourist trail passing the key signs in the area. This not only digs into some of the local history but also contains commentary on the typographical features and, as a real bonus, suggestions of where to stop for coffee and cake along the route marked out.

It's a really neat piece of work: tactile, beautifully laid out and crafted to bring to life the unusually high number of signs in N16. It was personally a hugely relevant and enjoyable piece to be partially involved with given my connections to the area and the fact that one of the featured signs is really what kicked the whole thing off in the first place.

Thanks for involving me Jo and good luck with your future career in graphic design.

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 in NYC!

What's interesting about the project is that they are using the same wall with a new design over a short period of time rather than putting up one advertisement and leaving it there. This creates a more dynamic use of the medium than I've seen before and clearly sets up wider PR and profiling opportunities for their work. I don't think it'll be long until we see something similar this side of the pond.

It's also fascinating to read the descriptions and observations of the work in progress via the journal. The work is also being filmed to create video and time lapse film content to support the efforts of the artists.

On day ten the team got in touch with me after finding the blog online and did a little write up about the project in their journal entry for that day.

Go have a look, here are a couple of examples of the stuff you'll find, I'll do another write up once the project wraps up:

Londonist

I was interviewed by Jaz over at the Londonist blog a couple of weeks back and this was published on Monday. It's always nice to get some profile for the project, even nicer that this came as a result of other bloggers citing it in their earlier interviews for Londonist.

Anyway, check it out here and for more project press click here.

Ghostsigns on Facebook

I've created a page on Facebook for the project which contains videos, photos, links and more. If you use Facebook then you can become a 'fan' which will add updates from the page into your news feed. Have a look at what's going on and join.

Ghostsigns on Facebook

Surrey Mirror

Bovril, Station Road, Redhill, RH1
(Photo by dozymoo)

The appearance of this sign in Redhill, Surrey acted as a catalyst for an article on the subject of ghostsigns in the Surrey Mirror. This was kindly sent to me by David Griffiths as it wasn't published on their website. Some pictures of the other signs that get referenced can be seen here.

Click on the scan below for a bigger version for reading.



Thank you David for sending this through.

Emmanuel Nouaillier Update

Les murs ont la parole

Just under a year ago I featured the work of Emmanuel Nouaillier whose artistic treatment of the ghostsigns in his native France is fascinating. It’s worth having a read of this site to understand some of the meticulous technique that goes into producing his work.

Emmanuel describes the final print output as “a mix between sculpture, paint and photo to reveal truer than true atmospheres”. His work is “100% handmade” and “each piece is at least several weeks of work, sometimes months”.

I have purchased one of his prints and he has now completed the first part of his ambitious project, title ‘Uncertain urban landscape: walls of the bygone days’. Here are just some of the pieces from this series and there are more to be found in this Flickr gallery I have created. He is currently working to complete his second series which will be titled 'Focus' and once this is ready I will provide another update on this site.

If you are interested in purchasing any of this work then please contact Emmanuel directly on emmanuel.nouaillier@orange.fr.

Impasse Baucher

Péril en la demeure

Faubourg Nord 1955

Gillette/Criterion (RIP)

Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1

(July 2007)

Gillette/Criterion, Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1

(November 2009)

Two RIPs in one day, what's happening!

Again, this happened a little while ago but it was only today that I managed to get out with my camera to take a photograph. This was once one in a series of three palimpsests featuring signs for both Gillette Razors and Criterion matches (see below). It was probably the weakest of these three examples and was also partially obscured by the newspaper signs. It's quite straight forward what's happened: the developers have come in, sandblasted the sign and sorted out the window frames. Change in action.

The loss of this and many other signs is one of the reasons why the archive is an important piece of work. Please get involved by adding photos to Flickr and then committing them to the HAT Ghostsigns Archive.

Two more examples from the Gillette/Criterion series:

• Kilburn
• Stoke Newington

BP (RIP)

BP, Kings Cross Road, London, WC1
(July 2007)

BP, Kings Cross Road, London, WC1
(November 2009)

It's been a while since this happened but those based in London may have noticed the erection of some new flats on Kings Cross Road which now obscure the vast majority of this BP sign that was once there. This was probably to be expected given that every inch of spare land in London is being built on to handle the escalating accommodation needs of the city.

For a long time the sign had been covered by an advertising display and was then revealed in Summer 2007. I managed to get some photos of it in the time it was all showing and now it is gone forever, or at least until the new flats get demolished...

The loss of this and many other signs is one of the reasons why the archive is an important piece of work. Please get involved by adding photos to Flickr and then committing them to the HAT Ghostsigns Archive.

If you're interested you can see more photos of this sign here.

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 although their main work looks to be bog standard painting and decorating they still have a strand of work painting advertising. Here's them hard at work on one for Stolichnaya vodka:



I guess they would be direct competitors of Colossal Media, there's a gallery with more of their work here.

Battle of Branchage

Regular readers will know that I occasionally feature other ways in which buildings and brickwork are used as canvass (e.g. GreenPix, SmartWrap, easyweb.fr, Diesel Wall).

Here is an awe-inspiring creation from Seeper and Flat-e that was created for the Branchage Film Festival. It is a projection onto Mont Orguil Castle in Jersey.

Fantastic work.

Forms Received

Tetley Beer, Stanley Road, Leeds
Photo by johnnyg1955

Just a quick update on the progress of the archive. So far over 90 forms have been received from those who have been contributing to the Flickr group. Thank you all, the plan is for the online archive to be launched in January 2010.

There's still some way to go in order to ensure that the final archive has good coverage of the whole country so if you haven't completed your form please do so. If you have any questions about the form or the process then don't hesitate to get in touch. My email address is ghostsigns at gmail dot com.

Full contributors to date:

• addedentry
• akvinby7
• Albert S. Bite
• Alex Dennis
• Alquin
• Antony J Shepherd
• Aztec West
• cakehole
• Caroline Bunford
• CarolineLD
• casillero
• Catherine Owston
• Chris_West
• claire.openshaw
• ColinLE2
• co-ophistorian
• DBullock.com
• DCI Photography
• Djinn76
• dozymoo
• Emily Rowe
• Ewan-M
• flim_flam_kitty
• Frank Design Fotos
• ftwentytwo
• garyinsouthend
• giagia
• gnomonic
• Gothiron
• Graham Hudson
• greenpiano1
• grepnold
• Hazel Tsoi
• historyanorak
• hugovk
• ihpics
• indigo blue32
• Isisbridge
• J Λ S Θ N
• janeslondon
• Jenni Hall
• Jessicamulley
• Joe CWS
• johnbullas
• johnnyg1955
• kayxh
• Keith Roberts
• Late Developer
• L'habitant
• Lisa Edwards
• maggie jones.
• Maggsinho
• Malcolm Edwards
• Mark Novotny
• markhillary
• Matt Wheeler
• Matthew Campbell
• Maureen Gonsalves
• mcfarlandmo
• mermaid99
• mikeyashworth
• moley75
• MonkeyMyshkin
• Motorman Tel
• mrprogress
• Ms. Moll
• Neil Dell
• Nekoglyph
• Perrin124
• pgasston
• rebalrid
• Richard and Gill
• Robert Collister
• Ronald Hackston
• RozSheffield
• Sam Roberts
• sardinista
• sarflondondunc
• satguru
• Scottish Rose
• Seldon,
• she_who_must
• Sheriff of Nothing
• sinister pictures
• sixth land
• soucin
• Spixey
• Stuart Free
• StuMcP
• su-lin
• Tasa_M
• Terge Hartberg
• theswampthing
• tommyajohansson
• tomylees
• Topaz33
• Tracey Barber
• trailerfullofpix
• Yelfy

The Cobbled Yard

I was tipped off about this new hand painted sign and got these photos some time ago. The Cobbled Yard sells all sorts of antiques so it's quite fitting that they should use traditional signwriting to tout their wares. I have been given the contact details of the signwriter who produced this so hope to speak with him soon, if only to find out more about his technique for accomodating the drain pipe in this particular sign...

Bouverie Road, London, N16

Close up showing drainpipe work...

Bath Ghostsigns

A short visit to Bath and Bristol over the weekend allowed me to visit a handful of west country signs. These maybe aren't the best examples from that part of the world but if you want to see more then I would recommend checking out Aztec West's collection over on Flickr (Bristol and Elsewhere).

The distinctive stonework across bath gives their signs some consistency despite the very different signwriting styles employed. It is also likely that the protection afforded to the buildings in Bath has inadvertently led to many of their signs being saved from getting covered by billboards, painted or sandblasted.

Monmouth Place, Bath, BA1

Junction of Charlotte Street and Monmouth Place, Bath, BA1

The directions aren't as bizarre as they might seem, you can get to the garage in both ways. This one has clearly been repainted recently.

Abbey Street, Bath, BA1

Next door to this sign is the Hands Tea Room which I'd recommend for their cream tea.

Milsom Street, Bath, BA1

This one is just a few doors down from the one below. A circulating library was once a lending library that made charges for the books lent out. In this case they also had some involvement with a state lottery...

Milsom Street, Bath, BA1