20 Jul 2012

Melbourne’s Ghostsigns with Finding the Radio Book

Hand painted sign on a building in Melbourne advertising Jans Bros
Photo: Stefan Schutt

Finding the Radio Book is a fascinating piece of work being undertaken by Dr Stefan Schutt of Victoria University. It all started with a piece of paper floating in the wind and has now evolved into a research project focussed on the archival records of the Lewis & Skinner signwriting company who ceased trading in the 1960s. In this article on the Research Matters site, Schutt stated that:

“The Lewis & Skinner material includes job descriptions, design sketches and photographs for sign writing jobs all around Melbourne: Cadbury’s signs at Milk bars, hand painted service station murals and even painting work for the Queen’s visit in 1954 and the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.”

I’ll be intrigued to see some of the design sketches and the finished jobs that emerge from the archive. Work is already underway and will be made available via an online space created using a platform called Omeka. I’ll post updates when key news comes out of the project but would also recommend following the blog for posts with lots of ghostsigns from Melbourne, Australia.

PS. Another Melbourne Ghostsigns enthusiast, Mark Holsworth, has posted this to the Black Mark blog. It seems that more than one person is taking an interest in this city’s hand painted advertising of old.

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