Another video and image highlight as we count down to the launch of the archive on 19th March.  These are from the Travel & Transport gallery.

The images being featured in this countdown to launch are all those that feature on the postcard series which will be available to buy from Friday, 19th March.

More tomorrow.

Blue Star by Matthew Campbell

Another video and image highlight as we count down to the launch of the archive on 19th March.  These are from the Shoes & Clothing gallery.

More tomorrow.

Another video and image highlight as we count down to the launch of the archive on 19th March.  These are from the Food & Drink gallery.

More tomorrow.

Hovis by Isisbridge

Puck Match from johnnyg1955

With ten days until the archive opens I thought it would be worth picking out some highlights of the project so far.  I'll do one each day until announcing the archive is open for business on Friday, 19th March.  First up is this great photo of the Puck Match sign in Leeds and, below, another look at the video montage produced for the Booze & Fags category (to be called Alcohol & Tobacco in the archive proper).

More tomorrow.

Through the D&AD blog I was alerted to this campaign by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership which has added hand painted signs to their TV 'commercial'.  These painted elements were done by Aroe and this one in particular is pretty big.  I wonder if the currently vogue for street art might lead to more collaborations like this, perhaps sufficient to support a business along the lines of the USA's Colossal Media here in the UK?

I've added the TV work below as it's pretty compelling, not to mention being an important message.  You can find more of the hand painted stuff here.

Windover Pianos by Dick Bulch

Every so often I have a dig around in the Ghostsigns Flickr group to see what new arrivals have landed since my last visit.  Leaving it for two months meant that over yesterday and today I've made lots of great discoveries.  As yet they're not all due to be included in the archive but I have approached the photographers to see if they'll get involved.  Here are some highlights and if you want to see more have a look at these two galleries I've created:

• February favourites
• February favourites, part 2

W. Uden & Sons by janeslondon


Bodsworth by evissa


Harry Schuman by Dick Bulch


Co-op Tea by Caroline & Phil Bunford

TYPO by Tom Bland

In the course of researching and documenting ghostsigns from across the country I have come across many distinctive ways of interpreting the signs, via photographic means or in broader media such as paint and sculpture/models (see Martin Thompson, Stuart Free and Emmanuel Nouaillier for example).

 

Recently I have discovered the work of photographer Tom Bland and thought it was worth sharing here.  Tom grew up with parents working in graphic design and has observed close at hand the evolution from analogue to digital processes and methods.  He contrasts the work on Apple Macs with going about it on “a big drawing board using a scalpel, spray mount, kappa board, acetate and letraset”.   It was this fascination with the craft but also the manner in which the signs had faded that first pulled him towards ghostsigns as subject matter.

 

“I was seeing layers of typography, paint, colour – and combined with the texture of the crumbling and flaking materials, many of them were appealing to me as looking like contemporary pieces of design in the vein of work by the likes of Tomato or Ray Gun magazine. I felt that if the faded ghost signs I was seeing were used for new book jackets or record covers for example, they would stand up incredibly well against a new piece of work, the signs having evolved and aged completely naturally in ways that a contemporary designer or illustrator would try to emulate in Adobe's Creative Suite.”

CASH PAYMENTS by Tom Bland

In his growing ‘Letraset’ collection Tom pulls from examples here in the UK and the USA, those for Boyd Pianos and Cakebread Robey perhaps the most familiar to UK audiences.  He aims to achieve the crops in situ rather than relying on manipulation after the picture has been taken but does use some techniques to add to the overall effect he is aiming for:

 

“I use Adobe Lightroom for all of my photography. I shoot RAW images, and in applying very minimal adjustments using the tools in Lightroom the qualities of the signs can really be accentuated to bring out their texture, or to simply combat the flat light of a dull British sky.”

BOWLING AND BILLIARDS, ARMY AND NAVY by Tom Bland

It is worth noting the work of Andy Johnson and John Henstock who also use image manipulation to achieve their own desired outcomes.  Tom summarises his work as an “ongoing documentation of a particular breed of ghost sign – referencing both my background and upbringing, and my love/hate relationship with new technology”.

 

This contemporary perspective on an old medium is fitting in the context of the work that has been done on the archive which has used the possibilities opened by the web to pull together disparate enthusiasts and their collections in a way that would not have been possible just ten years ago.  As many of these signs lose their current homes on walls across the country they are offered refuge in a more lasting space online.

 

Thanks Tom for sharing your work and your thoughts, for those interested in seeing more of Tom’s work have a look at his website and his ‘Letraset’ on Flickr.

Church Street, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Photo: rebalrid


As I get increasingly close to the material gathered for the archive I start to notice little subtexts, themes and oddities within the collection.  The latest of these is a series of what I have tentatively called 'roofads'.  These are signs painted directly onto the roofing tiles of buildings, ghostsigns but not as we typically know them.  The first of these that I ever became aware of was for The Dove pub in Hackney's Broadway Market which I'd visited many times without knowing about it's big white lettering on the roof (see picture below). 

Here's a little collection of examples of this form, interestingly they are all for pubs/inns and builders merchants.  I'd be interested to know if any more are out there that I haven't come across yet...


Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS3
Photo: Nekoglyph


Broadway Market, London, E8
Photo: sarflondondunc


Marsh Road, Middlesbrough, Cleveland, TS3
Photo: Nekoglyph


Derby Road, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4
Photo: rebalrid