Fading painted signs

Sign Initiatives

Ghost sign projects and events.

After touring the world, including the London run hosted by Ghostsigns, Sign Painters is now available to watch online and as an HD download. You can save $1.00 on the list price by using the code GHOSTSIGNS when you order it from www.signpaintersfilm.com.

Sign Painters’ Online Release

This entry was posted in Sign Folk Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Faythe Levine Film Ghostsigns Sam Macon Sign Painter Movie Sign Painters on May 13, 2014 by Sam Roberts

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 […]

Introducing Better Letters

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives Sign Making and tagged Better Letters Lettering Sign Painters Signwriter on February 27, 2014 by Sam Roberts

Restored painted sign advertising Knis & Gunnink coffee and tea house in Kampen — Tekens Aan De Wand (Writing on the Wall) is a book documenting the collective efforts of local historical societies across the Netherlands to restore ghostsigns. It is published by Trichis and features over 170 pages of beautiful painted signage, graphic design and archival photography. Sadly […]

Tekens Aan De Wand: Ghostsign Restoration in the Netherlands

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Sign Preservation Signs in Media and tagged Amsterdam Book Books Groningen Jos Bazelmans Kampen Leeuwarden Leiden Netherlands Peter Nijhof Restoration Review Rotterdam Tilburgse Trichis Utrecht on January 8, 2014 by Sam Roberts

Order the 2014 Ghostsigns Calendar here. The 2014 Ghostsigns Calendar has had some amazing material submitted, all of which is now available to view and like (i.e. vote for) on the Ghostsigns Facebook Page. There are 103 photos in all, from 11 different countries, proof […]

Global Ghostsigns for the 2014 Calendar

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged 2014 Calendar Ghostsigns Montage Video on November 10, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Painted sign on a wall advertising R Ellis, Ironmonger — I’m pleased to announce to regular readers of the Ghostsigns blog that I have some events coming up that should be of interest. Ghostsigns at St Bride: An illustrated talk on 20 November, previewed on Creative Review Ghostsigns walking tours: Join me in admiring some […]

Talks and Tours from Ghostsigns

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives and tagged Event Ghostsigns London N16 Sam Roberts St Bride Stoke Newington Talks Tours on November 3, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Fading advertisement painted on a wall for Black Cat Cigarettes — Order the 2014 Ghostsigns Calendar here. [Update: Entries are now closed. All entries and details of how to get the final calendar on this page of the Ghostsigns website.] This is a call for submissions to a new experiment from Ghostsigns, creating a photographic calendar […]

Call for Photos: Ghostsigns Calendar 2014

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives and tagged Calendar Community Ghostsigns Photography on October 22, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Layout of painted sign on paper for Cabury Bournville Cocoa — The Lewis & Skinner archive is a collection of materials relating to the work of a Melbourne signwriting company from the first half of the last century. These were fortuitously discovered by Dr Stefan Schutt last year and he has since been working to archive […]

Lewis & Skinner Exhibit Featuring Ghostsigns and Live Signwriting

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Sign Making and tagged Archive Australia Bournville Cadbury Cocoa Drink Event Exhibition Finding the Radio Book Ghostsigns Lewis & Skinner Lisa Cianci Melbourne Signwriting Soft Drink Stefan Schutt Tony Mead Victoria University on September 29, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Hand-painted sign saying 'Sign painters do it in 1 shot' — The Sign Painter Movie is now on tour with dates booked in until November, including Scotland and New Zealand for those outside the film’s USA base. I was treated to a preview screening and also got my hands on the book that accompanies the film. […]

Sign Painters: The movie, the book and the resurgence

This entry was posted in Sign Folk Sign Initiatives Sign Making Signs in Media and tagged Book Books Craft Faythe Levine Film Ira Coyne Keith Knecht Norma Jeanne Maloney Review Sam Macon Sign Painter Movie Sign Painters Signwriter Signwriting USA Video on July 28, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Information flyer for ghost sign hunting seminar — I am very excited to announce a forthcoming seminar in which I will be speaking alongside Stephen Banham, author of Characters and something of a typographic legend, and Stefan Schutt, curator of the Lewis and Skinner archive and author of the Finding the Radio Book […]

Ghost Sign Hunting: Melbourne Seminar

This entry was posted in Sign Folk Sign Initiatives and tagged Australia Characters Event Finding the Radio Book Melbourne Seminar Stefan Schutt Stephen Banham Talks on February 26, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you what many are tipping for this year’s surprise Christmas best seller, my first book, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie. It is now available to buy in printed and eBook formats (suitable for iPad, Kindle, Nook and most other eReading devices […]

Now published: Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Books Cambodia eBook Khmer Kratie Sam Roberts on November 7, 2012 by Sam Roberts

A Khmer letter painted in different ways — Here are some sample pages from my forthcoming book, ‘Hand Painted Signs of Kratie’. It is a study of the hand painted form in a small provincial capital in North East Cambodia, currently my home. (Read more blog posts about hand painted signs in Cambodia.) […]

Sample pages from ‘Hand Painted Signs of Kratie’ book

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Books Cambodia Kratie Sam Roberts Signwriting on August 4, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hand painted sign in sky blue on a building advertising Radio 2KY — I’ve just come across this article in ProDesign magazine which profiles Mark Spurgeon of the Preserve project in New Zealand. I’ve written about Mark’s work before and how there are parallels with my own interest in ghostsigns. This article reinforces those similarities. You can visit […]

Mark Spurgeon’s Preserve project in ProDesign

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Mark Spurgeon New Zealand Preserve Press Print ProDesign on August 3, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Signpainter applying red paint to coca cola sign on a white wall — The Salisbury Ghost Sign Restoration Project is an initiative of three enthusiasts in North Carolina. They have recently unveiled their first two restorations, both for Coca-Cola signs, so I thought it was time to catch up with one of the trio, Justin Dionne to find […]

Salisbury Ghost Sign Restoration Project

This entry was posted in Sign Folk Sign Initiatives Sign Making Sign Preservation and tagged Andy Thompson Coca-Cola Coke Justin Dionne Michael Alexander Nassar Mufdi North Carolina Restoration Salisbury Signwriter USA Wrigley on July 21, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hand painted sign on a building in Melbourne advertising Jans Bros — 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 […]

Melbourne’s Ghostsigns with Finding the Radio Book

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives and tagged Australia Finding the Radio Book Jans Bros Lewis & Skinner Melbourne People Research Signwriter Stefan Schutt on July 20, 2012 by Sam Roberts

New Ghostsigns Website Screen Shot — Today is the 5th birthday of this blog following the first ever post on 16th June 2007. In that time, including my stints on blogger, google sites and posterous, I have uploaded 415 posts, an average of seven per month. As a birthday present I […]

Five years of Ghostsigns and a new website

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Folk Sign Initiatives and tagged Birthday Blog Ghostsigns Review Website Wordpress on June 16, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Ukranian Ghostsign Pasazh Andreolli — Areta Kovalska just added a link to this post about ghostsigns from Lviv in Ukraine to the Ghostsigns Facebook page. It not only has some fascinating images but also some insightful observations on the meaning of these pieces of painted advertising from the former Soviet […]

Ukrainian Ghostsigns: Shadows of a Forgotten Past

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Destinations Sign Folk Sign Initiatives and tagged Areta Kovalska Europe Illustration Lviv Partial Reveal Shadows of a Forgotten World Soviet Union Ukraine on June 14, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hessel Street London from Shopfronts Revisited by Lady Lamo — Via this review of the East End shopfronts exhibition happening now in Tower Hamlets, I came across this incredible site which is the work of Lady Lamo and her colleague Alabama. It retraces the steps that Alan Dein took in 1988 and documents what has […]

Then and now: shopfronts 1988 revisited

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives and tagged East End Event Ghostsigns Lady Lamo London Shop Signs Tower Hamlets on June 3, 2012 by Sam Roberts

After You've Gone East End shopfront photo from Alan Dein — I’m gutted I won’t be able to visit this exhibition (pdf flyer below) of Alan Dein‘s late 1980s images of shop fronts in Tower Hamlets. If anyone writes a review then let me know and I’ll link to it here. (Hat tip to Lorna at […]

Photographic exhibition of East End shop fronts opens today

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections Sign Initiatives and tagged Alan Dein East End HWO London Shop Signs Tower Hamlets on May 17, 2012 by Sam Roberts

It may be too late to book but for those in the Utrecht area this (pdf flyer) looks to be an informative tour of the city’s historic wall advertising. (Organised by Writing on the Wall.)

Guided tour of hand painted advertising on walls in Utrecht, ...

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Sign Initiatives and tagged Ghostsigns Netherlands Tours Utrecht Writing on the Wall on May 10, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Lemoore Can't Bust Em Overalls ghostsign by Ken Jones — Dr Ken Jones is a former NASA imaging expert whose work in the 1970s included digitally photographing the surface of Mars. This required the use of image ‘mosaics’, a technique which he is now applying to the more terrestrial subject of ghostsigns.Dr Jones’ work starts from […]

Dr Ken Jones’ mosaic technique for ghostsigns photography

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections Sign Folk Sign Initiatives and tagged Art Ken Jones Mapping Mosaic People Photographer USA on April 18, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Puck Match Bryant and May ghostsign Leeds — Laura Carletti and I have written a short paper for History Workshop Online. This builds on the survey and offers some reflections on the development of the archive in 2009-10.

Digital Engagement & the Ghostsigns Archive: History Workshop Article

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Archive Ghostsigns Community HAT HWO Press Survey on April 4, 2012 by Sam Roberts

History of the Johnston Type Face image — HAT archive contributor Mike Ashworth is giving an illustrated talk about the London Underground Johnston typeface next week on Tuesday, 3rd April. More details in the pdf below and on the Sign Design Society website. Followers of this site are eligible for a small discount, […]

The history of the Johnston typeface: Sign Design Society event

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives and tagged Event History Johnston Sign Design Society Typeface Typography on March 28, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Van Houten's Cacao de Beste — Photo: Writing on the Wall This organisation in the Netherlands was established in 1999 and has been working ever since to raise the profile of hand painted wall advertising in the country. They also get involved with other outdoor forms such as hanging signs and […]

Writing on the Wall working to preserve and restore ghostsigns ...

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives Sign Preservation and tagged Ghostsigns Community Netherlands Protection Restoration on March 9, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Laura Carletti Certificate — Congratulations to Laura Carletti who took home an award for her presentation of the most recent paper on the Ghostsigns Project at the Digital Engagement conference in Newcastle. The paper is available for download here, with the following note regarding copyright: “Permission to make digital […]

Ghostsigns Research from Laura Carletti Scoops Award

This entry was posted in Sign Initiatives Signs in Media and tagged Archive Ghostsigns Community Research Survey on November 20, 2011 by Sam Roberts