France

A couple of years ago these two well-preserved ghost signs were revealed in Paris (see Streetview), presumably by the removal of billboards that covered and protected them. [Update via Caroline’s Miscelleny: The uncovering was in 2012, and the works can be seen underway in the […]

Two Paris Beauties Under Wraps

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation Signs of Note and tagged Alcohol Bénédictine Conservation Eugène Charles Paul Vavasseur France Grafitti liqueur Paint Paris Protection Restoration Reveal Ripolin Wim Dammers on December 7, 2018 by Sam Roberts

After publishing the wonderful photos of one-time Paris sign business E. Gautier, I was alerted to this project and the above video where the sign makes a brief cameo. Five of my favourites below, but make sure you check out the full collection, including background […]

The Shopfronts of ‘Paris Re-Tale’

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections and tagged France Paris Pixartprinting Sebastian Erras Shop Fronts on May 4, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Independently of each other I have been sent photos of this beautiful Paris ghost signs by Wim Dammers and book contributor Leisa Clements. It is a remarkably elaborate piece of work, including picturials in other sections. This is isn’t surprising as it is advertising the […]

E. Gautier’s Beautiful Paris Ghost Signs

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Folk Signs of Note and tagged Art E. Gautier Enseignes France Frederick Brill Homage a' Atkinson Grimshaw Leisa Clements Paris Signwriter Stephen Gavin Tot Brill Wim Dammers on April 6, 2018 by Sam Roberts

Painted sign in English on a Paris wall saying 'Do not loiter in garage, or bother mechanics. Please use facilities of waiting room' — I heard about this ghostsign in Paris via an email from Ralph Adam. It caught my attention for the use of English language on an historic sign in France and reminded me of the British Legion sign in Ypres, Belgium. It was then photographed by […]

NOTICE: An English Language Ghostsign in Paris

This entry was posted in Sign Stories Signs of Note and tagged Adam Roberts Avenue Edouard Vaillant Boulogne-Billancourt France Garage Invisible Paris Loiter Mechanic Notice Paris Ralph Adam World War 2 WW2 on January 21, 2017 by Sam Roberts

Painted sign fading on a wall advertising Teinturerie des Penitents — A new book from Steven Heller and Gail Anderson features a handful of my ghostsigns photos from around the world (London, Cambodia, France and Australia). Typographic Universe documents a variety of ‘found’ letters in the environment, people and animals, alongside the creation of letters from […]

Ghostsigns in the Typographic Universe

This entry was posted in Signs in Media and tagged Australia Beziers Book Books Cambodia France Gail Anderson Ghostsigns London Melbourne Phnom Penh Steven Heller Typographic Universe UK on November 5, 2014 by Sam Roberts

cassannet from atipo on Vimeo. This film is promoting the typeface Cassannet, inspired by the iconic Dubonnet triptych found on numerous ghostsigns across France. The campaign was originally designed for the brand by the artist Cassandre and this typeface has been designed by Atipo in […]

Cassannet: A Dubonnet-Inspired Typeface

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs and tagged Atipo Cassandre Cassannet Dubonnet Font France Typeface Video on November 24, 2013 by Sam Roberts

Bordeaux ghostsign painted on a wall — Tim Pike runs the Invisible Bordeaux blog. I recently helped him find some locations in the area for a new series of posts about ghostsigns. In addition to this first blog post about ghostsigns in Bordeaux, Tim has cleverly plotted them all on a Google […]

Ghostsigns from Invisible Bordeaux

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Sign Destinations Sign Folk and tagged Bordeaux France Invisible Bordeaux Mapping Tim Pike on November 3, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Large hand painted sign on a wall in France advertising Dubonnet — I had to share this as it is a brilliant example of the classic ‘Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet’ campaign with illustrations in the hand painted form. It was captured by Scott Phillips in Paris in 1983 and, on his blog, he describes how he was able to create this wonderful image. The original artwork […]

Dubo, Dubon, Dubbonet in Paris, 1983

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Alcohol Cassandre Dubonnet France Paris Scott Phillips Slogan on August 25, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Yellow hand painted sign on a wall advertising Meteor beer — Les murs peints s’affichent is a blog written by Philippe Célérier on the topic of ghostsigns in France. He adds updates quite regularly and it is well worth following if you are interested in hand painted signs on buildings from this country which seems to have […]

French ghostsigns blog: Les murs peints s’affichent

This entry was posted in Sign Collections and tagged Alcohol Beer Blog France Les murs peints s'affichent Meteor People Philippe Célérier on July 29, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Horse heads cave painting from the Chauvet cave Ardèche — I’ve become increasingly intrigued by the origins of painting on walls, and the evolution of the form over time, up to the current vogue for street art. While the walls of caves were not made of brick, they did nonetheless provide people with an early […]

The origins of painting on walls

This entry was posted in Sign Making Signs in Media and tagged Aboriginal Ancient Ardèche Art Australia France Handpainted History Neanderthal Pre-History South Africa Spain Wales on July 11, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Berchowitz faux ghostsign from British Columbia by John Schrantz — Sometimes hand painted signs on buildings are created to look old and weathered intentionally. The example pictured (original photo on Flickr) was produced in 2003 for the Disney film, ‘Miracle’. (Does anyone have a clip showing where and how it features in the film?) Another […]

Faux ghostsigns

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Signs in Media Signs of Note and tagged Art Canada Colossal Media Dewars Disney Emmanuel Nouaillier Faux Film France It's All Art Jack Daniel's Jerry Johnson Keith Hampton Production Rick Janzen Streamline Studios UK USA on July 1, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Walls by Deidi von Schaewen book cover — Deidi von Schaewen’s ‘Walls’ is a lovely hardback book that documents hand painted advertising on walls in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s geographical coverage is noteworthy with examples from Berlin, London, New York, Paris and elsewhere in France. Most of the photography is in black […]

Walls by Deidi von Schaewen

This entry was posted in Sign Collections Signs in Media and tagged Books France Germany UK USA on April 11, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Leading French ghostsigns site Les Murs Peints Murmurent have announced the sale of this series of ghostsigns postcards on their website. (Please say you found them via me/this site if making an order.)

Set of 14 French ghostsigns postcards available to buy

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Collections and tagged France Ghostsigns Postcards on April 2, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Adam at Invisible Paris has written this blog post about the changing state of the city’s trompes l’oeil. This example in partticular caught my eye, the craking and peeling of the paint creating something new from something old. It is similar to the way that some […]

The beauty of cracking paint on Paris’ trompes l’oeil

This entry was posted in Sign Preservation and tagged France Invisible Murals Paris Trompe L'Oeil on March 27, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Great discovery here from Sebastien in which he has identified four signs for the same brand vying for position on the same wall. There’s a great gallery of French ghostsigns here (Dubonnet here) and my posts on the country are here with additional photos in this […]

Four layers of Dubonnet palimpsest

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Dubonnet France Ghostsigns Palimpsest on March 20, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Emmanuel Nouaillier Painting Equipment — Emmanuel Nouaillier is a French artist I admire for his attention to detail and his focus on Ghostsigns as subject matter. Below are some of his tools of the trade and a detailed exposition of his techniques can be found on this website. Absolutely […]

The Devil is in the Detail: Emmanuel Nouaillier Masterclass

This entry was posted in Inspired by Signs Sign Folk and tagged Art Emmanuel Nouaillier France on January 20, 2012 by Sam Roberts

Hand Painted Type alphabet by Umesh — Perhaps being in Cambodia has sensitised me to the world of Ghostsigns beyond my home shores. Or maybe awareness of the project has encouraged those from around the world to make contact. Whatever it is, I thought it was time for a round-up of what’s […]

Ghostsigns World Tour

This entry was posted in Sign Destinations Signs of Note and tagged Books Canada Cigarettes Colossal Media Contemporary Issues Delhi Event France Frank Jump Hague HandPaintedType India Lettering Marc Combier Modern Brickads Montreal Murals Netherlands New York Omega Oil People Production Restoration Signwriter Street Art Tobacco Tours Turret Umesh USA Van Gogh Video Worldwide on July 21, 2011 by Sam Roberts

Péril en la demeure — 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 Nouaillier Update

This entry was posted in Photo Essays Related Work and tagged Art Emmanuel Nouaillier France on November 14, 2009 by Sam Roberts

Black & white piece featuring traditional French shop fronts One of the best things that has happened since setting up this blog is people sending me Ghost Sign related materials from around the world. The most interesting of these are when the signs have been […]

Emmanuel Nouaillier

This entry was posted in Interviews Photo Essays Related Work and tagged Art Emmanuel Nouaillier France on December 8, 2008 by Sam Roberts

Bezier, France I’ve just recently returned from five weeks in the south of France, hence the lack of Ghost Sign news since late June. It looks like Frank Jump was also doing something similar recently and details of my trip last year are here. Just […]

French Connection

This entry was posted in Photo Essays and tagged Event France Protection on September 10, 2008 by Sam Roberts

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 […]

Ghost Signs Received (Europe)

This entry was posted in Photo Essays and tagged France Germany Received on March 11, 2008 by Sam Roberts

DubonnetClement Originally uploaded by samandrum A recent trip to the south of France was surprisingly fruitful when it came to Ghost Sign hunting. Whereas discovering a new sign in London is something of a rarity, France is bursting with them. There’s something about the country […]

French Brickads

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Belgium Dubonnet France Worldwide on September 13, 2007 by Sam Roberts

Mister Furniture Beziers — My mum just got back from France where there is a great tradition of painted sign writing. This one is from Beziers in the south of the country and says “Mister Furniture Sauvagnac”. See this website for more French examples.

Mister Furniture (France)

This entry was posted in Individual Signs and tagged Beziers France Furniture Household Illustration Mister Furniture Sauvagnac on June 25, 2007 by Sam Roberts