Text Mesages

Just started finding these messages around the place, this one in a skip

Just Say No

Lots of choice when it comes to 'No Parking' signs, it almost seems that phrase is written into our DNA. In fact there are so many varieties I am going to have to break them down into types over several postings. These ones are domestic scale and what they have in common is a homemade vibe. The little blue one adopts a familiar colour scheme and official format, but attached to the wall of a private residence it's authority seems more advisory than enforceable. Even so I think this little number must be effective and recommend a neat 'blue and white' plaque as a discrete device.

The peeling red one above it was spotted in strong sunlight, adding to the feeling of faded glory. The well preserved lettering is made up of white tape, the distinctive angular typeface formed by fashioning letters from straight lines looks like it was spawned from the 70's or early 80's when electronic type was in its early days and awkward calculator writing impressed us!

While we are talking about typefaces I've got to say this black and white sign, painted directly onto a plank of wood and screwed straight into the wall is a corker. Modest and workaday (argh, americanism horrible word, how did that creep in?) it must have survived a good many years. Very stylishly executed with closely packed, elongated letters that are not wasting an inch of their baseboard. Lets hope it lasts many more years for its good looks alone and remember, if you want to make your own No Parking sign, whether slick, stoic or stylish, make it a good looking one.

Summer in the City

The first stack of three body support sleep systems stopped me in my tracks, they seemed so neatly arranged and almost left behind by accident. But lets suppose someone actually left them there intentionally because they couldn't be arsed to deal with them properly. Naughty. And the thing that always gets me about that is you imagine they drove there in a van and dropped them off. Well why not go the extra mile (literally) and carry on to the corporation dump? Slackness.

But for now lets put that issue aside and talk about aesthetics and just look at these lovely big dollops of incongrous patterns and colours introduced to the grey urban landscape. Next day I've come across mattress number two, a dual patterned number occupying a hinterland between a park and some houses, couldn't tell if it was a kids temporary plaything or another unauthorised dumper who'd dragged it across the street and abandoned it. Last up in the mattress medley is this big, sloppy pastel number. It's never gonna fit in that bin, destined to be there for some time, luckily while its hanging around it can bring a bit of bland tartan action to the street party.

While I'm on about soft household items in unusual places, I've also seen some slightly more functional outdoor furniture on my recent travels. Of course such things have a shelf life, a comfy sofa placed outside on a sunny afternoon can soon turn into a sodden, maggot infested piece of debris with feral kittens popping out of a hole in the arm. But for now lets stay on a positive vibe and imagine it is really a kind of community bench with extra padding. What I liked about this inner city moment was the addition of a rifled copy of yellow pages at arms length from the couch. The scene I saw was of a root through the phone book, a quick call and a young man drops the book and dashes off on a mission to get a washing machine component before the shop closes (or some other specialist item). Living room life transposed outside the boundaries of the home.

Some times people leave stuff outside for others to help themselves to when they have upgraded their own household goods. In fact you can almost see the newly unwrapped mattress or sofa (or table or bin or clock...) in a house next to the spot where the old model has been put out to dissappear. Or perhaps languish and degrade before becoming someone else's problem, leading to eventual removal by the invisible authorities. While I've been proccupied by (perishable) soft furnishings I spotted this group of orange stools, a pouffe-like group next to a couple of disgarded mats and a box that contained some new electronics. On closer inspection I realised that they are made from re-used plastic milk bottle crates with home made orange padded covers! I marvelled of the inventivness of this solution born of neccessity and lack of money and thought at the same time of who might be one step down in the food chain and see them as a lucky find.

Ebony, Ivory...

... live together in perfect harmony. If only. But graphically we can say that that this is the classic combination, black on white, very trad, very easy, very functional. No need for flourescents, glitter, multi coloured posters, glossy finishes, pimp my print job. Unfortunately for me there was a distinct lack of 'harmony' going on when I photographed 'Keep Gate Clear'. I was impressed, it was very clear and unambiguous, but seeming to keep on the right side of assertiveness- rather than some of the bossy notices that make you want to disobey them. And then the ultimate finishing touches, laminated and attached by pins, this is a professional at work I thought. Snapping this impressive example adorning someones back gate I was accosted by an old man with his family in the car who was not best pleased to find me documenting his signage and who got a bit uppity when I explained I go round taking photos of whatever random things take my fancy and he didn't own the digital file. Didn't have a chance to get into the finer points of contested public space and intellectual property rights and my obscure lines of inquiry, but perhaps another time when he has calmed down a bit.

Of course anyone can print something on a bit of A4 and put it somewhere, coming over all official. Two contrasting examples follow. 'Wet Paint', its got a branded logo, text that tells us it's an 'approved partner' but it still looks dead scrappy and lame assed. Bad layout, primary message obscured by fixing method, faded photocopy, how can we respect this sign? 'Collection Care Seminar' appears to have all the wrong stuff going on. Dashed off in a minute, placed on an external door with blue tack, unprotected by a covering of any kind, any passer-by could have taken it down, or indeed, put it up. And yet it has authority, its crisp, legible and once again tells us that black capitals with no surrounding distractions are excellent communicators.

'Stop Scientology Moving to Moseley' posters appearred overnight all around a particular neighbourhood, comprehensively pasted onto grey street boxes and fences within an impressive radius. It is probably true to say that this isn't the work of a 'grown up' ex-stickerer, matured and employing the old techniques for a home grown propaganda war. We have that to look forward to, OAP taggers and wild style National Trust supporters. In fact looking at the example above we can imagine a parent and teenage child bonding side by side, one with a marker pen in hand, the other with a paste pot and handful of printouts, ahh! Whatever you think of Scientology, you've got to admire this spirited hijacking of urban artform methodology to spread this dissenting voice, a campaign that says to anyone 'if you feel strongly about something, get your message out there'. If you've got access to a word processor and a printer, or a photocopier, or even a black pen and and bit of paper, and of course the means to attach your sign, you are half way there.

To follow, postings on 'lost pet posters' and annoying 'no parking' signs, WATCH THIS SPACE...

the subliminal lightness of seeing

Now this one is about things left behind, absence and powerful communication through apparently quiet means. The first pic I took in this sequence was, I think, a trace of tape or ribbon that found its way as a kind of imprint onto a paver. Very subtle, but just unusual enough to catch the eye, a nice little twist.

Not long after and I spotted this example of a primtive tagger's daub emerging from within a classic, graphic combination of black and white chevrons. Perhaps a cleaning fluid revealled it's clean outline on a ground of fuzzy grey after the spray paint colour had been zapped? It has a hint of invisible ink about it, like time sensitive graffitti that emerges 24 hours after it has been applied. That would be cool!

Of course our corporate cousins are never far behind and the idea for cleaning a path through daily grime to miraculously give birth to a drinks promotion combines cynicism and genuine inventiveness. And then the ultimate form of ambient media employed by our local friendly multinational - a five metre wide billboard with, get this, writing so carefully toned you have to work your cute little eyeballs to find out its just a fecking car ad. Thanks for that! Whatever happend to world peace and save the whale? Get in on the act, quiet writing slips into the unconcious and leaves a little message behind, remember, guns don't kill people, people do, or something...

When a dribble turns into a torrent

Now I'm in a dilemma. I don't condone mindless doodling 'out there' - mostly on aesthetic grounds. The continuous lines you must have seen left by dragging a marker or spray across can along every surface the perpetrator (or should I say participant?) walks past seem even more stupid than concentratrations of rubbish tags. But when someone brings the gift of a well placed colour into the harsh urban environment we usually have to thank them. This yellow punctuation started out wanting to obliterate the lettering on this sign, quickly gave that idea up and only just made it to the end of the text. But those dribbles that nearly break the frame are tantalising and the one that escapes the black border brings us back into the real world and gently invades our space.



Surprising colour, applied so that it manages to maneuver between spatial dimensions is the subject of this posting. I loved this baby blue, thickly spilt splodge with it's textured rice pudding skin. Destined to be around for a while judging by the quantity of paint, it immediately suggests an accidental spillage rather than a purposeful placement. And then the little dollop that has hit the vertical wall and been forced by gravity to head down south makes itself known. Nestling in amongst the streetwise lichen rings, it adds a spatial quality that confounds expectation. How did this come to be? The normal order of such things is to run down and collect underneath, but it almost looks like this escapee started in a pool on the ground and leapt out in a bid for freedom, not quite clearing the bounday wall.


After those modest examples comes a rather grander attempt to escape the frame. Over blocks of grey and white on hoardings is a splattering that is crazed and accompanied by the congealed pool of paint underneath it that seems nothing less than murderous. Starting from a more comfortable distance on the wall, it leaps out and is suddenly almost underfoot, pulling us into a desperate world. Perhaps the red itself, so liberally distributed, was to block out anther's text? And over the top one more layer, a silvery grey cloud lingers, telling us this is unfinished business. Walk on, don't get involved...

DON'T...believe the hype

Ok folks, prepare for something totally different. A Wandering Mind stumbles on a quiet scoop at the forefront of urban trends reporting. Some newly emerging street style phenomena are documented and presented for your viewing pleasure. Check this out...


First of this lovely set of three is the metallic ivy, took me straight back to little school and home made Christmas decorations made proper with a unifying coat of the magical aerosol. At that time it was controlled by the responsible adult. Now it has been liberated and this is the result. It's way more sophistacted than tagging a tree, this is spray can art gone botanical, nature and mankind waging an unwinnable war, etc.


Next up is a bit of canalside graphic action. New bricks and mortar frame a stubby barge post (if that is what they are called?), dashed on it's fresh white top is a dual colour, criss-cross effect two second gesture. It seems to mean something. Blurs the boundary between official 'marking out' and unofficial 'pissing post'. It references a kind of funky burberry. Maybe. Have you seen one of these? Probably Not. New Trend, oh yes.


The winner by a nose, in this little trio of surprising mark making, is this example of graff on glass, how glamorous! Better still it's a car wash so it is enhanced by a modest light show and misty watery effects on a regular basis. Wonderful calligraphic quality, deceptive spatial game playing, exciting use of colour. But 'Moans', though? Is that a cool street name? Its like the influence of those 'grumpy old man' programmes on tv has filtered down to the hood.

Anyway, just remember you heard it here first, yeah? Plant paintin', post toppin' and car wash crashin' Oh yes.