It’s official, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie is now available to buy from Amazon.com and a number of other retailers. The book comes in a print edition and two different eBook formats for devices like iPad, Kindle, Nook and more. There’s…
“The signs they are a-changing”: Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie in The Advisor
The Advisor is a weekly arts and entertainment freesheet in Phnom Penh and today they featured this great article by Cassandra Naji ahead of the book‘s publication later this week. You can download the full pdf of the magazine here…
Signs of change in Kratie
More examples today of the changing face of Kratie’s signage and, in the case of Pal Nget’s printing shop above, the loss of a hand-painted sign and the introduction of a big and bold printed update. This type of ‘organic’…
Posted in Individual Signs, Sign Features Tagged with: Change, Evolution, Mobile Phone, Pal Nget, Photo Shop, Pros Mobile, Repainting, Replacement
Free preview and eBook now available
Visit this page for details of how to buy Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie and download a free preview.
Losing hand-painted signs in Kratie
Change in the world of Kratie’s hand-painted signs is rapid. In most cases signs are lost when new digital printed creations replace them. This can happen ‘naturally’ or through the interference of people like me. However, in some instances, the…
Cambodian Shop Signs in LA
The Fowler Museum at the University of California is holding a four-month exhibition from 2nd December featuring the collection of Joel Montague, part of which he has donated to them. The sign above is among those that will be exhibited.…
Posted in Enthusiasts, Events Tagged with: Cambodian Shop Signs, Collecting, Enthusiast, Exhibition, Fowler Museum, Joel Montague, LA, Los Angeles, UCLA, University of California
Hand Painted Signs of Cambodia Flickr group
If you haven’t done so already then I’d highly recommend browsing the Flickr group, Hand Painted Signs of Cambodia. It is a real treasure trove of content, mixing the beautiful, bizarre and bemusing in one nifty package. A number of…
Posted in Enthusiasts, Individual Signs, Resources Tagged with: Beauty, Beauty Salon, Cambodia, Community, Education, Enthusiast, Erik Bos, Flickr, Kampong Speu
Foreword from Joel Montague
Joel Montague is a veteran of hand-painted signs in Cambodia and his collection is a unique record of those from the 1990s. I was fortunate enough to make contact with Joel in the USA ahead of publishing my book and…
Posted in Enthusiasts Tagged with: Aesthetic Surgery, Beauty Salon, Collecting, Enthusiast, Joel Montague, Strong Man
Before and after: Dara Music Group
Dara means star in Khmer and this sign for a music group had sufficient star quality to make it onto my acquisitions short list. Following the purchase of the original hand-painted sign, the business owners have taken less than a month…
Posted in Individual Signs, Sign Features Tagged with: Collecting, Dara Music Group, Kratie, Replacement, Star
Phnom Penh Post features Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie
Today the Phnom Penh Post featured a full-page piece on the book under the title, “A fond farewell to painted signs” (links to digital edition). It’s a great piece of coverage in one of Cambodia’s two English language titles. They…
Posted in Press Coverage Tagged with: Lifestyle, Phnom Penh Post, Poppy McPherson, Press, Print, Sai Sokheang
Collage Art Posters from Steve Tierney
Steve Tierney is another enthusiast for Cambodia’s hand-painted signs. Whereas I have directed my own interest towards creating the book, Steve has interpreted the signs through his series of “Collage Art Posters”. I caught up with him to learn more…
Posted in Enthusiasts Tagged with: Art, Collage, Collage Art Posters, Enthusiast, Phnom Penh, Posters, Russian Market, Steve Tierney, Vintage Shop
Final cover design for Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie
The design phase for the book is now complete and I’m currently waiting for a printed proof to check before making it available for sale. Above you can see the full design for the cover which incorporates elements of 16…
Is this my favourite hand-painted sign in Cambodia?
This amazing sign is from Kampong Cham, the province to the South of Kratie. It’s certainly in my top three of all time, what’s not to like? It’s remarkable that such a striking piece of Cambodian sign painting is almost…
Posted in Individual Signs, Sign Features Tagged with: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, Beauty, Hair, Kampong Cham
Did you see this one? Sign Art in Cambodian Life
Robert Joiner is a New Zealand photo-journalist who spent the early part of the 2000s volunteering with the New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA). Like me he was drawn to the hand-painted signs he discovered here and his images were…
Tank Magazine features Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie
The latest issue of Tank Magazine features a short feature and collection of images about the book under the byline: “Northeastern Cambodia’s analogue ad-land”. Download a pdf of the Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie feature.
Replica hand-painted signs at Bojangles in Phnom Penh
This is one of a collection of replica hand-painted signs on display at Bojangles bar and restaurant on Phnom Penh’s riverfront. The signs are sold as souvenirs and aim to provide income for rural signpainters. They are scaled down from…
Posted in Enthusiasts Tagged with: Bojangles, Exhibition, Hand-Painted, Phnom Penh, Replicas, Souvenir
Collecting hand-painted signs from Kratie
I’d been considering buying a handful of signs that I really like for a couple of weeks and had even got as far as opening negotiations with a couple of the owners. I then had to go to the countryside…
