Spacing

Text by Carl Shura and Zak Fish

Stroll along Lombard Street and you’ll catch a glimpse of a large brown and white mural painted on the side of a historic Romanesque Revival brick building at the base of a new residential tower. The building once housed the lithographic printing facilities of Barclay, Clark and Company which adjoined the R.G. McLean Printers Building to form a hub of printing facilities in late Victorian Toronto.

Before the redevelopment of the building, there was only a subtle outline of a frame which hinted at a painted advertisement that had long faded on the cracking and crumbling side wall. A mural was proposed as a strategy to commemorate the former significance of the property to visitors and new residents alike.

The mural playfully references the historic practice of using every visible surface of a building to display advertisements and signage. Designed not to replicate exactly what existed before, the mural serves as an abstract interpretation of the past through overlapping images and text. The mural was inspired by the faded remnants of painted billboards, often referred to as “ghost signs” that were often painted one over top of another were key features of commercial blocks in the downtown core.

Just as the original sign had been painted by hand, the new mural was painted by a group of Toronto artists known as MuralForm. *carl to provide description of how mural was painted*

Layers, representative of different eras in printing history, conceal and reveal an assortment of words, lettering, and graphics associated with the print industry and the companies that once lined the street. The longstanding occupant of the building “R.G McLean” appears, alongside references to technological terms including “ADS”, “LITHOGRAPHY”, “PRESS” and “LINOTYPE”. The selection of lettering styles and typography is also a tribute to the industry’s modernization and evolution from the late 19th and into the 20th century. Over time, this mural too will fade into the surrounding urban landscape, an indicator of the passage of time, the layering of experiences and stories, and the history of the site.

asked Carl for "description of how mural was painted" from note in the piece.

If you stroll along Lombard Street, a two-block road bookended by Victoria Street on the west and Jarvis Street on the east, and you’ll catch a glimpse of a large brown and white mural painted on the side of a historic Romanesque Revival brick building at the base of a new residential tower. The building once housed the lithographic printing facilities of Barclay, Clark and Company which adjoined the R.G. McLean Printers Building to form a hub of printing facilities in late Victorian Toronto.
Before the redevelopment of the building, there was only a subtle outline of a frame viewable which hinted at a painted advertisement that had long faded on the cracking and crumbling side wall. A mural was proposed as a strategy to commemorate the former significance of the property to visitors and new residents alike.
The mural playfully references the historic practice of using every visible surface of a building to display advertisements and signage. Designed not to replicate exactly what existed before, the mural serves as an abstract interpretation of the past through overlapping images and text. The mural was inspired by the faded remnants of painted billboards, often referred to as “ghost signs” that were often painted one over top of another were key features of commercial blocks in the downtown core.
Just like the original advertisements the mural pays homage to, the new work was painted by hand, as would have been traditionally done, by MuralForm of Toronto. The methods remain much the same throughout the process as well: scaling up the artwork onto a grid and copying each square at actual size to large sheets of paper and then transferring to the wall. That transfer takes the form of a ‘pounce pattern,’ a technique that traces the outlines of the artwork with a pounce wheel to make perforated lines so that chalk or other coloured dust can be applied to create a transferred outline on the wall surface. With a complete outline applied to the surface, the painting process can be relatively quick depending on the complexity and colours involved.
Layers, representative of different eras in printing history, conceal and reveal an assortment of words, lettering, and graphics associated with the print industry and the companies that once lined the street. The longstanding occupant of the building “R.G McLean” appears, alongside references to technological terms including “ADS”, “LITHOGRAPHY”, “PRESS” and “LINOTYPE”. The selection of lettering styles and typography is also a tribute to the industry’s modernization and evolution from the late-19th and into the 20th century. Over time, this mural too will fade into the surrounding urban landscape, an indicator of the passage of time, the layering of experiences and stories, and the history of the site.