Lawrence O’Toole is a graphic designer, design director and entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in branding and print and digital design. He lived within the Philadelphia city limits for thirty-five years. He was born and raised in South Philly, moved to his first apartment in Queens Village, his second apartment in Northern Liberties and eventually bought a row home in Fishtown. In 2010, he moved to Manhattan, where he currently resides.
After attending Saint Joseph’s Preparatory High School, he received a degree in graphic design from the Nesbitt College of Design Arts at Drexel University. This book began as an offshoot of his Drexel University senior thesis project. The premise of the thesis was to develop a book that would document a particular environment, This space would eventually be narrowed down to a few blocks in Old City area of Philadelphia. The documentation would consist of found materials, archival maps and the author’s own photography.
In the course of his research for the thesis, Lawrence became intrigued by the mysterious eroded signs plastered on the sides of older buildings throughout the city. He recorded these signs as photographs and set them aside for later.
Lawrence completed his senior thesis at the end of his time at Drexel and graduated with honors. He later self-published the thesis in 2002. Entitled 24687531, the book was a pure graphic observation and interpretation of space. Eventually, curiosity about the meaning and significance of these signs would germinate the inspiration for this book’s more historical approach.
Since graduation, he worked as an art director at various companies in the Philadelphia area before co-founding his own agency located just north of the city in 2005. Lawrence began an attempt to photograph and document signs in earnest, originally just to capture and preserve their image before demolition, shortly after his thesis was completed. This occurred at a time when blogging was becoming an interesting way for individuals to easily post information to share with like-minded individuals on the Internet. Eventually, he began seeking out signs in order to map their locations, find out about their histories and share them with others online. He posts photographs of his findings to his blog “The Ghost Sign Project.” It was this blog that led The History Press to invite him to contribute a book as part of a series about ghost signs in American cities.
Not content with a simple blog for the project, Lawrence has developed an application for mobile devices, which, like the blog, can provide interesting backstory and historical information on signs, but has expanded its reach beyond just Philadelphia. The application allows anyone to capture signs and submit them for inclusion in the database of signs already collected. In this way, signs around the world can be captured, preserved and shared with others.
Lawrence currently resides in Manhattan. He worked as an independent design director for the likes of Google, Interbrand, Rokkan, Euro RSCG, StrawberryFrog, the Michael J. Fox Foundation and others before assuming the role of design director at Momentum Worldwide, a leading ideas agency with expertise across the marketing spectrum. He is also a founding partner of The Working Assembly, a collective of creatives specializing in collaboration and design services for independent clients and startups.
In addition to his design interests, Lawrence is also a runner and cyclist and has started competing in half marathons and duathlons. He was an avid fencer during his high school and college years and was active in international competitions. He is also highly interested in motoring, with a love for cars that goes back to his earliest memories. Lawrence has written articles for MotoringFile, the world’s leading news source on the MINI brand of automobiles. He also maintains a website dedicated to 1970–72 Yamaha 350 R5 two-strokes and similar vintage motorcycles, which has been widely regarded as the authority on the subject.
