I’ve finally got round to going through some of my pictures from honeymoon in Tanzania. We had a great time and as well as photos of my beautiful new wife, I took lots of the sort of pictures graphic designers take when they’re on holiday:

I loved the hand painted signage in the places we visited. Obviously print reproduction is beyond the means of many people, so they’ve become adept at rendering typefaces and brand trademarks with a paintbrush. The imperfections and analogue nature of the graphics can be laughable, but they do the job, and in some cases are very accurate indeed.

Typography is a constant need, but when photos of things are called for things get interesting.

It’s something we miss now that cheap digital printing rules the roost, those chalkboard writers pushing pie and pint night in the local Wetherspoon’s pub are all that’s left.

It reminded me of these movie posters from Ghana I saw a while ago which are just wonderful.

And then there’s an album I’ve been listening to recently, from The Very Best, friends of Vampire Weekend…

With some global companies taking a real interest in emerging economies, and African nations growing in commercial confidence, could we be looking at a new source of visual inspiration? Cadbury’s seem to think so at the moment…