Recently, Lisbon started to suffer the consequences of overtourism and gentrification. Some historical shops have closed and soon, new places opened with clean, welcoming, “Nordic” design… the same one you get, let’s say, everywhere. What happened to the old ceramic tiles, the beautiful iron doors and the retro outdated neons? They’re all gone.

Although I have lots of photos from Lisboan retro typography, in order to make sure that we have a good photo archive, I wanted to invite you to explore the unexpected beauty of this form of decaying advertising.

Welcome to a world of kitsch lettering and colourful nonsense names. It’s a world in danger and although the town hall is taking measures to protect the historical shops, some will be gone as you’re reading this article, and the same will happen to the old retro writing that makes our shops so beautifully kitsch.

Explore the downtown, take a good look at some of these pearls, and enjoy a good dive in retro typing. They’re everywhere downtown close to the main squares of Rossio or Figueira.