Makers Marks is a collection of sidewalk stamps, graffiti, artist signatures, and found art curated by Abi Jones. The collection serves as motivation to see more of the walking world, and serves the dual purpose of recording the marks that mankind leaves behind.
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The hope is that this project leads to seeking out small details, and exploring new places. The fear is that we’ll spend days roaming sidewalks with eyes down to the ground rather than up to the sky.
Want to learn more about sidewalk stamps? Here are a few sites to check out (in alphabeticalish order):
- Berkeley Plaques: Includes stamps from Cushing, the Docs Populi stamp photographer. If you’re into plaques be sure to check out the 99% Invisible episode on reading the plaque
- Concrete stamps Flickr set
- Brass Underfoot: A Flickr group showing brass plaques you may have overlooked. My favorite is WiFi ici (Wifi here)
- Docs Populi: Read about their relationship to labor history and see a brilliantly large collection of stamps, many from Berkeley
- Forgotten Chicago: Sidewalk stamps and plaques
- Oakland concrete stamps Flickr set
- Oakland Sidewalks: A great resource with a lot of examples, especially of multiple years for the same contractor
- Sidewalk and Curb Markers Flickr set
- Sidewalk Date Stamps – single blog post (Vancouver, BC)
- Sidewalk Secrets: Hasn’t been updated since 2011, but has stamps from Albany, CA
- Sidewalk Stamps Flickr set by Pam Morgan: Chicago and greater Chicago examples
- Sidewalk Stamps by Luke Cole: Mostly Colorado and California stamps. Last updated in