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The photo is of a sign that was painted directly on the wall. To get this look Alison may need to paint directly on the wall- An actual poster will result in a different effect.

How about leaving out in the hot summer sun for a while so it fades and weathers naturally?

what about taking a color photo and putting it through the rasborator (spelling?) and then lacquering & mounting it?

I agree with Michael DB. This was painted, and a paint treatment is how you'll get the same look.

Is it an actual brick/stone wall you are working on?

Attacking a poster with scrubbies and Bon Ami will make holes and rips in the poster, which isn't necessarily the look you want.

One problem you're up against is that posters have their own texture (often "smooth and shiny") that fights the visual effect of distressing. If you're a very skilled faux painter (calling Curtis!), you might make this work with layers of diluted brown and off-white paint... but if you're a skilled faux painter, you can paint directly on the wall with much less fuss and greater chance of success.

If you don't have a genuine brick wall to work with, it might be simpler to collect photos of genuine old ads and frame them as a group. Or find a good painting of one that will fill the whole wall.

Hire a sign painter!

Baring that, you could study how sign painters execute their craft. Some sign painters used a large paper stencil or "cartoon" to block out or outline the sign. For indoor, you could project a photo of a sign and paint it in. Keim Mineral Paints are often used to touch up fading signs and the consistency of these paints is similar to old paints without all that pesky & poisonous lead.

Interestingly enough these exterior wall ads are occasionally discovered indoors, after they have been enclosed by a building extension. There are a couple of books published on "Ghost Signs" (old painted brick wall signs) and you can see a fraction of my sign photos by clicking on my name. I wrote a thesis on the preservation of these signs, so please email me with any questions!

since the wall isn't brick, i think i'm going to try combining the advice from maxwell and wende: buy a photo of a weathered poster on a wall, then apply it with wallpaper paste.

IF she's working with a brick wall, and...
IF she's trying to do a sign that's really similar to the photo, and...

...then I think that she should make sure that some of the brick is left completely exposed just like that is, somewhere toward the bottom, and maybe at least on one side.

I also think that it MIGHT be interesting to crop the image in such a way as to imply that the rest of the image had some other building, built in front of it, so that instead of becoming an actual ad for something, you're only seeing part of the words. For instance, maybe you'd only see the word "refreshing" and the bottom portion of the letters of Coca-Cola, which would give it an almost abstract quality.

But as far as putting the image up on the wall, I think that she should either draw a grid over the image and draw a grid onto the wall with some regular chalk or pastel chalk in a color that's not TOO much of a contrast with the brick, so that the rest of the image can be sketched in.

THEN... although you USUALLY should use as good a primer as possible... THIS TIME you should NOT use a primer, but instead use the cheapest brand of flat paint you can possibly find to paint the image up there, so that once it's dry, you can more easily chip away at that paint leaving some exposed brick. You might also experiment with mixing SOME water with the paint as you go (not all at once, but as you go!) so that the paint isn't really all that opaque to start with. The best "chipped" paint bits will come from where you paint it thicker, however.

The thing is... make sure that when you're painting the image, that your lines are straight and good and your letter are perfect, because sign-painters back then were trying to make it look very neat -- it's just the texture that you're trying make look distressed -- not the mindset of the person who executed it!

You might need to actually use a sander at the end to sand off parts of the paint to make it look right.

Then... so that you don't have too much actual paint and brick crumbling down around you, you probably should do a satin-finished polyurethane once you're done.

Here's a great site for a collection of faded ads:

http://www.frankjump.com/

I too love faded signs on brick walls, BUT, what a commitment! Do you have a particular advertisement or brand in mind?

you guys are brilliant. thanks!

this kind of faded signage has a name... it's called "ghosting" or "ghost signs"
i love them...

i saw this done exactly on hgtv - check out their site....

i'm madly in love with these kind of murals too, and would love to have it in my place if i ever have a nude brick wall.

rodneys white's art is very similar to this kind of faded advertisement look, so check it out!
www.rodney-white.com

If you're super dedicated, you could cover a small wall with brick patterned wallpaper, and use the technique Curtis described to paint the ghost sign.
http://www.discount-wallcovering.com/images/Brick%20&%20Stone/WEA248.jpg

You could even try painting the sign on the paper before putting it up. That way if it turns out icky, you can just scrap it without having blown a lot of $ or ruining your wall.

In the alternate, I like the idea of getting a good phot of ghost sign that you like, sending it to Rastorbator to have it blown up really large, and applying that to the wall.

I have a good idea! First, Apartment Therapy should accurately credit the photographer of that image (who is me, Frank Jump). And Alison, if you are interested, I do make four foot by six foot posters of my images on http://www.frankjump.com

My blog is http://fadingad.wordpress.com

frankjump@fadingad.com

Best,
Frank Jump