> HELLO <
THE SIGN HUNTERS
@thesignhunters • #thesignhunters • #handfulsadventures • #apiginchina
Welcome, Visitor!
Pig is pink, but this website is mostly orange and black. And white. And blue. Maybe a little pink too, but not too much. The thing is that we have a pig, and this website is named after him. But officially (genuinely), our website is called The Sign Hunters. We are The Sign Hunters and Pig is a sign hunter and travel entertainer. Then let us see …
What is sign hunting all about?
We travel and take photos. But 'The Sign Hunters' is a unique venture, because we take photos of settlement signs. So, we travel to settlement signs.
For us a "settlement sign" is what marks the administrative limit of a populated geographical location (for example a city or a village) which also lets you know where you are. It may have a few different names such as boundary sign, limit sign, or simply city or village sign. Sign hunting is to find these signs and take photos of - preferably - us together with the signs. Taking pictures of these objects is something that makes us happy, therefore, we usually travel settlement-sign-themed.
Taking pictures of limit signs is the easiest part of the game. First we need to find the sign. We normally travel on foot and walk all day, or ride a bicycle, catch a bus, a tram or a train. Very rarely, we also drive cars, but sign hunting is mostly referring to walking. Sometimes it is easy to find the sign, sometimes it is not. Most of the time, there is a sign where we assume it to be, but there are cases when we walk for hours just to find absolutely nothing. Too large settlements (such as most capital cities) mostly cause just troubles and making a sign hunt highly challenging and time-consuming (or simply a waste of time), but if there is a chance, we try to find these signs too. Large settlements are normally complex urban areas, which means they have old villages, smaller towns, districts etc. incorporated into their large administrative bodies. This means, if we cannot find the main sign, we can still find many signs within smaller administrative divisions that form parts of the main city.
We would, of course, never go to a place to just find and take a photo of its sign only. There are times, we even have to skip the sign hunt itself, but this is a rare occasion. The signage itself is the motivation, a goal of some kind that keeps us travelling and exploring new places. While visiting a certain place, we combine other ambitions, learn about the country, the city, the people, minerals and rocks, visit a junk market, a church, a brewery, or a pub. But, most importantly, we take lots of photos, maybe even record videos, and try to capture the place and the memory in a special way.
This website hosts the documentation of some of our successful sign travel projects and introduces you to these places you might never hear of otherwise.
Notice: we have done our best to design this website’s mobile version as responsive as possible, but if you want to enjoy the site’s full potential, use the desktop version.
Meet the sign hunters
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Laszlo
Sign enthusiast
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Katie
Travel enthusiast
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Handful
Loyal travel companion
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Pig
Pig is pig
This is where it all started: Trieste (Italy)
This is where it all started. Back in July 2000, the photo of the Trieste sign in Italy was only the cherry on a 1000-km-long bike ride cake. Back then, I did not plan to extract more out of it; it was only a picture that celebrated our perseverance and ability to do challenging things. But as it worked out in the later years, taking picture of a sign has more meanings than just being a photo itself. In Trieste, it was the trophy of an achievement, it was a memorabilia that was filled up with all the memories that we made during the bike ride challenge. And it did not cost a penny.
The concept of sign-hunting has not changed much since. I travel the world and every time I visit a different place, I make my way to the welcome sign (or settlement sign, or limit sign, or call it however you want.), take a photo of it and keep the picture as a souvenir. Every time I look at these photos, I remember the trips individually and can associate them with exact memories.
Sign-hunting can be highly challenging as the location of the sign is never really known; therefore, a sign project involves a lot of walking and exploring, and one is always exposed to certain weather conditions, traffic, animals and humans, and a lot of other things. I often call it an extreme sport, and you know that I am not far off the truth.
Sign-hunting has become the major hobby in my life that involves travel, knowledge development, social interaction, sport, photography and a lot of geography. It is part of my life and I try to involve my family and friends, so we together, The Sign Hunters, are making every moment of our journeys unforgettable. Follow us and be part of an extraordinary family.
~ Laszlo
Buy us some beer
We, ‘The Sign Hunters’, follow our passion for travelling, exploring, collecting and taking photos of settlement signs. We produce and maintain all of our media websites and pages and we do so as we love what we are doing; thus making all these sites available for you costs only a tiny amount to us. It is mostly our time and energy that takes up the largest piece in the process. We make all content for our own pleasure and entertainment, and we think it is also a way to preserve our most important travel memories for us in such a simple way. We, however, also hope that you, who follow us, feel an integrated part of our growing community, becoming more and more engaged with us and our activities, and maybe feeling motivated to carry out your own travel projects one day too.
Thank you for your support!
Do you want to buy photos or rights to use them? Check out our stock photo portfolio on Adobe Stock and Getty Images/iStock.
Do you want a specific photo but it is not on a stock photo site? If you like a photo and want to buy the rights to use it, get in touch with us via hello@thesignhunters.co.uk