In some ways it’s not a huge surprise that the boutiques, shops and galleries in the very much creative/art/craft-focussed Columbia Road – which on Sundays transforms into the hectic flower market, the only day that most of the shops are open – all have fine shopfronts and signs.

Yet it’s fairly rare in the present climate (of faceless commerce and the proliferation of amateur/do-it-yourself graphic design) to find even one genuinely well-composed bit of type on the front of a non high-street shop.

London’s Columbia Road bucks this trend many times over, with almost all of the façades (there’s still the inevitable Londis letting the side down) featuring a fine awareness of  type, composition and colour.

Some are especially beautiful (Supernice, Doxi, Given) and a couple are very nice if not perfect (Openhouse, Milagros), but most are wonderfully simple and all possess immense personality. Design, in this visual sense, is ultimately about suggesting character.

Apologies for some quick photography and strange angles..