Art Map Wolverhampton is an integral part of Project Dandelion, a public art project that enables new art commissions and projects to take place across secondary schools in Wolverhampton. Supported by Centro, Substrakt were brought on board to work alongside the students to produce a printed map and website showcasing art and culture across the city for visitors and residents.

We began the project by visiting the King’s CE school for workshops with the students. Over the sessions we introduced the students to various stocks, inks and finishes. We took samples to spark debate and presented existing maps to engage in discussions, using the feedback to work towards our design. Within their lessons, the students were producing artwork in response to public art within the city, which we were to incorporate into the map.

During the research the students realised they were keen to produce something that stood out from the other tourist maps; we explored different folds, introduced them to Pantone swatches and looked at various ways of illustrating Wolverhampton in a clean simple form that would translate into print and web.

We collated the students’ research and mapped out places of interest and public art onto a vector-illustrated map. Using tones of grey with fluorescent red and green we ensured a bold contrast, the grey representing the industrial city and brights celebrating the culture and vibrant art scene.

The result was 22k A2 art maps; 24pp printed black, Pantone 803 and 805 onto 130gsm uncoated stock.

The accompanying website is based on the visual style of the printed map, and expands on the initial idea and concept of Art Map Wolverhampton. Using the online version people have more information available to them, such as bus routes, transport type accessibility, links to further information on other websites and easily accessed directions through Google Map.

It's built on Wordpress to manage the content, Google Maps API 3 to generate, style and control the map & locations, and is responsive to the browser size & device being used. This means users on larger screens will see a scaled site, with larger images, larger maps and more info on screen, where as small screens still get to view the site at a scale more appropriate to their display. It also works with mobile, meaning people can take an optimised version of Art Map Wolverhampton with them to the art locations instead of, or as a companion to the printed map. www.artmapwolverhampton.co.uk

We first worked with Rare games earlier in the year designing vinyls for their new Birmingham office, so when we were approached in September to help out with their press day we were keen to get involved.

October was to see the worldwide release of Kinect Sports: Season Two and Rare were set to hold a press day on 8th September, inviting UK, European and American journalists to preview the game. Rare HQ, Twycross, was to be transformed, each new sport having its own area - stylised with artwork, character cuts outs, lights, bars and even an igloo!

Substrakt worked with Rare producing assets, large-scale prints and vinyls for each individually themed room spread across the site - in the building, marquee and igloo. Some of the deliverables included twelve 5ft character cut outs, large logo wall vinyls, material banners, designed flags and magnetic signs for the golf buggy.

During the installation, Andy and I also got a cheeky play on the darts and baseball, top stuff!

Thanks to Rare for the photos!