I am very excited to announce my work here is done! I have finalised and refined the booklet and map, bringing the project to a close. Since I had everything in place from my design development stages, I was able to embark on the super fun part, tweaking colour palette, composition and final details. I had a great time cultivating a soothing, outdoorsy aesthetic.
It is an exciting time to launch the wellbeing walks, and it was an absolute pleasure illustrating on this project! A huge thank you to all involved! John-paul Coe it is always a joy working on these projects and being an affiliated designer for such wholesome work. To ensure everyone has access you can download a copy at the end of this post!
John-Paul Coe, Chairman of Wythenshawe Waste Warriors
“I am proud to share these amazing images and mapping designed by talented local artist Faye Tikic. Some time ago our wonderful partners at Thrive in partnership with Our Manchester embarked on a journey to promote Well-being walks which lead by Chantel Hill and Dave have been hugely successful and supported many local residents in enjoying our local outdoors. http://www.facebook.com/thrivemcr
After the incredible volunteer work along our off road pathways by MP Mike Kane and Undercover David we were inspired to map and to help volunteers to participate in clean ups and zero carbon transport from places such as the Black Path and Blackcarr Woods. Our MP Mike Kane named the miles of pathway; ‘The Wythenshawe Greenway’ and we are in awe of the work achieved. We had many fellow residents young and old praising this work and it is incredible how many partners and areas of beauty you can find along the route. To this end we commissioned local artist Faye Tikic to map and illustrate this route and I can say we are really pleased with the results. These images are available to all thanks to Our Manchester and Thrive who have kindly offered use to all to promote active travel in our wards.
Thanks to Michelle Ishy Shinjin Comar, Undercover David and Kyle Dodd for the planning and route support. We couldn’t have put this together without your hard work.Wythenshawe Waste Warriors have been proud to partner with Piper Hill Specialist School working with students mapping assets and all that is wonderful about our Town. Over the Summer months I will be working with all partners to have some hard copies available for walking groups and community partners to enjoy our green pathways.
I’d like to take this opportunity to share the amazing routes and links to the Manchester and Salford ramblers who you can find online. A huge congratulations to Thrive, Our Manchester, artist Faye Tikic and partners for this incredible mapping and opportunity! There are too many partners to name individually from Jean Wright, David Vyse Bell-Hartley, Lucy Makin, Barny Beswick, Joe Farrar, Richard McEvoy who have supported along this route but you know who you are and I hope you will enjoy the pathways for years to come.
Let’s get active and don’t forget the spade, pickers and brush and join your local community group and Thrive on your walks “
This project has progressed immensely over the last few weeks. I have spent a lot of time evolving the design style and producing a huge body of work to propel exploration. To manage my work, I divided the project into three design challenges: cover, map and page design. I’ve been bouncing between these, referencing my planning, colour pallets and visual boards.
I discussed in-depth details with the Thrive Manchester program directors in advance; noted points on how the booklet would fold and read e.g., landmark symbols, legend, route colours, etc. The design side has been freeing, generating my inspired visions while implementing suggestions and preferences from directors, it has been a very smooth collaboration.
FINALISING THE WINNING DESIGN
I have updated project managers/partners during design development. Once we were happy with a cover, I played with design potential by introducing alternative colours, clothing and fonts. I then moved onto furthering depth and detail, adding sun beams, rivers, drawing on outdoors, nature and wellbeing. I wanted the visuals and colours for the map and pages to extend through each aspect of the booklet; the fun challenge was finding the best balance of colours and composition. Producing this project using Adobe Illustrator provided many solutions and eased development exploration e.g., ability to freehand vector visuals directly onto art boards, easily alter pantones/pallets, introduce temporary artboards for comparrision. This in hand with Adobe Photoshop has made my design approach much more professional and stress free.
PROTOTYPE PREVIEW
(Before & after development)
Stay tuned for updates on map and page development!
One of my latest commissions is illustrating a wellbeing walks brochure; this will demonstrate a range of cycling /walking routes from Manchester Airport through to Northenden. The aim of this project is to enoucrage everyone to benefit mentally and physically from the wonderland of walks around the local area, while celebrating its variety of greenspaces, bio-diversity and local assets. This project is funded and commissioned by Thrive Manchester and partnered with Wythenshawe Waste Warriors, I am thrilled to be the affilated designer on such an uplifting, positive project.
Map Design
To begin map design, I began by drawing up the roads, Motorway, and River Mersey using satellite’s /google maps for reference. I was provided helpful material for placing in walking routes to begin laying a pre-liminary foundation. To keep my document in order, I have groups for all catogories of layers, e.g. zones, roads, symbols. The process is quite tricky and meticulous but I enjoy the challenge. I have great feedback and help on the progress from John-Paul Coe which keeps the work running smoothly.
Symbol Design
Once I had a base map and routes in place, I was provided with lists of landmarks for each walk, including parks, pubs, transport etc. To make symbols for these, I have been producing a range of illustrations and key features. There will be an estimated 50 symbols to illustrate so theres lots to consider in ensuring everything is legible.
Brochure pages
Before I thought about producing the map, I considered the reverse side, and how this would fold and be divided up. I mocked up a few basic outlines for printing and folding; this helped me trial and error sizes and provided an indication on how to scale content within the stages. Once I had a general idea of how to produce the brochure itself, I began mocking up the map and content for exploration. Myself and the funders are pleased with the progress so far and I am looking forward to furthering its development.
“
FAYE TIKIC 