A gable-end, exterior mural welcoming people to Sunniside. High Street West, Sunderland.

A collaboration with Hannah Worsley (Paper Walls) we responded to an open call to design a positive wayfinding mural for the Sunniside area in Sunderland.

Our artwork direction centred around a well known song lyric, with the word “Sunniside” as the prominent word to help viewers immediately connect to and signpost the area they are arriving into. We tweaked the song lyric to: On the Sunniside of the Street. We liked this for its joyous optimism while broadcasting a sense of place.

We loved the location connection to the Sunshine Co-op there, so included imagery of a sun, nature, birds, plant growth and fruit & veg. My stylisation of these was bold and edgy to help represent the vibe of the area.

Community - with an independent edge - is also a strong aspect of the area, so around the phrase are placed stylised people representing the vibrant creative culture with a guitar player, singer and record-holding/headphone-wearing person or DJ. There’s a visual heritage reference with the inclusion of a cotton plant on the back of the singer’s jacket: a symbolic nod to Henry Binns policy of only selling goods manufactured from cotton warranted to be grown by free labour.

The mural is situated on the side of the building containing the Sunshine Co-op and opposite the “Welcome to Sunniside” mural by Philth.

Hannah researched into the history of signage around the area and carried through the letterform design characteristics from an old Binns sign {The 1800s terrace block was once home to the original Binns} and it’s store replacement, Joplings.

To help lead the eye into the phrase and to better connect the typography to surrounding artwork, Hannah placed the words “ON THE” at an angle along the guitar players hand, backed by a spiky burst sound-shape representing the noise of the guitar.

We took inspiration from the aesthetic of “ghost signage” and applied the paint in areas of the mural artwork to echo that. This also helped to visually suggest a layering of time and history to the elements that make up the design. We applied the paint with brush and roller to best fit this aesthetic while sensitively working with and celebrating the brickwork. This approach will weather-in over time, giving the mural artwork a longer, evolving life of its own.