Fresh From The Field: Find My Way – By Carol Green
A community-made map turned keepsake, Carol Green’s Find My Way brings together the walking, cycling and driving journeys of Ōtāhuhu locals into one joyful, hot-pink celebration of place, people, and shared stories.
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The brief
We Should Practice is an arts organisation run out of Ōtāhuhu by Louise Tu’u. “Find My Way” was a drop-in map-making event at Tōia (Ōtāhuhu Library) where participants of all ages were asked to share walking, cycling and driving journeys to, in and around Ōtāhuhu. They could draw them in whatever way they liked, and in as much or as little detail as they liked. These map drawings (from around 60 participants) were be collated and turned into a design on a tea towel.
The design response
Louise gave me scans of all the maps, from which I picked out my starting point; Kino’s map showing the junction of Great South Rd and Atkinson Ave – the centre of Ōtāhuhu.
Then I went through a process of slotting elements in where they would fit, sometimes according to geography and sometimes where I thought they were meaningful. For example, long roads outside the circle drawn by participants who had come from far away to Ōtāhuhu; Tōia, where the drop-in events happened; the pool; play grounds; Seaside Park and the railway. I used elements from about half the participants’ maps; mainly because of space constraints, but also because some of the more colourful drawings and maps wouldn’t translate very well to a single colour print.
My initial rough mockup was in Photoshop using cut-and-paste from the scans, then I re-drew the whole thing in Illustrator to tidy up lines and add some strategic texture. All the signatures on the maps were also re-drawn and added to the bottom. We decided on hot pink for the single colour and had them printed on natural colour tea towels.
Louise organised a launch event to which all the participants were invited, and they were pretty excited to get their own tea towel.
My favourite element? Saia’s bus with arms. Or flames?
The design team
https://carolgreen.net/
https://www.instagram.com/carol.greenie/
https://bsky.app/profile/carolgreen.bsky.social
The client team
Louise Tu’u – We Should Practice
https://www.instagram.com/weshouldpractus/
https://weshouldpractice.com/
