ABOUT

This was my submission to a logo design competition for 'Slow Ways' a network of walking routes that connect Great Britain’s towns and cities.
I loved putting pencil to paper and drawing this then making into a clean vector.

Brief:
The Slow Ways will be a network of 7,000 walking routes that connect Great Britain’s towns and cities as well as thousands of villages. People will be able to use the Slow Ways to walk between neighbouring settlements or daisy-chain them for longer journeys.

The first draft of the Slow Ways routes have been imagined and created in lockdown by hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

We now need a strong visual identity for the Slow Ways. In the future this might be used on signage, waymarkers and maps. For now, it will be used on the website we are creating as well as t-shirts, posters and in other places.

That’s why we’re organising this competition. We’re looking for a strong symbol for the Slow Ways that will give them a clear identity.

We are looking for a symbol that:
- is a snail or snail inspired
- is clear, bold and timeless
- can be stencilled
- can be easily adapted to one colour, but you can be as colourful as you like
- would look good big or small, on a map, waymarker, sign, pin-badge, t-shirt or poster

A snail was suggested by a Slow Ways volunteer and this has turned into a much-loved idea. Snails are slow and humble explorers that carry their homes on their backs, leave trails, are found nearly everywhere and, unknowingly, will actually share the Slow Ways with us. They also have a very distinctive and identifiable shape.