ABOUT

Now and again we are entrusted with a project over which we have full creative control, and are responsible for all aspects of its content and production. These are the jobs we enjoy the most.

Cygnor Sir Ynys Môn (Anglesey County Council) had a series of ten, ageing, circular, coastal, bi-lingual walking maps available as PDFs on their ‘Visit Anglesey’ website which were in dire need of refreshing, improving and expanding, and late last year they invited us to undertake the project.

Their ten existing routes all needed surveying and checking, the mapping and instruction sheets all needed re-designing from scratch, and two new, shorter urban routes needed to be devised for the towns of Beaumaris and Holyhead.

Additional, new information about local history and wildlife, refreshment opportunities and public transport options on or near all 12 routes also needed researching. So before any field-work could commence, there was a huge amount of desk-based preparation to be done.

In December last year we walked all 12 walks, making notes, taking photographs and creating GPX trails as we went.

Once all the data had been captured, back in the office a system of adaptable cartographic and graphic stylings were devised to work across the series. We needed the maps and information sheets to be consistent in appearance: the lengths of walks varied from 3km to 20km, and scales for the 12 individual A4 maps would range from 1:2,900 to 1:22,500, some very rural, some entirely urban, with some in landscape and some in portrait format.

We then set about creating an A4 ‘template’ for one of the routes which, once approved by the client, meant the remaining 11 designs would conform to the same look and design.

Once all our copy (about 12,000 words) had been finalised and proofed, it was sent off for translating into Welsh: the A4 maps themselves were entirely bi-lingual, and there was to be an accompanying Welsh-only information sheet, as well as an English-only version for each walk, meaning there would be 36 finished PDFs.

We’re so happy with the finished product, and it was a joy to be able to take such a holistic approach to the project: we surveyed all the walks, devised two new ones, did all the research, wrote all the copy, created all the cartography including 12 route profiles, did all the graphic design including little graphics, re-fitted the English information sheets with Welsh text, and even took 72 of the 76 photographs used in the designs.