placemaking Archives - Field & Lawn

Placemaking: Banners, Flags and Bunting

How to brighten up your high street with banners, flags and bunting.

Is your high street, town, city or shopping centre looking to draw crowds, create a social media buzz or simply a more inviting and vibrant atmosphere? If so, you’re in the right place! Placemaking is the process of transforming public spaces into engaging, welcoming, and aesthetically pleasing areas that reflect the unique character and culture of your community.

Explore how banners, flags, and bunting can be powerful tools in place management. They are cost-effective, yet high impact options for enhancing your high street and all local authorities in the UK should consider them for their placemaking initiatives.

The power of placemaking

Placemaking is more than just urban planning; it’s about creating spaces that resonate with people on a personal level. Placemaking can help to foster a sense of belonging and identity within a local community. A well-executed local plan for implementing placemaking projects can breathe new life into your high street, boost local businesses, and make your town or city a destination of choice.

Here are some key placemaking ideas for high streets and town centres.

BANNERS

Banners are an effective tool for storytelling as they offer a great way to showcase the heritage of your local area. They can convey a sense of history, celebrate local events and heroes, or simply add a burst of colour to your high street.

Here's why banners are an essential element of placemaking:

Identity and place branding: Custom banners can be designed with local motifs, landmarks, and cultural references to help define your town’s identity and make it memorable to both residents and tourists.

Artist-led collaboration: Placemaking offers a great opportunity to collaborate with local people and get the wider community engaged with local businesses. During one of Field & Lawn’s recent placemaking projects, two public spaces in Bath were dressed with bespoke artwork to celebrate the city as part of a summer events programme. It featured overhead flags, decorated with designs created by local artist Zoë Power. The project aimed to increase footfall and support local businesses as part of a wider high street renewal project.

Promotion: Banners can be used to promote local businesses, events, and community initiatives. They’re a cost-effective way to support local businesses and increase the number of visitors to your local high streets. Collaborating with local businesses on placemaking projects can help to support your local economy.

Wayfinding: Well-placed banners can also be used as wayfinding signs, helping visitors navigate your high street more easily. This can attract a larger number of tourists to key landmarks in your area.

Flags

Flags can play a key role in placemaking by contributing to the identity, character, and sense of belonging in your local area. They often represent the identity and values of a place and are reflective of the community’s values and culture.

Flags can be a powerful tool in the placemaking process:

Community Cohesion: Flags representing different local groups, neighbourhoods, or cultures can create unity and belonging. This can even help develop a sense of pride that brings wider community groups together.

Celebration: Flags are often used during special occasions and events to create a festive atmosphere that brings people together. For example, Field & Lawn were able to provide a wide range of displays and features for the Coronation of King Charles III. This included Coronation flags on Regent St. Oxford St. Jermyn St. The Strand, Marylebone High St. Bond St. Sloan St. and various other streets across the West End.

Visual Appeal: A row of flags can really brighten up your high street, attracting photographers and influencers to the town centre. Creating a great photo opportunity is an excellent way to attract attention and increase visitors to local high streets.

Cultural Representation: Flags are a wonderful way to display the diversity of your local community. Flying flags from other nations or areas can highlight the unique diversity of your town or city.

Field and Lawn can supply and install a range of different sized banners or custom flags in PVC, fabric, and mesh materials. These can be erected as cross street displays, on lamp columns or attached to building façades. We can assist with your planning, permits and advertising consents, as well as take care of all infrastructure requirements from installation through to removal.

Bunting

Bunting, with its charming and nostalgic appearance, is key to making any public space look visually appealing. The colours and patterns can create a festive and inviting atmosphere, especially during special occasions or celebrations.

Bunting can be a great addition to your placemaking toolkit:

Street-Level Decoration: Hanging bunting along streets, shopfronts, or outdoor seating areas invites visitors to spend time in communal areas by creating a welcoming atmosphere.

Events and Festivals: Bunting is a must-have for street parties, parades, and festivals. It instantly adds a celebratory feel to any event.

Customisation: It’s very easy to customise bunting to create a bespoke design that reflects your town’s unique character. This provides an opportunity to involve local artists and craftspeople in the placemaking process.

A Collaborative Effort

To make placemaking truly successful, it’s important to collaborate with businesses, artists, the community and expert placemaking providers like Field and Lawn. Placemaking projects aim to benefit the wider community, so it is key to get local people involved.

Here's how to get started:

Engage the Community: Seek input from residents and local businesses to understand what they need from their local high street as well as key high street challenges. This involvement gives the community a sense of ownership over the project which can help create excitement about your installation.

Local Artists and Designers: Collaborate with local artists and designers to create unique and meaningful banners, flags, and bunting that demonstrate local talent and showcase the heritage of your town.

Maintenance: Regularly maintain and replace banners, flags, and bunting to ensure they always look their best.

Promotion: Use social media, local newspapers, and events to promote your placemaking efforts. Encourage residents and visitors to share their experiences. Social media is a great tool for increasing footfall.

If you need additional support with your latest placemaking project, reach out to one of your local Field & Lawn branches for advice from a placemaking expert.

Field and Lawn can support you with all aspects of the placemaking mix

About fIELD AND LAWN: Placemaing and City dRESSING

Field and Lawn are one of the leading placemaking and city dressing providers in the UK. With four regional branches across, we provide a nationwide service. Our experienced team can assist in a wide range of placemaking projects. Beyond placemaking, we also provide festive lighting services, event marquees and temporary buildings. We provide placemaking and city dressing for:

Events and activations
Performance art
Celebrations and gatherings
Urban greening
Large outdoor lettering
Signage and wayfinding
Experiential displays

Pop-up markets
Art installations and exhibitions
Lighting and illuminations
Architectural lighting
Flags, banners and bunting
Seasonal outdoor events
Outdoor beaches

Placemaking for Pride events

Posted on 11 Jul12 Jul by Mathew Hall

Looking back on pride month and city wide placemaking activations

Pride month is celebrated annually in June and to mark the many public spaces, town centres and highstreets across the UK are transformed for pride events.

Pride Flags - Large Scale Event Installations

The pride flag is arguably the most historically and culturally significant symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, and the most recognisable.

In celebration of 50 years of Pride in the UK, The Crown Estate commissioned one hundred Pride flags to hang above Regent Street.

These large, cross street flags were expertly installed by Field and Lawn.

Continuing the tradition for Pride flags to be updated, Vecchietti’s design is being increasingly used across society to be more inclusive of all LGBTQI+ people.

A vinyl has also been displayed at 59-61 Regent Street to educate the public on its meaning.

Pride Flags

Pride in London commemorated the anniversary of 1972’s historic march by retracing its route during this year’s event.

We were delighted to play our part in London Pride, brining 100, intersex inclusive, cross street flags to Regent Street. We also delivered more love, more joy and more pride in Covent Garden. “The More Joy x Covent Garden” activation featured over 2,000 individual flags.

Field and Lawn can support you with all aspects of the placemaking mix

Do you need permission to fly the pride flag?

Planning permission can be a complicated subject when it comes to placemaking within a public space. Different rules apply depending on whether the flags or flagpole is situated vertically on a roof, projecting from another part of the building or located within the grounds of a building. Our team of experts are experienced and can advise on when planning consent will be required. Field and Lawn offer a full, turnkey placemaking service.

Creative Placemaking

Effective placemaking is the process of creating quality and exciting public and private spaces through good design, planning and management. Creative placemaking and city dressing enlivens a featured space, using urban design techniques to XXX . It can have a long-lasting positive effect on the local community, business and the economy, increasing footfall and dwell time through engagement.

Field and Lawn are placemaking experts and have been behind some of the most remarkable placemaking and city dressing activations in the UK.

More Placemaking ideas for pride and beyond

The Placemaking mix can be further enhanced by other cultural activities and community engagement activities. For example, large scale, public art exhibitions, projection mapping and heritage days can all form part of placemaking strategies. Above all, focus on creative expression, inclusion and participation.

About fIELD AND LAWN

Field and Lawn are one of the leading placemaking and city dressing providers in the UK. With four regional branches, we provide a nationwide service. Our experienced team can assist in a wide range of placemaking projects. Beyond placemaking, we also provide festive lighting services, event marquees and temporary buildings.

Field and Lawn take a collaborative approach and work with business improvement districts, local authorities, landscape architects, community groups, artists and other stakeholders to plan, create, install and manage successful placemaking and city dressing projects. With expertise across a range of sectors, Field and Lawn deliver a wide range of placemaking solutions across the United Kingdom.

With a track record of successful placemaking projects, are perfectly positioned to support and deliver your placemaking and city dressing projects. We understand the challenges that come with adapting to our evolving high streets and retail centres. There is a growing need to create welcoming and engaging experiences that will encourage people to reconnect with their local community.

Placemaking: Enriching highstreets and bosting retail spend

Posted on 10 Jul18 Jul by Mathew Hall

Why do retailers value placemaking and city dressing?

We explore the importance of placemaking to the retail sector and look into the calendar of key events and dates for the remainder of 2023.

Our placemaking experts share thoughts and ideas on how you can leverage these events, using placemaking to boost footfall, increase dwell time to create an exceptional visitor experience.

Firstly, what is placemaking

Creative placemaking and city dressing enlivens a featured public space. It rejuvenates structures and streetscapes and improves local business viability.

It brings diverse people together to inspire and be inspired. Urban design and the wider public realm can be complimented by intelligent use of placemaking activations such as flags, use of green space, building wraps, artwork and more.

The goal of effective placemaking is to enhance our built environment, ensuring places are active interesting and visually attractive for all stakeholders. Placemaking encourages a person to stay, linger and enjoy a space for a longer period of time.

The placemaking mix

There are many effective placemaking and city dressing solutions that can help improve the aesthetics of the high street to encourage footfall. The placemaking mix is a toolkit of options that can be used to deliver a placemaking or city dressing projects, including:

Events and activations
Performance art
Celebrations and gatherings
Urban greening
Large outdoor lettering
Signage and wayfinding
Experiential displays

Pop-up markets
Art installations and exhibitions
Lighting and illuminations
Architectural lighting
Flags, banners and bunting
Seasonal outdoor events
Outdoor beaches

Why is placemaking important to the high street

High quality urban planning and placemaking can make or break the retail offer. High competition for shoppers means that every commercial and retail offer needs to stand out from the crowd, creating a cohesive sense of place. This needs to be supported by successful place marketing, communications and community engagement.

A study by Pathintelligence showed that “there is a significant and positive relationship between dwell time and sales“. They found that a 1% increase in dwell time resulted in a 1.3% increase in sales.

The benefits of placemaking can reach beyond economic performance to have a profound positive effect on the local community or region. It can improve wellbeing bring residents, visitors and neighborhoods together.

Field and Lawn can support you with all aspects of the placemaking mix

Key retail activation dates for 2023

The second half of 2023 brings many opportunities for retailers and high streets to boost footfall and dwell time by using placemaking to maximize key days and special occasions.

Opportunities in august

August brings the last bank holiday weekend of the summer, The Women’s FIFA World Cup also concludes in August and we are optimistic of our Lionesses going all the way. Women’s football is rapidly growing in popularity and it’s not too late to show your colours with banners, flags and bunting. The 19th August is world photography day.

Each year, World Photography Day has a theme, in 2023 the theme is “Understanding Clouds”

Placemaking is a great way to showcase photography and art and Field and Lawn have brought many artists visions to life by installing large scale public art installations such as our work with The Photographers Gallery:

Ideas for September

Thousands of children return to school in September, it can be a real opportunity for the high street as stationary, uniforms and backpack sales boom. The 27th of September also marks World Tourism Day which gives an opportunity to really shine a spotlight on your area to encourage tourism.

As the summer months draw to a close, September sees some of the last large festivals of the year take place, including The End of the Road Festival. Make the most of the last weeks of summer and drive footfall to your local high street.

Placemaking options in October

Black History Month takes place during October. The 10th October is also World Mental Health Awareness day. Placemaking can play a significant part in marking awareness months and days. Bespoke messaging can be created and installed in many innovative ways, from building wraps to artwork.

As the nights draw in Halloween takes place on the 31st October 2023 and presents a fun opportunity to deliver some creative placemaking! From illuminated selfie spots through to giant pumpkins, and haunted houses, we can help create some Halloween magic.

November activations

There are a number of significant events in November, firstly bonfire night where firework displays prove to be a popular draw. When is bonfire night this year? Bonfire Night falls on Sunday 5th November 2023. It is expected that the vast majority of displays will take place on Saturday 4th November.

Alternatives to firework displays

Firework displays no doubt create a real sense of occasion, they can be exhilarating and wonderful spectacles. However, in recent years there has been a growing focus on animal wellbeing and environmental and sustainability concerns about firework displays. The cost of living crisis has also put more scrutiny on Local Authorities due to the cost of organising expensive firework displays.

An alternative to firework displays could be a bespoke projection mapping experience which could take place over several nights, providing a safer, more sustainable and longer term alternative to firework displays.

Remembrance Sunday takes place on Sunday 12th November. The poppy is the symbol of remembrance. Outdoor artwork displays have been a focal point in recent years.

November one of the busiest retail months of the year with Black Friday and Cyber Monday falling on the 24th November 2023 and 27th November 2023 respectively. While online sales will no doubt take the lion share of retail spend, instore promotions and activations are

Placemaking in December

December needs no introduction in the retail calendar. It is the biggest and most important time of the year for lots of reasons! Festive lighting is one of the most influential ways to create a unique atmosphere across the public realm.

Placemaking and festive lighting go hand in hand and Field and Lawn have a track record of delivering exceptional festive lighting displays across the UK. We light up most of the key retail streets in London including Oxford Street! Take a look at what we delivered in 2022!

About fIELD AND LAWN

Field and Lawn take a collaborative approach and work with Business Improvement Districts, Local Authorities, Landscape Architects, community groups, artists and other stakeholders to plan, create, install and manage successful placemaking and city dressing projects. With expertise across a range of sectors, Field and Lawn deliver a wide range of placemaking solutions across the United Kingdom.

Art of London unveils bold new banner flags: Placemaking and city dressing

Posted on 13 Jun13 Jun by Mathew Hall

artistic banner flags installed

London’s iconic Piccadilly Circus has been transformed by of a collection of bold geometric, large scale outdoor banner flags. Created by London-based artist Rana Begum in collaboration with Art of London and the Royal Academy of Arts. The display marks the start of the Art of London’s exciting outdoor event Summer Season, titled “The Art of Entertainment.”

Field and Lawn, supported the team with expert installation. The flags feature tiled mosaic patterns that bring a sense of movement and energy to the streets of the West End. Rana Begum’s designs aim to capture the theme of “Art of Entertainment”. The flags will hang high above Piccadilly until the end of August.

The flags play a crucial role in placemaking and city dressing. Placemaking involves transforming public spaces into vibrant, engaging, and inclusive areas that reflect the identity and character of the community. Banners, flags, and bunting can be a colourful and cost-effective way of promoting your brand or event or enhancing the local area.

Field and lawn banner flag installation

Field and Lawn are experts in city dressing. We can supply and install a range of different sized banners or custom flags in PVC, fabric, and mesh materials. These can be erected as cross street displays, on lamp columns or attached to building façades. We can assist with your planning, permits and advertising consents, as well as take care of all infrastructure requirements from installation through to removal.

By incorporating public art installations like the flags in Piccadilly, Art of London aims to create a sense of place that delivers community engagement, cultural expression and enhanced footfall and dwell time in the city.

Artistic Flags

Art of London’s commitment to showcasing art in every form is exemplified by their Gallery Without Walls project. This initiative transforms the West End into a hub of creative expression, seamlessly integrating art into various facets of urban life, including institutions, theatres, retail spaces, and even the streets themselves. The flags in Piccadilly are a testament to the power of art in transforming public spaces into dynamic and visually stimulating environments.

Moreover, the flag installation aligns with London’s Art After Dark program, which promotes evening access to art institutions and independent galleries. This program allows art enthusiasts to explore exhibitions beyond regular opening hours, creating opportunities for a broader audience to engage with art and culture.They give a platform for artists to showcase work and deliver an instant press and publicity opportunity. The benefits of art installations like this is long term, providing a long-lasting social media opportunity.

Field and Lawn can support with complex outdoor art installation.

The response to Rana Begum’s flags has been overwhelmingly positive, with Jo Prosser, a director at the Royal Academy of Arts, praising the installation as a fantastic welcome to the West End. By infusing the cityscape with art, these flags not only enhance the visual appeal of Piccadilly Circus but also contribute to a vibrant and culturally rich atmosphere.

About Field and Lawn

Field and Lawn are one of the leading placemaking and city dressing providers in the UK. With four regional branches across, we provide a nationwide service. Our experienced team can assist in a wide range of placemaking projects. In addition to the artistic flags, we have recently installed Coronation flags and Pride flags in key locations. Beyond placemaking, we also provide festive lighting services, event marquees and temporary buildings.

Using building wraps to improve high street aesthetics

Posted on 24 May24 May by Mathew Hall

Bespoke building wraps and window vinyls can transform highstreets and revitalise empty shops

Building wraps and window vinyls are a quick solution that can deliver high impact, creative and eye-catching branding opportunities. Building wraps are large format, typically PVC, weatherproof and flame-retardant outdoor banners. They can cover sections of a building or even the entire building façade. They play an important part in the placemaking and city dressing toolkit.

Building wraps provide a great outdoor marketing opportunity with a significant amount of advertising space. Building wraps are not limited to advertising, they can also serve as effective tools to enhance the appearance of building sites, these are often referred to as scaffolding wraps.

Art-led building wraps

It is becoming increasingly popular to display building wraps that are inspired by art or created by artists themselves. These types of installations are perfect to go on to building façades that are at risk of graffiti or have already been vandalised and need to be covered up. Art-led building wraps bring colour, vibrance and intrigue to an otherwise bland wall space.

They give a platform for artists to showcase work and deliver an instant press and publicity opportunity. The benefits of art installations like this is long term, providing a long-lasting social media opportunity.

Window Vinyls

Window graphics can help transform shopfronts into captivating visual displays that engage the public and create a sense of intrigue. These graphics can be customised to suit the specific needs of each shop, whether it’s promoting products, showcasing offers, or simply advertising a vacant retail unit.

Empty shops and neglected store-fronts are a significant challenge for high streets, Councils and Business Improvement Districts. Vacant retail units are plaguing towns and cities across the UK. According to The Property Reporter, 2022 alone saw a net loss of 3,627 shops on Highstreets across Britain.

There are effective placemaking and city dressing (LINK) solutions that can help improve the aesthetics of the high street when it comes to empty shops. Whist the long-term solution is to re-market and fill retail units, promoting a healthy and prosperous high street. There are shorter-term solutions to that can be delivered to create a more vibrant and appealing town centre environment, while the units are re-let.

Field and Lawn can support with creating window graphics with a full deign service, right through to printing and installation.

Benefits of building wraps and vinyal stickers

The benefits of building wraps and window vinyls go beyond aesthetics. They offer a cost-effective way to maximize advertising reach. Effectively turning the entire building or shopfront into a large-scale marketing canvas. By leveraging the expansive space provided, these graphics, can capture the attention of potential customers and create a lasting impression.

Advantages of building wraps

One of the key advantages of building wraps and window vinyls is their versatility. They can be used in various settings, from construction sites and scaffolding to commercial buildings and high streets. Scaffold wraps and banners. Not only enhance safety by providing protective barriers but also allowing for branding opportunities. Turning construction work into an advertising platform. Building work can often be unsightly and a building wrap shields the construction site from public view.

When it comes to materials, PVC mesh banners are commonly used due to their durability, weather resistance, and ability to withstand outdoor conditions. These banners can withstand strong winds and harsh weather, ensuring that your message remains visible. We can also offer short term fabric banners. This product is more suited to a shorter-term installation to promote a particular event, theme or message.

To make the most of a commercial building wrap, it is important to work with a company that provides a seamless solution, from concept, planning and project management, through to design and high-quality printing. Compelling artwork can really maximise the impact of your marketing campaigns and ensures that your brand message stands out.

Window Vinyl installation

Before installation, a site survey is typically conducted to assess the building’s dimensions and requirements, allowing for precise installation and a seamless fit. Large format banners and floor graphics and wall graphics are other options to consider, expanding the range of advertising opportunities available.

Depending on the size and location of the installation, there may be certain restrictions and advertising consent and/or planning permission may be required. Field and Lawn can support you though this process. It can often be time consuming and lengthy so it’s best to start early. Once all the permissions are in place, installation is quick and can be completed during the day or night depending on the area.

Beyond wraps - large format banners

Large format outdoor banners can be printed with custom artwork and installed across streets to deliver a real wow factor. they provide a large, double sided advertising space when used across the high street.

That’s a wrap!

Field and Lawn can provide a wide range of building wraps, banners and window vinyls. You can transform vacant spaces into visually appealing displays that captivate visitors and potential customers. Whether it’s through large-scale building wraps, window graphics, or other forms of signage, these solutions provide an opportunity to revitalise our high streets, increase brand awareness, and contribute to the overall aesthetic appeal of our communities.

About Field and Lawn

Placemaking: Transforming cities together

Posted on 2 Mar2 Mar by Mathew Hall

But what is placemaking and why is it important?

Placemaking is a collaborative transformation of open spaces to create vibrant, engaging, and sustainable places that people want to visit, live, work and play in.

City dressing forms part of the placemaking mix. It can use art installations, landscaping, projections, urban greening, large scale signage and other design elements to enhance the aesthetic appeal of spaces.

Field and Lawn and Ollywood are two businesses bursting with creative flair, working together to create unique and engaging urban experiences. Combining a passion for innovation and true creative flair with practical skills to bring placemaking and city dressing projects to life.

Our latest blog looks at how Business Improvement Districts, local Councils and businesses can harness the power of placemaking and city dressing to boost tourism and the visitor economy.

1. Stunning signage

Large scale outdoor lettering and signage can spell out your mission, vision and values. Eye-catching and attention-grabbing, big lettering will give your town, city or high street instant visibility and brand recognition.

Keep it on brand and create custom letting, in line with your online place marketing strategy. This will help you create a cohesive vibe on and offline. Tap onto the online chatter and link the lettering with a hashtag to take the conversation online.

2. Dare to be different

Differentiation from other local highstreets and shopping centers is key in a crowded market. It’s important for businesses, places and cities to stand out from their neighbours to encourage footfall. By using placemaking and city dressing, businesses can create a unique and memorable experience that sets them apart from other areas. This can generate positive social media sentiment along the way.

Find out how we worked with the Photographers’ Gallery in London to create a world class outdoor art gallery installation that proved to be a real talking point, on and offline. Read the full case study here.

3. Positive Placemaking perceptions

Placemaking and city dressing can help improve perceptions. By investing in the physical environment, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to the local community and help create a more vibrant and welcoming streetscape design.

Placemaking and city dressing can provide businesses with visually appealing backdrops and outdoor advertising displays. This means that customers will be eager to share images on social media. By creating an “Instagrammable” art installation, businesses can tap into the power of social media. By doing this, towns and cities can generate awareness that will increase visitor footfall. A great example of this in action is high level flags and banners combining artistic flair with clear visual cues.

4. LIFT LOYALTY

Creating an engaging and enjoyable physical environment, with subtle but effective wayfinding can help improve town centre footfall and visitor dwell time. Effective outdoor wayfinding and signage can direct people to visit places they might not even know about! You can combine outdoor banners and flags with clever place branding to create a cohesive identity and a strong sense of place.

By providing a memorable, on brand experience, both inside and outdoors, businesses will increase the likelihood of repeat custom and word of mouth recommendations.

5. Project it!

To support local shops, businesses and restaurants, local authorities and business improvement districts are always looking for ways to draw people back to the high streets. Field and Lawn have worked with many Councils and BIDs on lots of different placemaking projects to make High Streets more attractive and colourful.

Find out how we supported Cambridge City Council with their projection mapping project. Read the full case study here.

Projection mapping is a unique and wonderful way to add to a town or city’s calendar of outdoor events. The bespoke video content could be educational, commemorative or artistic. The actual event is all remotely controlled so everything is looked after. You can just sit back and enjoy the show.

Placemaking will play a huge part in the ongoing recovery of our highstreets as we navigate through challenging economic times. We are committed to enabling big visions and creative thinking. The team at Ollywood and Field and Lawn can help bring your placemaking project, art installation or large scale outdoor signage to life.

Thanks to Kate Elliot for providing the Photographers’ Gallery imagery. It was great to work on this blog, which we hope will provide some inspiration, ideas and guidance on creative placemaking with Ollywood.

Illuminating highstreets and boosting footfall with projection mapping

Posted on 27 Jan15 Feb by Mathew Hall

How can you attract visitors to towns and cities post Christmas with projection mapping?

Post Christmas, many towns and cities plan on how they would attract visitors and shoppers back to the high street.

Research suggests that footfall can drop by as much as -27% compared to previous weeks. This can have a major negative effect on local businesses.

To support local shops, businesses and restaurants, local authorities and business improvement districts look for ways to draw people back into the high streets. Field and Lawn have worked with many Councils and BIDs on lots of different placemaking projects to make High Streets more attractive and colourful to return to.

In Cambridge, we delivered several permanent lighting installations to illuminate buildings, trees and shopping streets. We also worked to deliver a Projection Mapping event, the first of its kind in Cambridge. We selected the Guildhall as a central and prominent building for the city to project on to and designed a video fit to showcase the history and highlights of Cambridge. A draft video was created first following a brief set by the Council and then we developed it collaboratively over a period of weeks to reach the final design.

The 8-minute video was projected on the Guildhall on a loop from 6pm-9pm with a 1-minute break between showings every night for 2 weeks. February was chosen as a time typically when footfall is lowest following the Christmas period and when the days are short and evenings still dark. It was a great success, drawing in crowds to spend their evenings in town to catch a showing, but ultimately encouraging them to shop and visit local bars and restaurants.

Projection Mapping is a unique and wonderful opportunity to add to a town or city’s calendar of events. The video content could be educational, commemorative or artistic. The actual event is all remotely controlled so everything is looked after. You can just sit back and enjoy the show.

How to brighten up your high street with banners, flags and bunting.

The power of placemaking

BANNERS

Here's why banners are an essential element of placemaking:

Flags

Flags can be a powerful tool in the placemaking process:

Bunting

Bunting can be a great addition to your placemaking toolkit:

A Collaborative Effort

Here's how to get started:

About fIELD AND LAWN: Placemaing and City dRESSING

Looking back on pride month and city wide placemaking activations

Pride Flags - Large Scale Event Installations

Pride Flags

Do you need permission to fly the pride flag?

Creative Placemaking

More Placemaking ideas for pride and beyond

About fIELD AND LAWN

Why do retailers value placemaking and city dressing?

Firstly, what is placemaking

The placemaking mix

Why is placemaking important to the high street

Key retail activation dates for 2023

Opportunities in august

Ideas for September

Placemaking options in October

November activations

Placemaking in December

About fIELD AND LAWN

artistic banner flags installed

Field and lawn banner flag installation

Artistic Flags

About Field and Lawn

Bespoke building wraps and window vinyls can transform highstreets and revitalise empty shops

Art-led building wraps

Window Vinyls

Benefits of building wraps and vinyal stickers

Advantages of building wraps

Window Vinyl installation

Beyond wraps - large format banners

That’s a wrap!

About Field and Lawn

But what is placemaking and why is it important?

1. Stunning signage

2. Dare to be different

3. Positive Placemaking perceptions

4. LIFT LOYALTY

5. Project it!

How can you attract visitors to towns and cities post Christmas with projection mapping?

eXPERIENCE THE MAGIC!