PUBLIC ART

Belfast Street Make-Up was a collaborative public realm project developed with Daisy Chain and Belfast City Council, focused on transforming a heavily used city centre thoroughfare adjacent to Belfast City Hall that had become associated with anti-social behaviour.

The intervention aimed to reimagine the space through visual design, shifting perception and encouraging a more positive, welcoming and engaging public environment. Working directly with the existing conditions of the street, the project introduced colour, typographic interventions and playful visual language to brighten and re-energise the area.

Emoji-inspired symbols developed in collaboration with Rob Hilken were incorporated alongside bold typographic statements, creating a layered communication system that combined clarity with immediacy and accessibility. These elements were designed to operate both at speed for passing pedestrians and at closer range for those engaging more directly with the space.

The project explored how small but deliberate visual changes in public space can influence mood, behaviour and perception, encouraging people to re-see familiar environments through a more human and emotionally responsive lens.

The result is a public art intervention that uses language, symbol and colour to shift atmosphere, disrupt routine and bring renewed energy to a previously overlooked civic space.

View Belonging Project, Jack Arts, Wembley Steps and Against the Odds for other Public works