City utility boxes to become works of art

Local artists have a little less than a month to submit their concepts for Marysville’s traffic box art project.

Main Street Marysville and the City of Marysville recently put out a call to creative citizens around the community to submit designs for vinyl wraps that will cover nine different traffic boxes in the Uptown and surrounding neighborhoods.

Planning and Development Manager Ashley Gaver said the hope is to get as many submissions as possible to choose from with a variety of  designs and ideas.

“It’s very open and we wanted to have it open to have as much creativity as possible,” she said.

The theme of the project is “If the Past was Present,” which asks artists to consider the historical context of the city, especially the historic buildings, and reimagine them.

“Arrayed around the main intersection of Fifth Street and Main Street, site of the former public square, the historic architecture weaves a connection between then and now. To this day, Marysville boasts a culture of innovation with major manufacturers such as Honda, Scotts-Miracle Grow and Nestle calling the city home,” according to the project’s website.

Gaver said the city is supplying some photographs to help with the visualization and those could even be used in the designs themselves. She said ideally they would be reinterpreted by the artists and the design would then wholly be their own.

“Each location has photos associated with it that are available for people to use or reference so they can maybe see what that location looked like years ago,” Gaver said. “They can take that and really do what they want with it.”

According to the terms of the project, the final design must be submitted as a high-quality digital file.

“Initial submissions may have a resolution of 72 dpi, however artists should be aware that if their artwork is selected, they will be required to submit a 300 dpi digital file,” according to the rules. “Templates with approximate dimensions and existing traffic box images are included below the map for download so the artist is aware of any existing conditions on the traffic box, such as handles and vents. Artwork should be submitted on the provided template page.”

There is an award of $500 per traffic box design for selected applicants. Artists will have the opportunity to include personal branding on the design such as an Instagram handle or website QR code. The artists would then coordinate with both city officials and the sign company consultant for high resolution art submission, according to the project’s guidelines.

The city will then be responsible for printing and installing the vinyl wraps.

Artists are encouraged to design for a specific location and can reference the map on the project website. The provided historical photos have been organized per location for the artist to reference the images associated with each location.

“The idea is for this to be fun and to be open to all artists of all ages,” Gaver said. “We want a variety because we think that will make people interested in walking through the Uptown and finding things that catch their eye.”