Responses by Marina Willer, designer and partner, Pentagram.
Background: Overlooked 2.0 is a new series of prints featuring drain covers from all over London, printed using fluorescent colors on a wide range of color papers from Fedregoni. Following the original Overlooked series from 2016, which are now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, the neon-colored prints depict these metal lids as impeccable pieces of industrial design, by applying such vibrant combination of colors the series celebrates the decorative nature of these objects despite their industrial nature and functionality. This new series will be featured in an exhibition at the 2024 London Design Festival, but prints can be purchased with early bird discounts from now on Kickstarter.
Found across the city from Hackney to Kensington and North London, these humble objects are the gatekeepers to a mysterious underground world. Many of the covers were installed by 19th- and early 20th–century utility companies, who provided London residents with new services such as water and sewage, gas and electricity, and telegraph and telephones through a network of subterranean tunnels—a reminder that a city’s beauty isn’t limited to art galleries or grand architecture, and that intricate design is everywhere if we just look for it.
Overlooked 2.0 uses the technique from the original series, using the 19th-century practice of taking rubbings of religious icons. This gives a detailed negative image of the original object, which is then screen printed by printer Dan Mather in layers using fluorescent inks.
Design thinking: This project celebrates the beauty of drain cover designs from across London. By combining the traditional method of religious rubbings with fluorescent inks and hand-picked paper from Fedrigoni, we highlight their unusual beauty. The analog quality shines through the whole project, contrasting with the constant bombardment that surrounds us as part of the digital world.
Challenges: We developed the technique based on the rubbings people made of religious icons, but making it work well enough to produce the quality required to make beautiful prints took a lot of investigation. Originally, I did that alongside my team with Overlooked in 2016, designer Hiromi Suzuki especially helped to figure out how to create the best outcome. Since then, my team and I had to update the process and work out how to do the rubbings on the new paper in order to produce maximum contrast while keeping the texture. Each rubbing takes a lot of love and dedication.
New lessons: Every self-initiated project is an opportunity to learn about areas of knowledge, design, history and manufacturing, among other things. This was a fascinating exercise to learn about all of the above. Many designers are fascinated with manhole covers, but for us, it’s the traditional process we used, combined with the vibrant neon colors that bring the unexpected outcome.
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