This project was kindly supported by Littlehampton Town Council, as well as Arun District Council, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
16 March 2026
Changemaker Commission: Littlehampton Wayfinding Project
A Young Cultural Changemakers project run as a cross-school project with students at The Littlehampton Academy, responding to a brief set by Littlehampton Town Council for young people to support improving navigation for families in the town centre.
Students spanning Year 7 to Year 13 selected commissioned artist, graphic designer and educator Angela Chick who worked with them on developing creative wayfinding approaches and design principles. This work culminated in them ‘pitching’ to a Committee at Littlehampton Town Council who agreed to support the project’s realisation.
The young people’s core concepts were about creating a trail that was iconic, fun and celebrated their town’s and their school’s creativity. They developed 3 themed trails to guide people through the town, using iconic sea creatures to connect the trail; a Crab, an Octopus and a Seagull.
Alongside new sign posts the young people’s ideas included an original beachbox concept – inspired by street furniture such as beach huts, old fashioned telephone boxes and even a TARDIS. The beachboxes aimed to act as a hub for information about the town, with engaging activities for children and young people and a rolling display feature to showcase local young people’s art.
The Committee were genuinely impressed with the dynamism and visual clarity of the ideas developed by the young people. Wayfinding has long been a challenging issue for the town and this co-produced approach has the potential to bring something fresh, inspiring and new to the process, led by the creativity of our local youth.
The hard work of turning the concept into a workable Wayfinding scheme to be installed across the town then began. More than 270 Key Stage 3 students at TLA engaged in a map writing and design workshop in November 2024 and designs for all the original elements – including the iconic sea creatures and hand drawn design features – went out to local contractors to help us produce them.
When the beachboxes were unable to gain planning permission, the project was reimagined, working in partnership with a large scale Wayfinding rejuvenation project spearheaded by Arun District Council with central government funding.
In March 2025, the character trails went live featuring:
- 30 new lamp post collars featuring young people’s art
- 24 3D printed characters (created by local fabricators Prime 3D) based on the young people’s drawings and animating local independent shop windows on the trails
- 3 large scale new signs featuring content designed for the beach boxes introducing the project and trails
- A new cabinet to showcase a changing ‘gallery’ of young people’s art from TLA’s Arts Department on the seafront
- Creature trails promoted on all new wayfinding material produced by ADC across the town.
A town wide competition for local children to name the characters had over 90 entries over the Easter Holidays and the names will be announced soon.
