When the Hobart City Council in Tasmania wanted to develop a sculpture trail through one of the historic districts of the city, they commissioned local design firm Futago to design it. It was an inspired choice, as it transpired, with the resulting work winning one of only nine Merits worldwide in the 2012 The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) Global Design Awards in Washington D.C.
The Battery Point Sculpture Trail's theme is: “ 'sculpture by numbers' – each installation presents a three-dimensional number (dates, times, quantities,weights, measures) that explore themes relating to their particular locations.”
Each of the numbers is custom designed and made for its particular location both in the message it conveys about the site, as well as the specific environment of the site. For example the floating 313 is cleverly designed to rise and fall with the tide, but it also draws attention to, and helps to tell the story of what happened there in times past. In this case is illustrates the number of boats made and launched there between 1825 and 1872.
It will be interesting to see how the installations weather with time and become part of the story itself.
