Wellington Writers Walk 

The Wellington Writers Walk is a series of 15 large-scale, three-dimensional concrete text sculptures honouring significant New Zealand writers who have strong associations with Wellington.

Sited along the city's urban waterfront each sculpture is positioned unexpectedly: suspended in water, lying on grass, even on rocks, as if detritus washed up by the sea.

The brief: 'To design a series of bronze plaques to be positioned in the Civic Square or similar. These plaques would form a literary walk acknowledging significant writers who have a connection with Wellington. To oversee their construction and installation in time to be unveiled during Writers and Readers Week at the 2002 New Zealand Festival of the Arts.'

"It seemed a perfect opportunity for me as a designer to work typographically, where the typography had to be worthy of the writers' words and ideas." Catherine Griffiths

The design and typography was shaped by the writers' words and then influenced by the waterfront environment that the text sculptures would become part of.

Consideration was given to bronze, a more rigorous material, but concrete as a vernacular substance fitted seamlessly into the Wellington waterfront landscape, corresponding to the scale of the text sculptures would become and allowing the siting of each sculpture to be informal and intuitive.

"The written word reflects the environment and the typography reflects the written word. This unique combination of landscape, art and literature make an exciting, high-quality and lasting gift to the people of Wellington and its visitors." - Eirlys Hunter, convenor, 2002

"It's part of a wider vision to make the literary arts visible - the idea that New Zealand could be a literary destination - hooking in people both here and from overseas who perhaps didn't know that New Zealand has such a rich literary history." - Dame Fiona Kidman, 2002

British D&AD Awards 2002: Finalist in Typography BEST Awards 2002: Stringer Award

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