2024 Call for Street Banner Designs

The City of Nanaimo is seeking designs for its 2024 street banner program. This program offers artists and designers an opportunity to submit proposals for original banner artwork that will be hung in Nanaimo’s downtown area. Banners will be on display in the Arts District downtown, along Bowen Road, Third Street and other major routes, creating a vibrant visual presence. This program is open to artists and designers at all levels of experience, currently living in British Columbia.

The selected applicant will receive an honorarium of $2,500 for their banner design. Fabrication and installation costs are covered by the City and are not included in this fee.

Theme: 150 Years

In 1874, the City of Nanaimo was the sixth municipality to be incorporated in British Columbia. The year 2024 marks 150 years since incorporation. To recognize this occasion, we are seeking submissions to the 2024 Street Banner Design Program that includes a ‘150’ design within a larger artistic framework, considering the thematic guidelines outlined below.

When considering the artistic direction and theme of your overall banner design, we ask you to consider what meaning Nanaimo holds for you as a City and as home. You might contemplate what makes Nanaimo unique, what makes it a destination of choice, and what artistic choices might capture and/or reflect positive associations and memories of our community.

Note: The City may approach the artist at a future date to discuss potential inclusion of the artist’s ‘150’ design in the development of City 150 branding and logo creation. We encourage you to keep this in mind when formulating a design.

Applicants must supply:
1) A completed application form
2) A written statement about your proposed design, and how it supports the banner theme (one page).
3) A biography (up to 350 words)
4) Your CV / resume
5) A colour rendering of your design. The banners are printed using digital files, so while you may submit an original sketch, computer-generated images must be rendered of your design idea. Please follow the format outlined in the design specifications below. For submissions, we accept digital images in JPG, PDF or TIFF format. For production, we will need vector files in a scalable vector format, usually PDF or EPS.
Note: You can propose up to three (3) different banner designs (left and right) in your submission. Only one design will be selected.

See application form for more details: https://www.nanaimo.ca/parks-recreation-culture/public-art/street-banner-design-program

Submission deadline: 4:00PM PST, October 23, 2023