OUTSIDE THE BOX - WRAPPING OUR UTILITY BOXES

Project Summary 

The City of Holladay is committed to supporting a vibrant artistic community. The mission of the Holladay Arts Council is to inspire, engage, and unify our community through the arts. One of our newest ventures is our Outside the Box project to wrap selected public utility boxes in vinyl. 

We conducted a pilot program in 2021 and wrapped two utility boxes located at Soho Food Park. We are now soliciting designs to wrap three more boxes as part of the Utah Department of Community and Culture’s Thrive 125 Community Celebration initiative. This opportunity is open to visual artists, illustrators, designers and otherwise creative community members, working in any medium, as long as the final artwork can be translated and digitally reproduced on a 2-dimensional vinyl wrap. Crayons, colored pencils, paint, markers, and digital mediums are all acceptable. (No photographs unless they are incorporated into a larger graphic design.) 

The goal of the project is to enhance Holladay’s public spaces by adding works of art by local artists to utilitarian surfaces that are often targeted by vandalism. These pieces of public art can enhance the visual character of our city, promote community dialogue, turn ordinary spaces into community landmarks, and are accessible to everyone. 

The wraps are intended to last five years, but may be removed at any time at the discretion of the Holladay Arts Council or PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power. While the council will aim to remove any tagging or vandalism, deterioration may occur and thus the council cannot guarantee that the wrap will be restored to its original condition. 

Eligibility Artists must reside in Salt Lake County. Preference will be given to artists who live in Holladay (a Holladay school or recognized Holladay community gathering place may submit a group application and its participants do not necessarily need to live in Holladay). 

Location of Boxes The boxes are located at Zion’s Bank (4641 S 2300 E), Brown Floral (2261 E Murray Holladay Rd), and the corner of 2225 E and Murray Holladay Rd. Photos of boxes and measurements are detailed below. 

Timeline Submitted entries: by October 3, 2021 at midnight
Notification of Acceptance: by October 12, 2021
Wraps Installed: November, 2021 

Payment 

Each of three artists (or group of artists) will be paid $650 for an approved final artwork design and licensing rights that will enable the Holladay Arts Council to reproduce the final design. Individual artists, duos, families, unrelated groups, and schools are all invited to submit a proposal.  

Thrive 125 guidelines   

The design’s theme must conform to the State of Utah’s Thrive 125 guidelines and be suitable for the public realm. It must also integrate the front, back, sides, and top of the box to capture the interest of those that drive, ride, and walk by. The finished design should be colorful, graphic, and large scale-oriented. 

Since joining the United States in 1896 after a 50-year effort, Utah has evolved into the dynamic and diverse state we all love today. It is a crossroads for America and an economic hub of the Rocky Mountains, anchored by a vibrant culture.  

This statehood celebration will include all of the people who have shaped Utah during the past 125 years, as well as all the indigenous peoples who lived in the region for thousands of years before statehood. Submitted proposals should focus on the Holladay area community – people, landscape, history, buildings, flora and fauna, transportation modes, economic drivers, education, etc.   

Wrap Design Guidelines 

Designs must be appropriate for display in public spaces and viewing by a general audience. 

An artist may submit a design for more than one utility box. 

Designs must be original work from the artist, but is not required to be new and can be an existing work if it fits the theme guidelines. 

Artists need to consider all sides of the utility box. The design may flow from one face of the utility box to another, or consist of different complementing images. 

Designs should not aim to blend into the surrounding streetscape, but should stand out artistically to the passers by. 

Designs cannot include: political or religious content; any breach of intellectual property; profanity; negative messages; a living person’s likeness without written and signed consent; trademarks; images of illegal activity; advertisements; logos; signage; promotion of any business, organization, individual, or product; or involve the attachment of objects to the boxes. 

Designs may include the name of the artist or group of artists. This lettering should be small and in the corner of one of the panels. It is not intended to “advertise” the artist but to credit the artist appropriately. 

All designs will be subject to review and approval by the Holladay Arts Council, and the council reserves the right to crop the artwork, or elements of the artwork, as needed to fit the dimensions of different sized utility boxes. Slight revisions may be requested by the arts council if the design is selected for a utility box. Additional approval of the final design may be required from the City of Holladay and PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power. 

Designs cannot have a predominantly dark background or palette because they conduct too much heat from the sun and are not safe to put on the electrical boxes. 

Designs do not need to make allowances for existing utility box stickers, numbers, vent placements, etc. as per PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power. However, the finished design may be “warped” marginally when it accommodates the contours of the vent area. (This section is null and void if Rocky Mountain Power enacts specific requirements currently unknown to the arts council.) 

The Holladay Arts Council is responsible for procedures and costs involving contracting a vendor to properly apply the vinyl wrap. The arts council is also responsible for creating a collage of multiple images for a utility box and/or formatting digital images to fit the utility box measurements. (Exceptions may be made if the artist/group of artists would like to format and/or collage their own images.) 

Selection Criteria 

• Artistic creativity and quality of submitted designs 
• Adherence to Thrive 125 guidelines 
• Appropriateness of artwork to be visually effective on public utility boxes 
• Ability of artist to deliver a high-quality digitalized rendering of their proposed design for installation
• Ability of design to relate to multiple types of viewers (pedestrians, motorists, cyclists) 

Application Details 

Applicants must fill out the application form 

Submitted images must be in digital form. For cost purposes, the design may be photographed with a cell phone or other camera at a lower resolution, but if the submission is accepted for final display, the applicant must submit high quality digital images. (If a group is submitting an application with multiple images that must be collaged together, it is permissible to submit scans of a few drawing samples, but all images must be submitted as digital scans if the entry is selected.) 

This section relevant ONLY to final submissions 

Acceptable File Formats for Final Printing of Selected Designs  Vector Files: BEST RESULTS, OUR RECOMMENDATION 300 dpi, EPS (Encapsulated Post Script), PSD (Adobe Photoshop), AI (Adobe Illustrator), PDF (Adobe PDF), TIFF (High Resolution TIFF), EPS (CS4 or lower), AI (CS4 or lower), PDF If submitting these files be sure all fonts are converted to outlines or curves. Vector files can be submitted at any size proportionate to the final print size. Raster Files/Images: PSD (CS4 or lower), JPEG, TIFF, PDF.

Raster files should be submitted using the following guidelines: Full Scale at 100 dpi. 50% scale at 200 dpi or higher. 25% scale at 300 dpi or higher. 10% scale at 600dpi or higher. 

Questions Questions should be addressed to: 

Sheryl Gillilan
Executive Director, Holladay Arts Council
sgillilan@cityofholladay.com
801-527-2677