johnson banks have designed a collection of maps for this year’s london design festival that will help visitors pinpoint some of the V&A museum‘s design highlights.

— michael johnson told designboom more about the project:

‘this project stemmed from a discussion early in the year about designer’s inspirations, and how a lot of creatives found the V&A influential. we started planning an exhibition where we gathered favoured pieces together, then realised that the logistics would be too daunting. then we started to discuss other ways to show how the museum influenced people, and hatched a plan to create bespoke maps of the museum, based on notable people’s favorite items.’

‘so we drew up lists of people that we and the museum thought would select an interesting and unusual ‘journey’ through one of the world’s greatest museums, sent out letters, then finalized 10 people prepared to come and spend a day wandering and selecting. a few great people like vivienne westwood just ran out of time, but we’re hoping to do a ‘round two’ at some time in the future. as it was we had a good selection of designers like paul smith and stephen jones, pop stars (florence from florence and the machine), theater personalities (cameron mackintosh) writers (jacqueline wilson) and a super model (erin o’connor).’

‘after that, our design task was to design each map differently, to reflect each individual, yet fall under an overall style, so you see glimpses of content from the outside, then within each map is different (lines for paul smith, tape for nick rhodes, ginger hair for florence welch, etc). our early experiments in folding the A2 sized maps in unusual ways revealed a highly unusual ‘map fold’ that creates the illusion of many pieces of paper, but is just folded from one piece of paper.’

‘the maps are printed, folded and drilled, and will be hung from a specially designed stand that is being made for the duration of the design festival.’

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

johnson banks: designer maps for london design festival 2010

project credits project name: v&a and me project: V&A designer maps client: V&A/london design festival design: johnson banks photographer: leon steele modelmaker: wesley west V&A client: victoria broackes

fill list of contributors anya hindmarch – fashion designer sir mark jones – museum director stephen jones – hat designer sir cameron mackintosh – theatre producer erin o’connor – supermodel nick rhodes – singer and producer tom schumacher – theatre producer sir paul smith – designer florence welch – singer-songwriter dame jacqueline wilson – children’s author