Artist helps promote superfast broadband by transforming green cabinets into works of art
Local artist Nick Boruk has come up with a box clever way of publicising the rollout of fibre broadband in South Yorkshire by covering the new green roadside superfast broadband cabinets with his eye-catching street art.
The Doncaster-based artist, best known for his creations, We Are BLOK HEDS, has teamed up with Superfast South Yorkshire to create a number of temporary covers emblazoned with his quirky designs, which fit over newly installed cabinets to alert people that superfast broadband has arrived in their community.
To launch the cab covers, Nick created an outsized painted canvas version of Superfast South Yorkshire’s teddy bear mascot. The Superfast South Yorkshire team is asking members of the public to come up with a suitable name for their super furry figurehead. To take part, people simply need to tweet their suggestions to the SFSY Twitter feed at @superfastSY or using the #SuperFiBear hash tag. The winning entry will be announced on 8th July 2016 and the winner presented with a brand new iPad.
Natalie Ward, programme manager for Superfast South Yorkshire, said: “The green cabinets deliver an exciting high-speed service, but they aren’t the most exciting things in the world to look at because they are designed to blend into their surroundings. With Nick’s designs we can grab people’s attention and let them know that superfast broadband has arrived in their area and hopefully raise a smile at the same time.”
“The beauty of Nick’s designs is that once they’ve done their job, we can simply remove the cover and use it on another fibre cabinet when the roll-out moves on to the next community.
“The key to the success of the fibre roll-out is making sure people are made aware of when they can order it, how they can order it and most importantly how the faster broadband can benefit them. We will be visiting communities the length and breadth of South Yorkshire raising awareness and answering questions in the coming months.”
Artist Nick has been developing his range of character based designs as part of his business, ‘We Are BLOK HEDS’, since March last year. After working as a graphic designer for more than 20 years in Yorkshire, redundancy gave Nick the perfect opportunity to make a living from his own artwork.
He said being online was crucial to his business, with social media such as Twitter and Facebook helping him to gain an international following. He also uses social media and his website to sell his creations so having his designs associated with the superfast broadband roll-out made perfect sense.
Nick said: “The more work I have produced and placed online, the more interest and popularity has been growing. As my business grows, so will my bandwidth requirements, so it’s great to know superfast broadband is available in my area.”
More than 490,000 households and businesses in South Yorkshire now have access to high-speed fibre broadband as a result of Superfast South Yorkshire and BT’s own commercial fibre broadband programme. It’s an ‘opt in’ service, but because the Openreach network is ‘open’, residents and businesses wanting to upgrade have a choice of fibre broadband providers, with more than 70 companies now operating across the UK.
Fibre broadband at home means everyone in the family can do their own thing online, all at the same time, whether it’s downloading music in minutes or watching catch-up TV; streaming HD or 3D movies in a few minutes; or posting photos and videos to social networking sites in seconds. Benefits for businesses include faster file and data transfers, better access to cloud computing services and software, more sophisticated web-based contact with customers and support for more flexible working.
Superfast South Yorkshire was formed in September 2014 as local authorities joined forces with BT in a £22 million deal to extend the availability of high-speed, fibre broadband. A further £4.8 million in additional funding has been secured, which will extend the reach of fibre broadband to 99 per cent of South Yorkshire. The project is jointly funded by Sheffield City Region LEP, the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) fund and BT.
For further information on the Superfast South Yorkshire programme visit http://www.superfastsouthyorkshire.co.uk
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