Your friendly neighbourhood artist Lawrence Slater wants to redesign your business flyer – free of charge

From crowded text and confusing layouts to poor imagery and a lack of colour, there is no shortage of bad citizen-made signage to be found in most cities around the world. While some flyers made by people with no design experience have a certain charm about them, some, understandably, are hard to read and not very eye-catching. Thankfully, in London, a thoughtful artist by the name of Lawrence Slater has been going around the city and reworking the signs that he comes across, helping them to reach their full potential.

Inspired by illustrator Max Kolo, who has been doing the same thing in New York City over the past year, working in anonymity, Lawrence chose to take it a step further. Rather than simply replacing the ads (which could be seen as a little interfering) he actually contacts the creators of the original signs and asks if they would like the design, giving them the new file for the future if so. Spending his days as an art director at Saatchi & Saatchi, Lawrence says that: “it feels good to use my skills to do something to help the community.”

Beginning with a flyer for cleaning services, which got a great reception from the cleaner herself, Lawrence has since redesigned flyers for a handyman, a dog walker, a man with a van, a maths tutor, a violin teacher, a fitness instructor, and a lawn bowls club. With each redesign, he films the journey of finding the flyer, taking it home, reworking it, and finally contacting the creator to ask if he can put it up. He says the creative process often involves “simplifying the [design] as much as possible.” He continues: “I’m good at that because of my work in advertising – making the message as clear and concise as possible. I try to draw something that’s fun to look at and that sums up the business. Normally with a character as people can engage with that.”

Unsurprisingly, many of the original fly-posters are shocked at the free-of-charge redesign, and grateful for Lawrence’s efforts. He explains that this is the best of the project – unveiling the new design to the owner: “I share the artwork with them because I love starting a conversation with someone I might not normally come into contact with,” he notes. “Every conversation and response is different, which is exciting. Most people love it, want to use the image for their business and are thankful for the help.”