A Mancunian artist who has travelled around Europe with his trademark doodle style cityscape drawings, has completed a commission at Exchange Quay, one of the North West’s largest office developments. Freelance illustrator, Dave Draws has created his hand drawn Manchester mural wall for the development’s new ICE building to create an impact for staff and visitors alike.
Dave, 29, who works from his Ancoats studio, has turned doodling into an art form by creating cityscapes with a cartoon style. Before moving to Manchester, Dave lived and worked in Berlin and whilst there he frequently exhibited his work on the Berlin art scene and was told that one of his abstract pieces resembled an aerial city view. This sparked an idea to draw maps of cities, with Manchester being the first city piece he created in 2014. It wasn’t until he moved back to Manchester that his art form was thrust into the limelight.
The 2mx3m large scale mural wall in the ICE building features more than 20 landmarks and buildings across Manchester, including Exchange Quay, Victoria Warehouse, the cricket ground, White City retail park, The Lowry, ITV, Imperial War Museum, Ordsall Hall and Park and more. Dave has travelled to many cities across Europe to create his quirky cityscapes for corporate clients, including Dusseldorf, Paris and Prague and has also completed many Manchester commissions, including one for Channel 4’s offices.
Axel Waldecker, Managing Director, Ekistics Property Advisors said:
“We wanted to create an impact with a piece of niche artwork that depicted the city of Manchester as a masterpiece in its own right for our newly launched ICE building. We heard great things about Dave’s quirky doodle style maps both locally and world-wide and knew he would be the artist for the job. We are delighted with the finished intricate black and white artwork which creates a great talking point for visitors and is hugely impactful as you enter the building.”
Dave Draws commented:
“It was really exciting to create a doodle map mural specifically around Exchange Quays and Media City as there are so many amazing landmarks and venues in the area. It was really enjoyable getting them all together in one piece”
Exchange Quay has undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment and transformation programme in recent years by Ekistics Property Advisors LLP (Ekistics) on behalf of the owner alongside asset manager Hunter REIM. The development offers more than 435,000 sq ft of Grade A office space over seven buildings and has recently unveiled ICE – renovating an additional 26,000 sq ft of newly refurbished, high quality offices and a café lounge to enhance its existing occupier offer to create a cohesive and collaborative working community.
