My Van Design for Brighton Fibre!
If you’ve spent any time wandering around Brighton, chances are you’ve spotted the vibrant Brighton Fibre fleet navigating the lanes and seafront. Every time another local artist revealed their custom van, I’ll admit I felt a little pang of envy, so when the team reached out asking me to design their newest fully electric vehicle, I jumped at the chance.
Getting to put my mark on a moving canvas that’s actively buzzing around my home city has been an absolute dream project.
Diving Down the Tech Rabbit Hole
I am a massive nerd at heart. Before putting pencil to paper (or stylus to iPad), I got to tour the Brighton Fibre Exchange, surrounded by rows of cables, specialist tools, and hardware. Seeing the physical backbone of how the city gets connected immediately lit a spark.
Whenever I’m developing a new concept, I love immersing myself in whatever world I’m drawing. While sketching out early drafts, my studio was filled with podcasts and deep-dive documentaries on the history of the internet and the physics behind fibre optics. That contrast between vintage digital tech and high-speed fibre became the heartbeat of the whole concept.
The Concept: Retro Past Meets High-Speed Future
I wanted the artwork to tell a story about Brighton’s digital evolution, but with plenty of personality.
In the background, iconic Brighton landmarks and familiar streetscapes are rendered in glowing monochrome green CRT monitor graphics. A nostalgic nod to the chunky 1980s computer tech we all recognise (and the sluggish connections Brighton was stuck with for far too long!).
Layered over that retro grid, bright, rainbow, full-spectrum fibre cables burst into the frame, bringing colour, momentum, and life back to the city with all kinds of characters exploding out.
Cheeky Puns & 3D Details
My core ethos has always been creating art to make people smile, so I couldn't resist packing the design with playful visual puns. Keep an eye out for:
A brazen Brighton seagull swooping off with computer chips instead of chips from the pier
A literal floppy floppy disk
A cool cat quite literally surfing the web
Designing for a vehicle wrap is a completely different beast than painting a flat wall. As a street artist, I’m used to navigating weird angles, architectural quirks, and uneven textures, so I treated the van like a three-dimensional sculpture. Every curve, door seam, and contour was mapped out so the visuals read cleanly whether you’re stuck behind it in traffic, walking past on the pavement, or looking down from a top-floor flat. (And yes, if you happen to have a bird's-eye view, there’s a cheeky hidden Easter egg waiting on the roof!).
Out in the Wild
Working alongside the Brighton Fibre team was a joy from start to finish, and seeing the finished electric van loaded up and ready for the streets was an incredible feeling.
Next time you're out and about, keep your eyes peeled for the newest van on the fleet. If you spot it, snap a photo, tag me, and let me know your favourite hidden detail!
A Note from the Director
“Working with Sprite was a dream. She ran brilliantly with our open/vague brief of representing ‘everything we do’ and chucking it into her maximalist blender with some of the imaginary retro-cyborg pets of Brighton. She added so much more colour and humour than we were expecting - and our expectations were high. We’re incredibly proud to have her as part of our ever-evolving persona, and we’re grateful with the dedication and flair she took to the project.”
