Lotto's Bubbles Burst onto the Street

Signwaves has today announced the rollout of brand new pavement signs and a new wall sign for The National Lottery, as part of operator Camelot’s £16.5 million investment programme to refresh its permanent point-of-sale.

A total of 6,000 ‘Bubble’ pavement signs, 5,500 ‘Ecoflex’ pavement signs and 15,000 wall signs are being distributed to National Lottery retailers throughout the UK.

Signwaves, a supplier of signage to Camelot since 1996, was successful in being chosen to design and manage production of the signs earlier in 2009.

Signwaves’ ideas appealed to Camelot on a number of levels: common components between both signs (saving on tooling costs), extending the branded ‘globe’ and eye-catching colours of the recently introduced ‘Playstations’ onto the high street, and the high degree of aesthetic and pedestrian-friendly detailing.

The ‘Bubble’ pavement sign, which replaces the award-winning ‘Bobby’ pavement sign - also designed by Signwaves - is unique in its ability to attract attention and create interest through shape, movement and colour. Its non-symmetrical shape and design - a derivative from ‘thought bubbles’ - mirrors the design of the recently introduced, bubble-shaped Playstations, also being rolled out to National Lottery retailers.

Rotating on a single central axis and using wind energy to create movement, the ‘Bubble’ moves around in the wind but always returns to its original position. Its soft circular styling and smooth, round edges combined with a sturdy weighted base ensure high pedestrian safety and remarkable stability in bad weather, having been tested in strong winds.

As well as being eye-catching and functional, the signs are also very environmentally friendly. Eco-design principles look at the full product life cycle and ensure that all materials used are fully recyclable and are easy to separate for ‘end of life’ recycling, in this case through the use of ‘nut-and-bolt’ and ‘clip-together’ assemblies.

The ‘Bubble’ pavement sign base separates into two halves to enable compact packaging and is made with 100% recycled PVC. This project alone has diverted 45 tonnes of PVC from landfill, and the bases remain fully recyclable at ‘end of life’. The Ecoflex pavement sign consists simply of a fully recyclable aluminium panel and 100% recycled PVC base with a single nylon fixing. The wall sign is also packed to optimise shipping, storage and onward distribution costs.

All three signs have been designed for greatest possible ease and speed of installation – the ‘Bubble’ and ‘Ecoflex’ pavement signs having a quick and easy ‘no tools’ assembly method, while the wall sign has been made to simply slot-fit onto its robust steel mounting arm.

Duncan Malyon, Sales Director at Camelot, commented: “Our new external signs are an integral part of a significant investment to provide an even better service to players and retailers – and to deliver the next stage of National Lottery sales growth and so increase returns to the Good Causes. Our thanks go to the Signwaves team, who have developed exceptional signage solutions to meet our exacting brand and operational needs, delivered on time and to budget.”

David John, Creative Director of Signwaves, commented: “We are delighted to be working with Camelot again to deliver such an important part of their point-of-sale refreshment programme. Building on the success of the ‘Bobby’ pavement sign, our aim has been to create products which not only look great but offer real benefit to The National Lottery brand, the retailer and the environment.”