Commissioned by the city of Genk, the online platform Wanderful.design developed the ‘Genk Hotspot Guide’, a useful guide with a map that lets you discover the 27 hippest spots in the city. The guide exists in both Dutch and English and is available online as well as at various locations throughout the city. The guide was designed by young creative talent from the area.

27 City Spots

Where would you take your friends from abroad? This question was essential in order to come up with the short list of the hippest locations in the city. Wanderful.design dove straight in after receiving the request to develop the guide. The online platform Wanderful.design has been mapping the Limburg creative and commercial design scene for some time now in order to support and promote Limburg – or better #wwwwanderful – design in all its facets.

Well-balanced composition

The makers offered an opportunity for the graphic development of young creative design talent, namely Studio Waow and Liane Castermans. The composition was done independently on the basis of a number of criteria. A distinctive offer, design-related, accessibility and cultural, historical, local and national relevancy. The map shows a balanced offer on shops, catering establishments and art or design-related locations to create a broad enough approach to its visitors and lets you explore the city in a much more inspirational tour than before.

Paper folding map 2.0

With the ‘Genk Hotspot Guide’ visitors, tourists and residents will be able to get a better feel of the city by visiting its hip locations that are spread out all over the area. And for free. The paper version can be found at many locations throughout the city in both English and Dutch.

Simultaneously, Wanderful.design developed an online version as well. “It is very important for any city these days to have an online reference to nice hotspots and unlike the paper version on A2-format, the space is not limited”, according to Genk alderman Lotte Trippaers. “That gives the developers to opportunity and freedom to constantly update the map and follow the evolution in the city.”

The online hotspot guide is by no means a one-to-one digital translation but explores the possibilities of online mapping and the linking of addresses to the profiles of or stories about designers or design companies. “The fact that Genk believes in the creativity and potential of an online platform and the power of collaboration is something we can only applaud,” Wanderful.design says.

“The website is based on the “united we stand” idea, because the creative talent that comes from this region is unprecedented: fantastic designers and companies, creative places from restaurants to shops and of course cities that aim for the future such as Genk. If we want to map all this creativity, why not literally?”