Studio Dive Reimagines Wayfinding with Vivid Sydney Coat Hanger Totems

Studio Dive has just unveiled Glyph, a sculptural wayfinding system made from 144 bent coat hangers, installed across Vivid Sydney -- one of the world’s most popular light festivals, which attracted over 2.4 million visitors in 2024. The project rethinks how crowds are guided through large-scale public events, replacing the utilitarian large-format LED screens.

Commissioned by Vivid Sydney for a three-year rollout, the work spans 44 locations across the city. Each totem is constructed from a mix of 144 differently shaped hangers that can be easily hung from one another, allowing for endless combinations and configurations.

The forms range from the familiar to the abstract. Each design was first bent by hand before being scaled up and fabricated with steel and neon. A moon, a lightning bolt, a snowman, a sausage dog, a cactus - and, naturally, plenty of arrows.

A common piece of Australian improvisation inspired the concept -- the bent coat hanger often used to replace a broken car aerial, twisted into a rough map of Australia.

“The thinking was simple: make something intuitive, modular, and sculptural,” said James Dive, creative director of Studio Dive.

“People shouldn’t need to read their way through a space; they should feel their way through it.”


Studio Dive is an independent creative studio based in Sydney, working across brand experience and public projects. Glyph contributes to a growing portfolio of work that spans cultural commissions, spatial design, and collaborations. The installation was produced in partnership with Scoundrel Projects.


Glyph was installed for the duration of Vivid Sydney 2025 and will return in new configurations over the next two years.