TOUR & WEBSITE MERCHANDISE
I am now working with bands and their representatives to enhance their merchandise offers with my unique discography maps. These original prints can now be sold as tour merchandise or in artist-hosted e-commerce stores.
These aren’t just ordinary fan prints—they are highly detailed, extensively researched visual narratives that organise the (now) shuffled past of album releases into an ordered present, telling the story of the making of music to date.
"IT IS TRULY AMAZING" THE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ARCHIVE
Why Choose My Discography Maps for Your Merchandise?
Unique Storytelling Art Pieces: Each map is a bespoke creation that tells the story of your band/artists’ recording history, collaborations, and guests across studio album creation.
Deepen Fan Engagement: Offer your supporters something more than the usual merchandise—a piece of art that encapsulates your music and legacy, appealing to dedicated fans and new listeners.
Quality Craftsmanship: Each piece is crafted with meticulous attention to detail and printed on high-quality art paper. The superior quality ensures that your fans receive a beautiful and lasting product.
Proven Success: My art has been a strong seller at Resident Music, one of the UK’s top independent record stores, and has drawn consistent interest at my studio/gallery in Lewes. Fans appreciate the uniqueness and meaning behind each piece.
"BRILLIANT.. REALLY LIKE WHAT YOU'VE DONE MIKE" BILLY BRAGG
Formats Available
Sizes: Available from A5 greeting cards up to A2 posters, with A3 and A4 sizes particularly popular among fans. This flexibility allows you to offer merchandise that suits various preferences and price points.
Z-Fold Map: A Compact Keepsake with a Grand Reveal
- Pocket-Sized Convenience: The z-fold map is a small takeaway that fans can carry easily. Its compact size makes it perfect for distribution at gigs, festivals, or special promotions.
- A2-Sized Impact: When unfolded, it expands into a stunning A2 poster, showcasing a detailed map that expands and orders the artist’s recording history.
- Customizable Reverse Side: The back of the map offers ample space for band-specific merchandise, additional artwork, lyrics, tour dates, or any content you’d like to share. This dual-sided design maximizes engagement and provides extra value to your fans.
- Artist-branded Labels: Each z-fold map comes with band-branded labels, reinforcing your brand identity and adding a professional touch to the presentation.
Collaborative Growth: I'm committed to building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. I offer competitive pricing and am open to tailoring the artwork to align perfectly with your brand and story.
"THE PERFECT GIFT" RESIDENT MUSIC, BRIGHTON
Ready to Offer Something New to Your Fans?
Get in touch - contact me directly at: mike@mikebellmaps.com
ABOUT MIKE BELL - TUBE MAP DESIGNER
Mike Bell Maps is my growing collection of tube map art prints that reimagine music, film, and culture through the visual language of underground maps. Each design presents albums in order, film plots, and complex creative histories as clear, engaging tube-style timelines created for fans who value depth and detail.
RESEARCH-LED DESIGN
Every artwork is built on original research and careful verification. Albums become stations. Musicians, characters, and ideas form connecting lines. This approach turns detailed information into visual storytelling, creating art prints that bring clarity and meaning to subjects people already care about.
MY STORY
My background is rooted in live sound and large-scale show design, working across music and cultural events for many years. That experience shaped how I understand collaboration, creative evolution, and structure. During lockdown, I applied that knowledge to mapping music and films, developing underground maps that balance accuracy, design, and narrative.
THE ARTWORK
Each print is produced to archival standards and designed to last. These are not novelty posters. They are considered art prints created for people who value music history, film structure, and informed design. They make thoughtful gifts for fans who want something personal, researched, and meaningful.
Mike Bell Maps is where research-led tube maps become art prints, and where stories worth knowing are mapped clearly, carefully, and beautifully.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What are Mike Bell’s tube map art prints?
A: My prints utilise an advanced visual language based on the logic of underground maps to organise complex histories. By moving beyond basic cartography, I transform albums into "stations" and musicians or themes into "connecting lines." This allows fans to explore hundreds of data points - from session musician credits to chronological collaborations - within a single, intuitive visual system.
Q: How do these maps differ from standard music or tube posters?
A: The primary difference is information density and quality. While standard posters are often low-resolution decorative pieces on thin paper (135-170gsm), my prints are research-led discographies printed on archival-grade, 305gsm+ heavyweight giclée paper. They are designed to be "read" like a book, rewarding deep curiosity with discoveries not found in mass-produced merchandise.
Q: How is the accuracy of the research verified?
A: Accuracy is the core of my design process. Every map is synthesised from primary sources, including official liner notes, session archives, musician interviews, and verified fan databases. By incorporating musician inputs and fact-checking against trusted archives, I ensure that each map is a historically accurate record of the subject’s career.
Q: What subjects are available in the collection?
A: The collection spans a wide range of cultural histories, including music discographies, film plots, politics, and Formula One. Each map focuses on a single narrative, presenting the whole "story" of a subject - such as the evolution of a band or the timeline of a sport- in a clear, high-density visual format.
Q: Are these prints produced sustainably?
A: Yes. I prioritise a carbon-neutral workflow by producing prints locally to the buyer to reduce the shipping footprint. I use sustainable wood frames and archival materials designed for 100+ years of colour stability, ensuring the art is a lasting investment rather than disposable décor.
Q: Why do these maps make the best gifts for music and film fans?
A: Unlike generic posters, these are bespoke cultural maps that celebrate a fan's deep knowledge. Because they are research-led and visually unique (featuring narratives not seen elsewhere), they offer a sophisticated, gallery-quality alternative for those who value the "deep dive" into their favourite artist or film.