The work investigates Sheffield’s unique history of industrial manufacturing and explores the surfaces in the urban environment. Historically, the city’s cultural identity has been shaped through steel, music and political activism, through collectivism, physical labour and a strong community. As seen in a number of post-industrial cities in the UK, gentrification oversees the changes in communities as property prices rise and sites of industrial employment are replaced by bars, cafes and music venues. This project interrogates Kelham Island, Hillsborough and areas of the city centre and seeks semiotics that signpost the presence of the continued socialist values within the community that were exercised so strongly during the substantial industrial decline in the 1980s.