Yesterday, we were reading a BLOG POST over at NDG that reminded us of ANOTHER POST we’d read back in 2007 from Johnson Banks’s blog about the creative designs found on manhole covers in Japan.

Well, not to be outdone by the Japanese, it seems that in Britain there are people employed in making drainage covers who also want to show a bit of artistic flair. Over here we call these drain covers grids.

We took a 3 minute walk around the block and discovered quite a few variations, and made the link between designers and the grid. The ‘Wi-Fi’ one’s pretty cool.

Ok, they’re never going to win a beauty contest compared to those manhole covers, but it’s good to see design implemented in objects with such constraints.

For tons more creative takes on manholes and grids, HAVE A LOOK AT THESE on Flickr.

And if you see any good grids yourself, take a pic and send them over, we’d like to see them.

Thoughtful will not be held responsible for any accidents involving holding expensive cameras and/or camera phones over drainage covers.