Metagraphics

Murals and creative design services

Mural Production

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Starbucks Floral Mural

We were engaged by Starbucks for a recent mural project in their Northlake location.

Set in the middle of the food court near cinema and high traffic areas, this mural needed to compliment the open exterior design which uses raw timber to maximum effect. I was really happy with how this hand painted mural turned out.

Starbucks Mural Detail
Starbucks Mural Detail

I focussed on large leaf patterns and shapes based on traditional botanical illustrations leaving the exposed wood as it is because I love how the image works on this texture.

Starbucks “expose our craft in everything we do. We paint, draw, print, stamp, hand-letter and more, highlighting our creative passion”. They seek to celebrate imperfections— bring humanity and reflect life in a raw, genuine way.

We developed concepts that helped Starbucks achieve their goals to “engage the senses in an unpackaged and textural way, bringing the brand to life and evoking the feeling of being there.”

Starbucks Mural Detail
Starbucks Mural Detail

To achieve the desired artful, expressive and imaginative brief we embraced the natural effect of the wooden surface and used a limited palette.

The finished result seeks to “Reflect how the Starbucks brandunfolds, going deeper and beyond the obvious first look. Bringing dimension, texture and nuance to the design.”

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Brisbane City Council Mural

We recently completed a mural for the Brisbane City Councils “Brisbane Canvas” project.

The imagery incorporated the local Aspley areas iconic features as well as drwing inspiration from the the curatorial rationale Exchange developed by the Placemaking Team, Design Brisbane.

The Gympie Road corridor is one of the oldest overland routes for the development of  modern Brisbane, and indeed adapted from a former and far older Aboriginal pathway. 

Da Burger Mural
West End Mural

Aspley is strategically sited at Brisbane’s northern boundary to provide a way‐point and stop‐over for trade and traffic passing along that route – with the Royal Exchange Hotel operating as a Cobb & Co pick‐up point and watering hole for bullocks.

Aspley was far north enough from the city centre to cater to its own needs and in many ways it can be seen as an epicentre of suburban developments, experiencing the rise of early industry, the waves of post war housing developments, and in‐flux of the big brand commercial shopping centres.

Much of this twentieth century mass manufactured design, aimed at affordability and equity of living standard, resulted in a monocultural sameness.

The post‐Fordist economies of today’s postmodern society have seen the explosion of niche markets, creative industries, communications networks and information-based businesses with a resultant diversification of lifestyles, social formations, and to some extent, built environments – both new and repurposed. 

Da Burger Mural

The notion of exchange, as applied within a modernist historical framework, operates as a mechanism of standardisation – commercial exchange through standardised pricing, common currency, product branding and packaging, mass marketing, and so on. However, notions of exchange are today appreciated as being far more complex. 

In fact, exchange may be less about equivalence – the swapping of discrete entities – and far more about their interaction, catalytic effects, offshoots and entanglements. 

The boundaries between things are not as discrete as once imagined and degrees of inter‐dependence are newly appreciated as profound and intricate. The artist is the bricoleur – finding value and interest in discarded detritus, bringing together the disparate, confounding high and low cultures, making precious the everyday.

Artworks reveal the complexity of exchange, shifting the literal into the symbolic, connecting cultural practices with sensory experience, confounding image, appearance and substance. 

An artwork commissioned for this harsh, highly commercialised urban environment, may express an alternative sense of place – a sense of exchange that is beyond equivalence, that may be transformative and even magical.

Drawing upon the site’s marginalised cultural and environmental threads, it may amplify, trace and release intercultural understandings and a humanising sense of attachment. Informed by impulses organic and sensual, the artwork might embody the endless rupture and coalescence of exchange, unknowing and unknowable. 

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The Mural Process

Designing the space

I like to get a really good idea of the space before I start. Often a photograph is enough but when I can I take the taime to visit the space or wall to get afeel for it. Lighting, interior design, colours and the general look and feel of the space or all important considerations bfore getting started.

Devloping a mural theme or idea

This is all about the busienss or organisation. Often I’m asked to do whatever I like, but even if I’m offered carte blanche, understanding who is going to be using the space and why needs to inform the process of developing a theme or idea for the wall.

Personally I am really interested in identity. I love people so I often try to use a portrait where I can. I have a fairly flexible style and often try to convey a dreamlike or surreal atmosphere to the work

Create a draft of the wall art

Unless there is a time constraint I usually create a draft concept for the client. Depending on the various requirements this can take the form of a quick sketch but more often I compose a colour image in photoshop and try and place it on a photograph of the space. This helps give the client confidence in the work and also helps int he next process.

Using quality exterior or interior mural materials

Depending on the outcome I will use either spray enamel or acrylic brushwork. For acrylic I use dulux or british paints exterior or interior low sheen paints. For enamel I use mtn 94. There are a lot of great brands out there but these are the ones I find work the best, give the widest colour range, sit best on the wall, and last the longest.

Street art – Applying the artwork to the surface

If I haven’t created a draft work for the project I will simply freestyle the artwork onto the wall. This is a lot of fun, and with ove 20 years doing this I comes naturally. I don’t even mind an audience! If the project is more specific and I am working to a detailed design concept there are a number of ways to approach it. The thing most people are interested in or struggle to understadn is how to retain the proportions.

Believe it or not working on a larger scale is actually easier for this. There are several techniques that can be used to maintain the integrity of the compostions.

Gridding is a popular technique in which a grid is layered over the artwork and then transposed to the wall. The small squares create a map or guildeline for line placement.

Projecting is another technique that comes in very hand – especially if the concept is elaborate. Using an espson projector enables me to simply trace the outline of the concept onto the wall.

I use those techniques if the artwork is complex, but most often I will simply paint straight on the wall using freehand techniques. I find that but creating large shapes first and then scaling down to smaller shpes this process is the fastest.

That’s the simple process of painting murals I use. If you are looking to try it out for your self feel free to contact me. As well as painting murals directly I have had a lot of opportunities to run mural workshops and love teaching the basics to poeple who are keen to have a go.

 

Check out the mural folio here

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Street Art Mural – Sunshine Coast

The Client: CV Global

CV comprises over 400 people across the globe. They are represented in more than 35 countries in the following seven regions; North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and the Middle East.

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The Brief: Street art murals for the Sunshine Coast office

cv-global-marketing-mural-sunshine-coast-1

Recognising the global impact of rapid and significant developments in technology, CV has embraced these new opportunities and their potential to reach vast numbers of people.

cv-global-marketing-mural-sunshine-coast-6

CV wanted 3 street art murals in their office to help reflect there core principles and inspire their team each day.

The Solution: Bold, Colourful and Networked

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Using our design process process Metagraphics developed used 3 big ideas as a starting point for each design. Each design was refined to achieve the desired effect.

  • Technology and Digital communication
  • Asia Pacific and it’s people
  • The lion of Judah and light in the darkness

cv-global-marketing-mural-sunshine-coast-3

 

 

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That one thing that works best.

Focus on the thing that you love and everything will fall into place.

It’s an overused self help cliche right?

I’ve always thought that the reason cliches exist is because they are usually pretty accurate.

I started my business 5 years ago and tried to do everything. Even though everything I read said not too. I guess it’s an example of Seth Godin’s lizard brain hard at work. Because I was scared I wouldn’t get enough work I tried to get every piece of work that came my way. And it killed me.

Mural Art Brisbane

Then after a few years I noticed something. Without even trying, I was getting more and more mural work. Which I love. Funnily enough, I wasn’t even trying to get this work. I was just doing it as a sideline hobby and people would ask me to do it for them. Because I was too busy, I would charge them.

The more I did though, the more referrals I received. About a year or so ago I looked at my accounts and realised that without even trying, 50% of my income was being derived from what started out as a hobby.

The thing I loved doing most was that one thing that works best.