Painting a branded mural.
In May 2018 I completed a large new project for Marine Street Social (MSS) in New Brighton, Wirral. It's an independent community focused food & drink market with a wonderful rooftop terrace looking out over the Marine lake and the river Mersey.
The mural is 8 x 2 meters in size and located outside about 2.5 meters off the ground in the rooftop terrace. It's position means it is visible from a great distance around the local area. This was the biggest project I've done for a while and, as always, threw it's own set of challenges and learning curves at me.
Design
The rooftop terrace would be sponsored by Perrier Jouet champagne, but it wasn't initially clear to what extent they would be involved and how much freedom I would have with a design. I was sent a design document which outlined how their branding could and couldn't be used, which was was very specific. In fact it was brutally strict! It outlined how their logo should be positioned (centrally to any feature), the exact colours of their brand and the percentage each should be used, plus their one approved image ... the anemone flower from their logo. Basically it was my worst nightmare, I could paint a billboard of their logo!
However, my design would have to balance 3 different brands and styles, Perrier Jouet, MSS and the overall venue plus my own personal tates! I had already shown various styles of mural to Carl, the owner of MSS, and had gained an idea of what he liked, which was a mix of bright colours and contemporary imagery similar to what I liked; but very far away from the strict guidelines. Other ideas for the venue included the local area and wildlife, something that also didn't fit.
Whilst researching the PJ brand I found imagery that was a bit different and more colourful, but I wasn't sure if it was out of date or for limited editions of their products. After proposing a few quick design concepts to find a middle ground the member of the PJ branding team we were dealing with saw some of the images I'd referenced and pointed towards some of their newer styles and themes, in particular their Miami branding! Although New Brighton is very different from Miami the style was much more consistent with a lot of contemporary imagery featuring plants, leaves and foliage, but more importantly lots of colour!
I was then sent some new PJ design docs related specifically to the Miami theme. We settled upon one image in particular (left) as our middle ground and I used that as my starting point. I was able to find more examples online, including some of the exact assets and imagery from the design. Some of the other imagery included animals including a peacock, hummingbird and dragonflies, which I was keen to include. I knew that the logo had to be central but instead of the traditional green logo we switched to the white logo on a green background, which suited the plant and foliage theme much better.
Although the final design mostly uses the actual PJ assets and foliage I changed the colours quite drastically and introduced a couple of new images to book end each side and bring the focus back to the middle. Whilst the final design is distinctly Perrier Jouet branded it is something that I am very pleased with and has enough of my individual style, whilst the foliage heavy nature and green background fitted 100% with the rest of the rooftop terrace and feature flower wall that was installed underneath the mural.
Whilst I have worked for businesses before this was the first time I had had to work closely with a major global brand. Balancing the various sides was tricky initially but once we found the middle ground it was a pleasure to be able to put my own spin on it. I also learned a hell of a lot whilst painting the mural itself, but that's all boring stuff like weather proofing wood and stuff.
