behind the c
The president of business affairs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Richard Amon, reached out to the graphic design department to design and produce a mural on the fourth floor of the Reese building on campus. He wanted a mural that would bring life into their dull office space; as well as bring pride to the hard work that he and his team does to make the college life unique, enjoyable, and memorable for everyone. Mr. Amon recognizes that there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into bettering student life and it is often times unnoticed and under-appreciated. He wished for a mural that not only reignites the fire for passion amongst his peers, but also an environment that grand-ly welcomes future business opportunities within charlotte, for charlotte.
the plan
For my approach to this task, I wanted the mural to be fun, inviting, but also adventurous. To me, a mural is a piece that lasts forever and millions of people can see it; but considering the location of this specific mural, the staff will be looking at this piece every day. Personally, I would get bored of a mural very quickly if it was something I’d see every single day I come to work; So with this in mind, my approach to the mural was aimed towards fulfilling the request Mr. Amon had given us and to include hidden details that one may not realize at the very beginning, but after some digging it’s there.
the pitch
With that, I went for a more stylistic, fun, and doodle-y approach. This way I will be able to snuggle in “easter eggs” to keep the mural exciting as viewers search for what’s hidden. I used my own personal doodle style called “Ditto”. Ditto is my unique drawing style which encases my subjects as unrealistic objects, but they’re still recognizable. Although, Mr. Amon only requested 1 design pitch from me, I recognized that there were two approaches that could be executed. Without losing the opportunity for one-or-the-other, I developed 2 pitches utilizing the doodle style.
splatter
The Splatter’s technique revolved around highlighting the major structures/subjects within campus and surrounding it with smaller subjects for detail. The major subjects could be iconic buildings, statues, people, etc.; as the smaller details can be broader subjects, like food, students, starship, etc. This gives us a huge amount of opportunity to really have fun, add the little secrets and icons that are only known on campus that even we, as the designers, would lose track of what is stitched into our own mural.
Included within Splatter was the use of the new Charlotte C. Having the C in the middle represents how Charlotte is at the core of everything around. The staff and faculty are at the heart of Charlotte, making it possible for student life, college life, and our campus to be beautiful, memorable, and enjoyable.
charlotte^2
Within this pitch, both Charlotte city and the University are combined together to a slightly more controlled mural. This design is slightly more realistic, but the placement is unrealistic. For example, the Dubois tower is not actually near the university clock tower - infact it isn’t even on campus. Within this pitch, the design is a lot more scenic and focuses more on drawn gestures and expressions placed onto a wide scene. One of the important factors that I took note of during the interview with Mr. Amon was that he said Charlotte is “City in the Trees” due to its immense amount of greenery. Off of that, I knew I wanted to have this piece surrounded by Charlotte’s beautiful nature and it would source as an effective tool to fill in gaps to keep pieces connected. In Charlotte^2 a whole scene is drawn out, highlighting Charlotte’s iconic buildings, places to eat, parks, mascots, geese, the light rail, everything that makes Charlotte unique and the place where thousands call home. The goal for this design is the adventure.
the decision
After hearing 3 amazing pitches from the 3 separate teams, Mr. Amon fortunately selected my Charlotte^2 concept and we moved forward to develop my idea further and prepared for production.
planning
A lot went into planning, but the first thing we had to do was figure out the easiest method to develop the entire mural, as I was the only one able to draw it out. To best tackle this challenge, I recognized that our design is very collage-like, so we made a quick team to select photos, get them printed, and make a photo collage of the mural in which then I will trace over and use it as the base of our design. Whilst doing this, other teams were made to gather information to figure out our limited budget, the tools we would need to make the process easier, and gather photos.
the design
After putting together the base of the mural through the use of photos, I took a photo of the entire thing, threw it into Procreate and spent many all-nighters illustrating it together. I was making sure the strokes remained consistent and everything connected and made sense. One of the most challenging parts of trying to imagine this doodle was figuring out what to use to fill in blank gaps in between subjects and making sure it all connects.
After several touch up and iterations, the mural was officially done and finalized. The design was handed off to an Adobe Illustrator team to vectorize the entire piece. While they were doing this, I helped gather and test materials so we can use and be ready on production day.
color palette
One of the main requests that Mr. Amon asked for during the interview was for the mural to be vibrant with color. needed a team to help select the color palette for the mural. This process went through many trials and became a collaborative effort to make sure that not only we agree on the palette, but our client loves it.
Our color selection revolved around vibrant, popping colors. Especially since it’s going to be on top of an off-white background.
pattern
After many attempts and iterations, It did not seem like we could come to an agreeance as a team. We saw that the combinations were not helping the overall mural. We tried to color code it piece by piece, but evidently our attempts showed a chaotic design partnered with a chaotic color combination. As the Lead designer, I pointed this out in a group discussion and stepped up to figure out the color combination we can use to execute sense of organization.
final
With this combination, things are sectioned by foreground, middle ground, and background. This way viewers are able to visually decipher the different layers without a lot of trouble. This layout was a lot more controlled and organized.
production
While everything was being prepared for production, we had a lovely group that had already called a vinyl company to set up the outline for us on the wall. After many discussions about the best approach to finish the mural within the semester, the method of production we went with was:
1. Professionally print and cut the vinyl;
2. Have it installed on the two walls of the mural;
3. Trace all of the edges of the mural;
4. Peel the vinyl off completely;
5. Paint within the lines that we traced.
Through this method, we would be able to better our chances of painting a straighter line, as we are designers, not painters. As I have worked on the original piece the most, I basically knew the whole entire mural in the back of my head, so I dedicated as many days as I could onto this mural to make sure everything was correct and to answer any questions that my team would have.
cheers
I want to thank my lovely team for dedicating countless hours after class to making this mural possible. My team consisted of senior graphic designers who were also balancing out the completion of our senior exhibition project. Through our hustle, dedication, and passion for getting things done, we were able to balance 2 huge projects within a semester and finishing it perfectly.
I want to thank Cynthia Frank, Graphic Design professor at Charlotte, for blessing us with this amazing opportunity.
I would also like to my team of designers: Tyriek Johnson, Manisa Vongnalath, Briana Branch, Anthony Jefferson, Caroline McNamara, Christa Wickman, Brian Pinder, and Lisa Mirisola for their dedication, passion, and love to create and succeed.