Cove Mural Project
Project Overview
The Create Institute (COVE), Applied Technology Center (ATC), and Innovent departments contacted two Visual Design course sections in winter 2023 to develop a Mural for the COVE highlighting Experiential Learning at MSOE. The two course sections were divided into six teams that competed to create the murals representing the core values and their identity standards. The mural also needed to align with the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) branding and the branding of the three departments. My team consisted of three students, and we designed the mural within Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. The project lasted 3 weeks, and we presented the final design to stakeholders in a 10-minute presentation.
Goal
The project was focused on creating an unrefined Mural design for the three departments. The design that best represents the stakeholders' needs would be permanently displayed on campus at the Veits Tower within the cove. The mural needed to be visual engaging and appealing by applying proper Gestalt, CRAP, and typography principles. The mural must have dimensions of 125 inches tall by 180 inches wide and be designed to be printed on vinyl and applied to the wall.
Initial Sketches
Design Process
How Do You Find Mural Inspiration?
To get inspired, we started by seeking inspiration from the excellent artists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To do this, we wandered the Milwaukee streets to discover, evaluate, and document art throughout the city. The group then converged to discuss the artwork we found. This kickstarted our design process as we began to sketch out potential mural designs. The group soon settled on a design of three silhouettes representing each department and presented the concept to stakeholders before getting the okay to move forward.
Painting A Mural Without A Brush
None of our group members at the time of this project were good at creating digital art or had access to drawing tablets. These limitations meant we had to get creative. We used –
Photoshop: To compile all our assets.
Illustrator: To create smaller assets for the mural.
Physical Cameras and Royalty-free image libraries: To collect reference images.
Each good member took a reference image and traced the depicted object in Illustrator to create silhouettes. These silhouettes were then refined in Photoshop and integrated into the mural design.
Personal Contributions
For this project, work was evenly distributed among team members. I created the –
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3D Printer Silhouette
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ATC Male Silhouette
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Background Arch
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Button Maker Silhouette
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Computer Silhouette
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Drill Silhouette
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Drone Silhouette
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Innovent Handshake Silhouette
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Phone Silhouette
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Pliers Silhouette
Pitched Mural Design
Results
At the end of the 3 weeks, we presented our final deliverable to the directors of each department represented in the mural. We also presented to other project stakeholders, which included students, faculty, and members of the MSOE marketing department. My team then proceeded to win best mural, and we revisited the design with the marketing department. The mural is now permanently on display on campus at Viets to within the COVE on campus.
Refined Mural Design
