I was recently contacted by a local architectural firm to produce a wall mural.  Over the years, I would occasionally stop in to this firm’s office to give them various print samples used for window graphics, non-slip floor graphics, wall murals, etc.  So one day, when one of their clients asked about getting a big wall mural, they thought of Lone Eagle.  Nice!  So the local architects were my first partner.

Typically, a new mural job involves working with the client to determine what kind of image they have in mind for their space.  Then it’s time to hunt down the right stock photography, or hire a photographer, or design the proper vector graphics, or some combination of those.  In this case, the client had already picked out the image they wanted from the stock of a local photographer.  Luckily, he had shot it using 6×7 medium format film.  Whew!  So, now I had identified my second partner in this job.

The next step was to get the photographer’s med-format film into the hands of a high-end professional with a drum scanner.  In this case, the film was scanned at 11,000 ppi, using the proper bit depth and color mode which then gave me a beautiful digital file to work with.  So now my third partner successfully completed his portion of this job.

Now it was my turn.  The 10’ x 25’ wall mural was printed in seven ten-foot long strips at 720dpi, 16-pass using a Roland 545ex eco-SOL printer.  The media used was Dreamscape’s vinyl wall mural media.  The client picked out the “Mystical” texture – good choice.  After printing & drying overnight, each panel received two coats of Dreamscape’s Protex3 satin-finish liquid laminate.  This gives the prints a beautiful surface finish as well as protection from water, dirt, pollution, smudging, fade, etc.  So I guess you could say that my media supplier was my fourth partner since I’ve asked them lots of questions over the years and buy lots of my supplies from them.

My fifth and final partner in this job was the installer.  It’s easy to image everything going well up to this point but then turning out terrible if the installation wasn’t right.  My partner here was a local wallpaper hanger and he did an outstanding job.  Man, this guy knows his stuff.  I inspected the mural when he was done & I was impressed that the seams were so smooth and the image lined up so well.  Partner #5 rocks!

Here’s a photo of the end result.  When the client gets some time, they’ll build a hardwood border around the perimeter to frame it in.  When I get some time, I’ll forward the link to this blog post to all of my partners and say “thanks” for a job well done – by ALL of us.

It all starts in the design phase. What look do you want for your Italian restaurant, or hair design salon, or wine bar, or corporate office, or home? A huge range of ready-to-go stock photography exists or a digital photographer can be commissioned to get exactly the image you need. Or the graphics you want can be designed digitally. Some of the most talented artists around now work digitally, producing all of the styles mentioned above using not paint & brushes but Photoshop & Illustrator. Their brush is a mouse and their paints are pixels. The artwork you want can be created, customized, and modified quickly to get exactly what you want.

A huge range of media exists for producing the mural with large-format digital printing. Vinyl media embossed with various textures are available that look like canvas, leather, suede, a rough plaster finish, smooth, sandblasted, paper maché, …you name it. These over-lapping prints are then installed like ordinary wallpaper with ordinary wallpaper adhesive to produce any size mural you’d like. Other interesting media include fabrics with a low-tack adhesive on the back. This allows the graphics to be easily repositioned, removed, and re-used without leaving adhesive residue on the walls.

In mid March ’09, I had a successful collaboration with a traditional wall mural painter to produce an 8’x25’ wall mural for a new restaurant in Woodinville, WA. How? Ann Fiser painted a beautiful, colorful, & fun mural at ½-scale (still pretty big) and then had it professionally photographed by Alex Rubin. The (very large) digital file was then transmitted to me for scaling up and large-format digital printing onto a matte-finish media specifically made for wall murals. The seven, large, over-lapping strips were then hung with typical wallpaper paste by Steve Orban, a professional wallpaper hanger. The owners at Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Woodinville, WA love the end result. For more info, see the lead article in this month’s Lexjet’s “Expand” newsletter (volume 4, number 4). Lexjet is a supplier of large-format equipment, media, ink, & other supplies.