10 Reasons You Should Consider a Hand-Painted Mural
How often do you find yourself posing for pictures in front of city monuments while travelling?
How do you feel when you see travellers posing for photos in front of your city's monuments or public art installations? Do you find yourself thinking about the ubiquity of those photos? Do you ever consider just how important public art is for your community?
If the thought has not crossed your mind, don't fret. We often take our cities and our communities for granted, and forget about the richness and diversity of our social fabric. After some time, the importance of our community history often wanes. Tarnished statues and historic buildings can only offer so much.
Fortunately, hand-painted murals are an exciting and colourful way to engage your community and represent its diverse history. Consider these 10 reasons for a commercial or community mural:
1: A Mural is Unique
The inherent uniqueness of mural art is easily one reason you should consider a large-scale interior or exterior installation. A commercial mural can represent your business or brand's unique vision and mission. A crafted design with your unique color palette will encourage your guests or clients to think about and truly feel your organisation’s dedication.
2: A Mural is Memorable
In Paris, you have lunch in front of the Eiffel Tower. In New York City, you get a selfie with the Statue of Liberty. In cities, activities with these iconic monuments are commonplace. People often remember more about their visits when there is increased visual imagery.
Consider your mural to be a touchstone of your community. The vibrant colors and captivating imagery is certain to capture attention and pique your audience's curiosity.
3: Murals Add Social Value
Murals represent the diversity of a community or business and their values. A well-designed mural will encourage your clients or consumer community to maintain the space and engage more deeply.
Your mural will encourage new and returning guests. New guests are also more likely to visit and engage with the community in creative and compelling ways. Think about how visitors will immediately recognise the importance of art in the community. They are more likely to source goods locally, while learning about the history of localised areas.
Outdoor mural painting will also create space for the community to get involved. Painting is a skill that anyone can take part in. With the massive scale of murals, the more hands, the better!
4: A Mural is Free Public Marketing
Pay attention to those travel photos that flood your feed. Notice your friends posing in front of those colourful murals in coffee shops? Locals and travellers alike love telling you where they are, by showing you what they're seeing!
Those massive wall displays with eye-catching designs are certain to garner some attention on Instagram and Facebook. Instagram's PublicArt hashtag, #publicart has over 2.5M posts. Think, with roughly 1 billion active users worldwide, that's nearly 40 million users posting about murals and public installations.
5: A Business Mural will Boost your Brand Identity
An interior or exterior mural will allow your staff and your community to immediately understand your business brand, mission, and vision.
Discovering your individualised colour palette and returning motifs is exciting. Allow your unique community or brand identity to be represented in a rich and thought-provoking way.
Think about your imagery: Are there symbols or gestures that represent our work? What image will capture your audience's attention the best? What image will provide them with the necessary information about your mission or vision? Start small and scale up.
6: Mural Painting and Public Art Builds Community
In Wealdstone, London, WeTheSeeds discovered that 45.9% of community members wanted an exterior mural that "creates an identity and is eye-catching." Building the community through engaged research allowed WeTheSeeds to design and paint a mural that accurately represented the Wealdstone's community desires.
Now, Wealdstone on High Street features a community mural project that captures the rich history for the local community. Wealdstone's industrial past, local football club, and diverse community are represented through vibrant paints and eye-catching designs.
7: You Can Support Local Artists and Businesses
Painting a mural can be for everyone in your community, but designing a mural is a highly specialised job. Luckily, there are always artists or public art nonprofits in or around your community with great talent and skill.
Artists love creative showcasing, and they are likely to bring along their collaborators to lend a hand. The excitement of this work is palpable. Your mural artists will likely show their friends, who then shows their friends, who then shows...you get the gist.
Your local community is cyclical. Supporting local artists and creatives is an excellent way to get in touch with a new demographic.
8: Everyone Loves A Little Colour
A little colour goes a long way. With the proper paints, you can bring your interior or exterior to life. Guests will love your space and feel more engaged, curious, and comfortable.
Not to mention, an exciting pop of colour or mural wall is great for workplace culture and mindset. When you create a comfortable environment, you're significantly more likely to encounter return guests or clients, and experience less staff turnover.
Consider engaging your staff by conducting a brainstorming session where everyone pitches an idea, vision, or colour palette. Whatever it is, bust out those acrylic paints and start painting.
9: Look at the City of Philadelphia
The city of Philadelphia has one of the oldest Mural Arts Programs in recent history. Dating back to 1984, Mural Arts Philadelphia has been dedicated to "transforming public spaces and individual lives." Producing between 50-100 projects annually, Mural Arts Philadelphia boasts 15,000 residents and visitors who tour their outdoor gallery.
The city now displays more than 3,600 exterior wall murals that advocate for Environmental Justice and Education Reform.
10: A Mural is an Excellent Investment
A mural is an excellent way to demonstrate to your community or your consumers that you take your organization or your history and your growth seriously. Time and attention often speak louder than money. Representing your local community or business vision provides visitors and locals alike with the idea that both you, and they, are worth supporting.
The best part: mural maintenance is significantly less expensive than a redesign or re brand. Track down your paints and some local community members and start your touch ups.
So why not find out more?
So why not find out more about our London-based Creative Art Agency, specialising in public art marketing and public realm arts management?
Find out more about how we can help you connect with your community, we work throughout the 32 London boroughs and throughout the United Kingdom so why not find out more today?
