That’s Brilliant!
A lettering mural for the creative space
In the fall of 2021, New Work moved into the former Unilever building in Hafencity. The wall I designed in the new headquarters matches the company’s slogan: »for a better working life.«
When the agency Nest One asked me to design a lettering mural, they hadn’t done the copywriting yet. To my delight I was allowed to make a proposal. Developing content and form in parallel – that’s my favorite job!
The wall that was to be painted is in the ideation area of the New Work’s headquaters. Since this is where teams develop ideas, I thought about what people say to each other when an ideation process goes really well: you get into the flow together and cheer each other on.
I recognize my own best ideas by the excitement that accompanies them and this feeling of »Wow, that would be so cool, I should do that!«. This is why the exclamation »That’s brilliant!« sets the optimistic, enthusiastic tone for the mural design. The sentences and sentence starters around the main text invite you to wonder what would really be so cool to do someday.
Unlike the usual »inspirational quotes« that everyone has seen 1000 times, this text collage doesn’t put your brain to sleep, but encourages you to spin ideas. Stars, dots and arrows refer to handwritten spontaneity and reinforce the impression of energy and bubbling ideas.
Project
Lettering-Mural
Work Done
idea development, copy writing, lettering and painting on location
Format
about 2 x 3 meters
Year
2021
Agency
Nest One
Client
New Work SE
From idea to lettering mural
The design
I digitally drew the sketch directly onto a photo of the wall. Amazingly, the finished wall looks almost exactly like the photo.
With the help of a grid and extremely complicated calculations I transferred the drawing to wall.
The preparation
The matte wall paint was too sensitive for drawn guides – so I taped up threads.
Abbreviations on the tape give me an overview: Which thread for which line of text?
Between the lines I lightly sketch the lettering with a pastel pencil and removed the threads again before painting.
The execution
Testing the bruhes on cardboard …
… then I’m painting on the wall
First the eye-catcher, then the smaller lines of text
I work from the bottom up so that everything fits in the end.
The finishing touches
Finally, I round off the composition with the pattern elements and correct a few details – and done!
