Garden Academy Montessori, Mural Design

Two weeks ago, I participated, once again, in CreateAthon. 2009 marks my 4th year of CreatAthon. (CreatAthon is an annual event where creative agencies push for 24 hours straight to do campaigns for non-profits who ordinarily couldn't afford agency work. The work is pro bono and is usually really fun and powerful because there is so much passion behind it.)

This year I was asked to do a mural for a Montessori school in Indianapolis. The school recently changed their name to Garden Academy Montessori and was moving to a new building on the south side. They needed a new look because their old brand was kind of clip-art-y and very vectory and catered to little kids, and they are looking to expand to teach older children as well.

So Vision3Creative came to me looking for a visual direction for the new school as well as all the collateral material for them. The only criteria was that it play to the new name and garden theme.

I thought for a bit and sketched out some ideas. The idea of doing a standard garden (greens and rainbow colors) look was kind of boring and done... and not really ownable for this new school. So I took it in a different, stylized direction, with a bold color palette, whimsical plantlife and little hidden animals in the background. I thought that this would spark imaginations and get kids to look at it and discover things. Kind of like a Montessori education.

I chose orange and blue as my palette because I felt it was a nice balance of masculine and feminine. And because orange is energetic and bright and blue is calm and more serene, it created a nice balance that way too.

Here's how the mural design turned out. (Click image to see bigger):

(The parents are going to do the actual painting on the building. I can't wait to see it completed!)

And here's what it'll look like when it's done:

And here are some close-ups: