The Magic Behind The SoCreate Mural - Anthony Harris

If you have ever visited the SoCreate office, you may know about our awesome wall mural that stands just outside of our conference room, but what most people do NOT know is that it was designed and created by our very own, in-house artist, Anthony Harris!

In today's blog post, we will share Anthony's story including his background in art, the process of designing and painting the SoCreate mural, and a sneak peek into the future art plans for the rest of the office.

For as long as he can remember, Anthony has been interested in art. As a graphic design major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he had the opportunity to explore all aspects of art--including painting, sculpture, and of course, graphic design. Having gained exposure to and experience with a lot of different types of art, Anthony ultimately decided that he wanted to go into the ever-growing industry of web design.

After graduation, Anthony worked a few different jobs before finding his place at SoCreate--joining our team during a very exciting time when projects here were really starting to ramp up. After working on smaller scale, shorter term projects and doing some freelancing work, he found the robust platform projects here, which required more work in terms of both size and scale, extremely refreshing. There was a lot to learn, but he was up for the challenge!

It was not until we moved into our new office that the mural project came up. There was a lot of blank wall space that needed some SoCreate personality. Knowing his background in both design and painting, our CEO, Justin Couto, came to Anthony with the idea for a large mural to fill one of the new walls. Although the SoCreate logo had already been created at this point by our Chief Designer, Brian Treese, Justin left the rest of the project very open-ended for Anthony to have the opportunity to really create something SoUnique.

After their meeting, Anthony went to the drawing board--literally--sketching out the design on paper before moving it to Adobe Illustrator. Anthony then took his first idea and design to Justin, and Justin absolutely loved it. The only thing about the design that was disputed was whether or not any of the SoCreate logo would be covered up by the broken wall. Anthony mentioned that the original design did not have any of the logo cut off, but after his discussion with Justin, they decided together that covering some small pieces gave the design more of a 3-dimensional feel. Teamwork making the dream work at its finest!

Once the design was set, it was off to the paint store for Anthony. In order to get the perfect shade of green, Anthony provided the store with one of our existing flyers which was then placed into a machine that determined the exact mixture ratio for our SoCreate green.

Then came time for the big task--actually making the mural. The paint was bought, the floor was taped, and Anthony was ready to roll on his very first mural ever. To ensure that the overall logo dimensions were done correctly, he made a grid on an 8.5x11" piece of paper, drew the logo, and then copied both the grid and the logo to the wall. Once everything was sketched, Anthony busted out the brushes and started painting.

Overall, the project took Anthony close to 3 months to complete--working 2 days each week on it (1 weekday and 1 weekend) for an estimated grand total of 24, 8-hour days! What a task!

Close to a year after the main mural was completed, Justin came to Anthony again with hopes to add two more smaller murals on the walls of our conference room. Having seen the now completed, original masterpiece, Justin had a bit more direction for Anthony on what he wanted for these two. Using the guidelines provided to him, Anthony free-handed the design for the two, small SoCreate value tablets that now greet our guests and co-workers every day for interviews, company meetings, and many other office events.

These three walls may be done, but we have big plans to cover every wall possible in our office. Anthony and Justin have already started working on some new and exciting ideas! I can't wait to see what's coming next.