UNT Union Mural
First Place in Interior & Wall Art at ACUI Steal This Design 2022
My Final Project
For four years I both attended and worked for The University Of North Texas in Denton, Texas. During my senior year, I was given the opportunity through my internship and job at Design Works to create a mural that would be displayed at the entrance of the student union building. This is the full documentation of the process of conceptualizing, planning, designing, and finalizing this year-long project.
Inspiration, Concept, And Initial Sketch
This was not the first time a mural had been proposed- for four years there had been attempts to create a piece that used the empty space on the first floor of the Union, but it seemed that every design proposed had not been approved or stalled out after a good amount of time had passed.
In July of 2021, I had the idea of creating a piece that would be similar in style to a “Where’s Waldo” illustration- where students would be able to recognize references to campus legends, our former mascots, well-known alumni, and more. In the four years I was a student, I had grown quite fond of the community through sharing memories and stories of campus quirks, and this idea would allow me to add in a lot of the fun stuff that makes UNT feel like UNT. This idea seemed to fit what we needed at the time, as students who were removed from in-person classes or never got to experience the campus during the pandemic didn’t seem as connected to the “Campus Experience” as those who had attended prior to COVID-19. The hope was that by having a piece where you could see inside jokes and nods to “UNT Lore”, students would be able to feel more connected to the university community as they learned from peers what more of the references within the mural were.
This sketch was one of a few ideas I had for the layout of this piece, and ultimately was the one I followed while designing the final illustration.
Before I began working on the line art for this massive project, I wanted to make sure I had as many reference photos as possible of campus. Since this project was starting at a time when the UNT campus had been empty for over a year, a lot of construction had taken place that wasn’t very well documented online- meaning that I needed to find not only good images of existing buildings, but also go out and take my own photos of the areas of campus that had been renovated during the pandemic. Through a mix of my own groundwork and a lot of research, I was able to piece together a cohesive map of the area of campus that I wanted to illustrate at a time when there was no official map that reflected changes made on campus during the pandemic.
Organization And Planning
When starting this project, I had to consider the technical limitations of both the programs and hardware I was using at the time. Because the only drawing accessory I had available to me was my personal iPad, I decided that working in Procreate would be best- though I then had to work around the size limitation I was stuck with. In the end, I mapped out the sketch in Adobe Illustrator and cut up the image into manageable 2-foot chunks that I would be able to piece together in Adobe Photoshop upon completion.
Getting Started
After committing to the plan I had come up with, I began painstakingly drawing the campus environment in small squares that could be arranged together at the end of the project. This section took by far the longest of any portion of this project, as I was still working both on class work, as well as a number of both large and small projects for my primary client at Design Works. Because of the time limitations I had at work, I began to dedicate my weekends and evenings at home to make sure the piece could be completed before I had to leave my position as a student designer. Fortunately, this extra time allowed me to go back and revise some buildings to be much more detailed than originally planned, meaning that I could spend more time perfecting areas like the brick of the Administration Building and the windows of the Student Union.
After finishing each piece individually, I spent a few hours connecting each square into a cohesive image. The biggest challenge of this process came from the fact that I had changed my brush presets after a bug in Procreate wiped my data- which meant that I had some pieces using a brush slightly thicker than I originally planned. With a bit of retouching in Photoshop, I was able to correct these imperfections and move on to the next phase of the project.
After finalizing the line art, I set about coloring the mural. Because of the sheer size of the piece, I was relegated to only working on the mural on my office computer, as my personal laptop was unable to keep up with the demand Photoshop was placing on it. After about two weeks of early mornings and late nights at the office, I had finished coloring the campus background and could move on to people.
Adding The Details
Going back to drawing for a while was a welcome break from the giant task of coloring and editing in Photoshop, so I was excited to start working on the people and hidden references I had planned for the mural. Because the scale was much smaller, I was able to natively color the assets I was creating for this step, which saved a lot of time.
I added friends, family, alumni, mascots, and many more details that I knew would help fill out the piece and make the campus feel more alive. One of my favorite details was the addition of tiny recreations of some of my favorite lawn signs I had made throughout my time as a graphic designer for the University Program Council.
Following the two weeks I spent adding people, I dropped everything into Photoshop yet again and assembled the piece as a whole. I had a lot of fun creating little interactions between people and the environment I had created, and after some brief color correction, the mural was finally complete.
On July 14th of 2022, the mural was finally installed on the first floor of the UNT Union building- just 3 days shy of a year after the idea was first pitched in a Design Works summer meeting.
Unused Concepts
While working on this project, I utilized a class assignment to expand upon the mural and come up with some other ways that the Union could use the piece in branding and marketing when it was installed. I decided to try creating a campaign based on the phrase “Find Yourself At The Union”. This campaign would allow for an environmental design aspect that used pieces of the mural as decals, stickers, and more. I saw potential in how this could also be used as an interactive element by giving students stickers to insert themselves into the campaign and use in whatever way they saw fit as self-expression. The idea behind this expansion was similar to the initial pitch of the mural- that being that no matter what major you were, who you hang out with, or what you want to get out of college, you could find connections at the Union.
Although these concepts went unused in the final implementation of the mural, I think that they opened the door to more ideas on how the university can reach out to students and display the sense of community and identity that comes with being an active member of the UNT community.
A Note From The Artist - Thank You
I would like to thank the friends, family, pets, coworkers, classmates, and professors that helped make this project a possibility. This mural is the largest single piece I’ve illustrated, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the advice, support, and knowledge I gained from those around me during my time at UNT. Alongside those who I know personally, I would also like to express my gratitude and love for the UNT and Denton community as a whole. The idea for a mural full of goofy references and “campus lore” comes from a place of deep love for the campus, town, and people that only seem to get weirder as time goes on.
Finally, this piece is dedicated to the wonderful and unique people who showed up to my first few art shows, attended the chaotic Illustrator’s Society meetings that never went as planned, answered my dumb freshman questions on the r/unt subreddit, and studied with me at Crooked Crust when my dorm wifi went out. It is dedicated to the talented alumni I learned from, the cherished friends I graduated alongside, and the future students that I hope will feel as welcomed by the community as I did.
Thank You!
