Made at Mertz: How We Crafted an Iconic Office Mural
Chess pieces, a band-aid, a fancily dressed statue of a goose, a pair of Crocs, Bigfoot, and… toothpaste? Things that seem to have nothing in common, but somehow find unity in the office of Mertz Design Studio.
2024 is a huge year for us here at Mertz. We’re going through a big transformation and constantly finding new ways to grow and expand, which is super exciting! New leadership, new clients and work, and new memories to be made, which means it’s time to think about our image. And that starts with upgrading our personal space.
It all started with the desire to refresh our office with some new décor to go along with our new transition. And what better time than now to reconsider what “Think Make Move” means to us and upgrade our current wall graphics in the main work area. I began collecting inspiration for what our new wall could look like, considering the different ways we could exhibit our values. From neon signs to abstract geometric patterns, I explored endless possibilities until it finally clicked: we should do a collage. One presentation later, we had our direction. But unbeknownst to me, Kristy, our #1 Bigfoot fan, noticed an unrelated doodle of Bigfoot I had made and stuffed in the corner of the presentation and said it would make for a great part of the collage. Thus, our (unofficial) mascot was born and the mural was slowly forming shape in my mind.
THINK.
In order to start drawing these icons up, I first needed to list out what was applicable to each value. For “Think,” I might include icons such as a lightbulb, a brain, a chess piece, and plenty of post-it notes. “Make” builds into process, so I could include icons for email, 3D programs used in-house such as Blender, and more goofy things like “Ctrl + Z.” “Move” lives close to the world of motion, so icons such as the move tool and the Cinema 4D logo would be prevalent. I gathered a good chunk of our GFX and 3D team to help brainstorm all the different icons we could make, then dove into some stories, easter eggs, and other silly things that make Mertz, Mertz. After all, we’ve carefully crafted the team we have today and take pride in all the different backgrounds we stem from. It sure makes it easier to brainstorm some icons, too! Once we compiled our massive list, it was time to create.
MAKE.
For a few hours each week I’d find some time to sit down and open ProCreate and sketch out our icons, crossing things off by one as I went down the list. One hundred and thirty-eight sketches later, we had more than enough to work with. So many, in fact, we didn’t even use them all! I started to pull these icons into Adobe Illustrator to position them one by one around our “Think Make Move” banner, making them all sorts of different sizes and directions to make them feel as if they’re in motion. Since the mural would be aligned to the left, we made sure to slowly leave more space as the icons got closer to the right in order to make room for any future additions.
MOVE.
Once I’d finished the composition, we were able to grab a really nice projector and project the whole thing directly on our wall. After we painted the base of the banner, the team started sketching out each icon onto the wall. Then we busted out our Mertz blue and some black paint pens to outline everything and really nail all the small details. To finish, we took the base color for the wall and painted back over any extra lines and pencil marks and made sure each icon was perfect. After all the team’s hard work to bring it to life, the mural was complete!
Besides fulfilling my childhood dreams of drawing and painting on walls, the process of it all taught me a lot. I quickly learned how incredible and capable our team is at working together, what this means for our transformation and growth as a brand, and some pretty funny inside jokes that got to build some of these icons along the way. This exercise was worth every second and really captures our company culture. It’s great being able to walk into work each day and look at our statement piece as a team effort. I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to build this from the ground up and make the office feel even more like a second home. Props to the Mertz team for this collective achievement and new environment we’re creating!
Kai Denton
Junior Graphic Designer
