TIPS FOR CREATING CUSTOM WALL COVERINGS

JUNE 26, 2020| SpeedPro Pittsburgh North

In a home office or an office that’s home away from home, you can’t beat the impact of custom graphics. Full wall murals turn a blank canvas into a burgeoning, creative art display.  Highly customizable and innately unique, murals have been one of the past few year’s hottest design trends — and appear to be a lasting trend.

With more than 20 years in the visual communications industry, SpeedPro has created a large portfolio of wall graphics. Compiled below are some of our best tips and tricks that bring custom wall murals to life, from a single statement wall to full office unifying graphics, murals elevate tomorrow’s corporate offices.

WHAT CAN CUSTOM WALL MURALS DO FOR MY BUSINESS?

Wall murals are more than pretty graphics stuck on walls. High-resolution, professionally printed wall murals elevate and add personality to a space. They strike a balance between form and function, looking good while also doing good for their commercial and residential environments:

• Catch the Eye: Unlike other advertisements fighting for consumer attention using routine, expected methods, wall murals create bright, bold, attention-arresting graphics people can’t help but stop and admire. They’re a type of marketing that sells without being “salesy.” Customers will feel as if they’re viewing a piece of art, not an ad — one that just happens to be as aesthetically pleasing as it as strategically on-brand.
• Make Your Mark: Liven up your office, home, business or retail storefront with custom wall graphics that make the space unique. Enlarge and display your corporate color scheme, logos, pictures, taglines and messages to transform a wall from plain to perfect.
• Exude Professionalism: Like dawning a suit and tie in the morning, displaying wall murals incorporates an instant sense of refinement. Your space exudes poise and professionalism. Make it clear that your organization is concerned about the details making your space unique and impactful.
• Tell a Story: Share information, shape emotional reactions, make connections and increase brand recall with visiting customers — due to brand-strategized, high-quality wall coverings. Series of murals can tell a story across panels, from the founding of the business to its mission and values.
• Protect Your Walls: High-quality, professionally printed wall mural have a lifespan of seven to 10 years. When properly cared for, that number could extend even higher. Compare this to the two- to three-year warranty for paint.

Across industries, wall murals beautify business wall space while conveying branded messages:

• Restaurants: Restaurants can strengthen their one-of-a-kind dining experience by using all murals — customers come for the food and drink but stay for the ambiance
• Schools: Schools cultivate upbeat, energized environments by displaying school colors, mascots and pictures
• Sports and Entertainment: Venues show pride in their franchises with high-resolution, large-format images of teams, players, fans, championships and more
• Small Businesses and Retail Stores: Stores and businesses make the most of their space and stand out from larger competitors when they utilize the high-impact branding of wall murals
• Corporate Offices: Offices don’t have to settle for bland corporate atmospheres — break from dull meeting rooms, walls and cubicle partitions with wall murals exciting clients and corporate employees alike
• Healthcare Facilities: Hospitals and healthcare offices can spruce their halls, lobbies and reception areas with wall accents that boost comfortability and warmth

SpeedPro studios employ designated account reps and printing specialists on all orders. Clients have a set team dedicated to their wall murals, helping with the design, material selection and installation to ensure your outcomes exceed expectations.

TIPS FOR CREATING A CUSTOM OFFICE WALL MURAL

Offices and businesses must put their best foot forward to impress customers. While this includes providing superior products and services, it also means creating an office environment that stands out just as much as those products or services. Here are six office mural tips to ensure you’re doing so.

1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Marketing that tries to connect with everyone is marketing that connects with no one. Wall murals are no exception. Use wall graphics as an extension of your company’s marketing messages, brand ideals and consumer segment-targeting strategies. Or, in simpler terms, design your wall murals to connect with target audiences.

Businesses can assure mural-audience alignment by designing with:

• Relatable imagery, icons and pictures
• Consumer-targeted language
• Attractive color schemes
• Placed where the ideal audience will see them — indoors and outdoors

2. EMPLOY COLOR PSYCHOLOGY

Companies have researched the effects of color on consumer behavior for decades. Color psychology provides rich insights into the mood-hacking, positive and negative associations humans have with certain colors — associations the best wall murals harness. The three main categories are:

• Warm Colors: Trigger feelings of intensity, innovation, energy, power and youth
• Cool Colors: Sway feelings like security, authority confidence, luxeness, intellectualness and sophistication
• Contrasting Colors, Tones, Shading, Saturation and More: Further influence visual stimuli-based consumer decision-making and connection

3. UNDERSTAND LIGHTING

Office lighting affects the coloration and shading of your murals. Light source type, angle, distance and even the time of day will visibly alter their appearances — sometimes with unintended aesthetic consequences.

Consider all the lighting variables surrounding the wall where you intend to mount your graphics:

• Natural Light: Supports and carries the full spectrum of lightray colors, meaning mural visuals will often be enhanced, not altered, by sunlight
• Artificial Light: Produces yellow or white light rays that can wash out mural visuals if too bright
• Negative Space: Increases the radius and intensity of natural and artificial light
• Office Furniture and Configurations: Will further disrupt or dispel light sources, potentially causes shadows on your mural

4. CONSIDER INTERACTIVE MURAL DESIGNS

Interactive murals are wall graphics that contain digital screen components and technology. Clients or office visitors can write, draw, sign or scribble on wall screens that connect with a larger, mural-like display, which will project their work in real-time.

It’s a creative use of technology, with experiential marketing origins aiming to create more invested emotional connections with customers.

5. ENHANCE YOUR BRAND IDENTITY

Think of wall murals like a blank branding canvas. Indoor and outdoor murals create another potential consumer touchpoint, which means another chance to tell the world who your business is and what it’s about.

Mural graphics complement your brand, displaying photography, images, colors and words you want people to associate with your company. These associations help forge the right connection with consumers, which in turn becomes your brand identity. Professionally designed murals do this instantaneously, in a single look.

6. AIM TO SURPRISE

Murals have the distinct benefit of capturing passerbyers’ attention. You probably know from experience how stunning murals on the outside of buildings can be, or how invigorating it feels to step inside a store and immediately spot a large format, custom-designed image.

However, there’s a difference between surprise and shock. Surprising visuals capture attention, swaying an audience to lean in for another look. They can be subtle or loud, inconspicuous or bold depending on what they contain. The point is to allow entrance, then establish a purposeful connection.

On the other hand, brand materials made to shock an audience are purposefully in your face. They don’t hold the same tact or a branding strategy other than shock value.

There are many tricks to creating custom wall mural ideas that surprise — and for the right reasons:

• Mural Shapes: The vast majority of wall murals are rectangular. Surprise viewers by breaking from this shape mold and creating other high-impact geometric wall graphics.
• Mural Placement: Place murals on ceiling, floors and walls, indoor or outdoor, for maximum impact
• Mural Tactiles: Consider adding 3D or interactive components and materials to finish off your piece. Contour-cut signs, digital screens and mixed-and-matched textiles add even more dimension to a mural, making graphics pop off the wall.

BRING YOUR CUSTOM WALL MURAL IDEAS TO LIFE WITH SPEEDPRO

Home and office wall murals make a one-of-a-kind statement. With SpeedPro’s nationwide network of visual communication studios, you don’t have to look far for a partner to bring that statement to life.

We will walk you through the entire printing process to make sure you’re crafting the right design using the right materials and file type to help you achieve your vision.