Cirque Du Soleil Wheat Paste Murals

This project was done to promote Cirque du Soleil’s Volta. In Collaboration with Chicago Projection Mapping, I designed and installed 3 wheat paste murals that debuted in various locations around Chicago, IL. During the evening, the murals would light up with custom projection mapped content to make them come to life.

Concept building

Cirque du Soleil provided us with an aesthetic primer that familiarized us with their branding and iconography. The show, Volta, is “about a game show contestant named Waz, who has lost touch with himself; he starts a personal quest to find his true self by going through his memories, after discovering a group of free spirits who encourage him during this process”. (source) The iconography revolves around hexagons, floral patterns, circles and sharp lines and angles. With these concepts in mind. I developed digital sketches of ideas for the murals. The challenge was to combine the iconography with designs that worked well with projection mapping, and would also look aesthetically pleasing as standalone pieces of art. Below are the concept designs. Of the five concepts I submitted, the first three were selected to make into murals without any revision.

Installation

Through the month of May, we planned to install three different murals at three different locations throughout Chicago, IL. During the day, the 10 foot murals would stand as a black and white wheat paste mural. Once the sun set, Chicago Projection Mapping would arrive on site to project custom content that featured live footage of the Cirque du Soleil show.