In April of 2021, I responded to an open call for artists on social media regarding a mural design for the Collective hairdressers based on Aberdeens Main Street. 

The client was looking for the focal point to include a glamorous woman with long beach styled waves to reflect both the hair and beauty services that the business has to offer. They also wanted the persona of Aberdeen city incorporated while giving off a feel - good, confident vibe that they strive for each client to feel when they experience their services.

Initial images sent from client, the focal point was to be around the gold lettering in the concave wall as this is where they take photos of the clients' new look and is looking for a way to make it more exciting in order to enhance the clients experience. 

Initial plan to go around the focal point of the wall, the concept is based off the glamorous feel good feeling of going to the hairdressers, portrayed through highly defined beach waves. As Aberdeen is a city set on the coast of Scotland, I gave the beach waves a double meaning where the ends merge into oceanic waves while incorporating wind turbines and seagull silhouettes to reflect the Aberdeen beach line and capture the characteristics as the client intended. 

As for the rest of the wall, during the springtime Aberdeen tends to have several cherry blossom trees, adding a flash of colour to the classic granite cityscape. The idea is to create a cherry blossom branch across the top wall and have blossoms flowing throughout the wall and then interacting with the focal point. Adding a pop of colour and further Aberdeen characteristics at the same time. Here shows the development trying out different styles to portray the blossoms.

Initial sketched plan of how the design will look in context. 

The client was also keen to change the grey colour of the wall to something brighter and more uplifting. They sent this reference of the wall underneath the salon stations and said they would like a lighter blue to pair with this navy as the grey was not the best material for cleaning hair products off and liked the finish of this material better. This was something to consider when sourcing paint materials so the same issues did not happen as they did with the grey paint. 

After sampling the deep blue colour, I started looking at lighter blues that would pair nicely with the deep tones using a site called coolors.com 

The client favoured the top left option with more lilac - type hues as they didn't want the blue to be too punchy as the rest of the salon will still be predominantly grey. 

In the end I sourced Blue Babe matte emulsion by Dulux, which is long lasting and doesn't have anything in the mixture that attract sticky products. 

Starting images of the wall before I washed it with concentrate to remove any grease, dirt or residue from hair products, which is just the nature of that environment. 

Just after the applying two coats of Blue Babe matte emulsion. 

Result of the wall after both coats had dried. 

Used posca pens in size 3, 5 and 7 to create the line illustration, this was just before the line detail was added. 

Work in progress, adding the line detail one row at a time.

Completed focal feature for the inside wall. 

Completed images showing all the line details. 

Blossom motif using three different styles to create visual variation throughout the wall as well as creating the sense of movement so the petals looks like they were flowing through a light breeze. 

Start of the wall motif after the tree and two layers of pink paint had been applied.  

Work in progress of the outer wall, just before the rest of the blossom designs were added. 

Completed outer and inner wall. 

The client then reached out to me as I was finishing the wall and asked if I could apply the same style to the front desk.  

Desk with line detail and two layers of paint in Blue babe and two pink shades before adding the line detail.

Completed desk design which follows the overall motif of the wall. 

Both desk and mural together.