The Making of the Radio Room Mural: A Fusion of Community, History, and Art

Nestled in the heart of NE Portland’s Alberta Street, Radio Room is more than a venue—it’s a cultural landmark that pays homage to the golden age of radio. Known for its art deco accents, vintage radios, and mid-century modern flair, this neighborhood staple needed an outdoor patio mural to seamlessly extend its nostalgic charm while embracing the vibrancy of the surrounding community.

RADIO ROOM - 1101 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR 97211

Here’s how we approached the challenge of updating the Radio Room patio while staying true to its identity.

The Concept: Blending Nostalgia with Modernity

Radio Room’s interior tells the story of a bygone era, with its design rooted in the aesthetics of the mid-20th century. The challenge was to carry this rich history outdoors, creating a mural that felt like a natural extension of the venue’s interior while offering a fresh, contemporary twist.

Radio Room Mural Design Comps _ West Wall “Radio Dial”, North Wall, “Broadcast”, East Wall “LOVE”

We envisioned a design that would reflect both the neighborhood’s evolving urban landscape and its connection to nature. The mural begins with an urban-meets-natural scene, transitioning into a cozy mid-century interior complete with a glowing vintage radio. On an adjacent wall, the design takes patrons "inside" the radio, where retro tube amp filaments spell out the word LOVE—a universal sentiment that ties the mural’s narrative together.

This balance of nostalgia and community celebration makes the Radio Room mural both visually striking and deeply meaningful.

Step-by-Step: Bringing the Mural to Life

Creating a mural of this scale and detail required a mix of traditional techniques and modern tools. Here’s how we brought the concept to life:

1. Scaling the Design with the Grid Method

To transfer the detailed design onto the walls, we used the classic grid method—a technique dating back to the Renaissance. This approach involves dividing the original artwork into a grid of equal squares and scaling it proportionally onto a larger grid on the mural surface.

Jacob draws up the grid.

This method allowed us to work efficiently and accurately, even as we navigated the challenges of painting during business hours. By focusing on one square at a time, we ensured the proportions and details remained true to the original design.

2. Simplifying with Flat Colors

Knowing Portland’s rainy fall was fast approaching, we streamlined the painting process by opting for flat colors rather than complex rendering. This decision helped us stay on schedule while maintaining a bold and cohesive visual impact.

3. Custom Mixing Colors

While we kept the colors flat, we custom-mixed every shade to perfectly complement the Radio Room’s aesthetic. This extra step ensured the mural’s palette harmonized with the venue’s existing design while standing out as a centerpiece of the outdoor space.

4. Enhancing Depth with Paint Sprayers

To add dimension and lighting effects, we incorporated a paint sprayer alongside masking techniques. This approach allowed us to create smooth fades and subtle transitions, elevating the mural’s visual complexity without compromising its clean, bold style.

5. Adding a Touch of Elegance with Bronze Leaf

One of the most exciting aspects of the project was the use of bronze leaf to highlight the metallic elements in the vintage radio design. The reflective quality of the bronze catches the light beautifully, adding a sense of realism and sophistication to the mural.

The Finished Mural: A Vibrant Outdoor Space

The final mural transforms the Radio Room patio into a dynamic extension of the venue’s identity. From the nostalgic interior elements to the modern urban-natural blend, the design tells a story that resonates with both the venue’s history and the spirit of the surrounding community.

The glowing vintage radio, the luminous word LOVE, and the reflective bronze accents invite patrons to pause, reflect, and immerse themselves in the art.

Radio Room-North Wall Mural

Experience the Radio Room Mural for Yourself

Radio Room - West Wall

Next time you’re in NE Portland, make a stop at Radio Room to see the mural firsthand. Grab a drink, soak in the atmosphere, and enjoy this celebration of community, history, and creativity.

The Radio Room mural was a labor of love, blending old-school techniques with modern tools to create something truly unique. If you have questions about the process or want to share your thoughts, drop a comment—we’d love to hear from you!

Hanging with our client and the proprietor of Radio Room, Brian Alfrey.

Digital Murals - The Learning Lab

The Power of Art in Challenging Times

Art, music, and film are often seen as luxuries — extras that enrich life but aren’t essential. However, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a deeper truth: the arts are fundamental to our well-being. When the world shut down and uncertainty loomed, creativity became a refuge. The entertainment we once took for granted became a lifeline, offering solace, helping us process our fears, and easing our anxieties.

While adults grappled with the crisis in their own ways, young people were among the most affected. Stripped of the social experience of school, many struggled with isolation, anxiety, and declining academic performance. It was in this difficult moment that a mother reached out to us with a vision—an inspiring space for her son, a sanctuary where he could stay motivated while navigating remote learning. She believed a mural, depicting a vibrant and imaginative landscape of learning, could transform his environment into one that fostered curiosity, focus, and joy.

A New Approach to Custom Murals

However, this request came at the height of the pandemic. Since the mural was intended for their finished basement, concerns arose about the time and physical presence required to paint it by hand. To address this challenge, we explored a new approach: creating a custom digital mural that could be printed and installed quickly by an experienced wallpaper installer. This minimized the time we needed to spend in their home while still delivering a bold and engaging transformation to what they called The Learning Lab.

This project marked our first venture into digital murals, and the results exceeded our expectations. We partnered with a skilled vendor specializing in large-scale digital mural printing on high-quality materials. This method not only accelerated the process but also proved to be a cost-effective solution—ideal for high-traffic environments like restaurants, building lobbies, and public thoroughfares where minimizing onsite disruption is a priority.

The benefits of Hand Painted Murals

On the other hand, hand-painted murals offer a unique, immersive experience. Watching a mural come to life over time can be a captivating event, drawing in customers, employees, or passersby. For businesses, this can serve as a live marketing moment, a social media-worthy spectacle that builds anticipation and engagement as the artwork unfolds.

Ultimately, both approaches have their strengths. For those seeking a high-impact, budget-conscious solution with minimal onsite work, digital murals offer an excellent alternative. Meanwhile, those looking for a dynamic, evolving artistic statement may find that a hand-painted mural is the perfect fit. Whichever path you choose, one thing remains clear: art isn’t just decoration — it’s a powerful tool that shapes spaces, uplifts spirits, and fosters connection, especially in times of uncertainty.

Making the Portland Music Mural: A Tribute to 50 Years of Musical History

Nestled on the bustling corner of SW 11th and Morrison in Portland, Oregon, a vibrant 50-foot mural celebrates the city’s rich musical legacy. This striking piece of art brings to life five decades of Portland's music history, paying homage to the legendary artists who shaped the city's unique sound. Here's the story of how the Portland Music Mural came to be.

From Concept to Creation: The Vision Behind the Mural

The mural began as a simple idea: a list of names honoring Portland’s iconic musicians. But why stop there? Instead of just names, we envisioned a bold, colorful tribute—an artistic "greatest hits" album celebrating the city's musical DNA.

The MURAL SITE:: SW 11th and Yamhill in Portland, Oregion

Collaborating closely with our client, we selected 25 influential artists to spotlight in the design. This presented a creative challenge: How do you honor individual legacies while creating a unified, visually cohesive mural?

Finding the Perfect Style

Our first attempts at full-color representations of each artist felt overwhelming and chaotic. The breakthrough came when we turned to the crisp, dynamic aesthetics of street-style line art inspired by Keith Haring and the pop-art flair of Roy Lichtenstein.

By combining clean line drawings with a limited palette of bold, vibrant colors, we crafted a design that stood out from a distance while maintaining intricate details up close. Each artist was represented with their own unique hue, creating a harmonious yet distinct visual language.

Scaling the Design: The Doodle Grid Technique

Transferring an intricate design onto a 50-foot wall is no small feat. While projectors are often a go-to tool for muralists, they weren’t practical for this project due to the uneven surface of the wall, streetlight interference, and the sheer size of the mural.

Enter the Doodle Grid technique—a fun, innovative approach that’s gaining popularity among muralists.

How the Doodle Grid Works

1. Cover the Wall with Random Doodles: We filled the wall with playful shapes, squiggles, and symbols, creating a grid-like framework. This chaotic layer ironically drew curious questions from passersby who thought the doodles were the final mural!

2. Overlay the Design Digitally: Using a photo of the wall, we overlaid our mural design onto the doodle grid. The random patterns provided reference points, making it easy to map sections of the artwork accurately onto the wall.

3. Transfer with Precision: Using the grid, we sketched the design onto the wall, section by section. Colored pencils helped us differentiate the artists’ features and details during this phase.

Bringing the Mural to Life

The Doodle Grid proved invaluable throughout the process. Working inches away from the wall on such a massive scale, it helped us maintain precision and stay oriented in the design.

With the design mapped out, the painting process began. Layer by layer, the mural took shape. Each artist’s portrait was brought to life with meticulous attention to detail, and the bold colors transformed the wall into a celebration of Portland's musical heritage.

The Final Piece: A Tribute to Portland’s Musical Legacy

After weeks of hard work, the Portland Music Mural was complete. From the iconic "Louie Louie" to modern hits that resonate far beyond the city, the mural is a vibrant testament to the artists who shaped Portland’s musical identity.

More than just a work of art, the mural is a living piece of history—a reminder of the city’s creative spirit and the sounds that define it.

Unveiling Day! Sept 1st 2023

Visit the Mural and Get Inspired

If you’re in Portland, make your way to SW 11th and Morrison to experience the Portland Music Mural up close. It’s a perfect photo op, a celebration of local history, and a chance to connect with the city’s vibrant cultural roots.

What do you think of the Portland Music Mural? Share your thoughts in the comments below. And don’t forget to check out more of our projects for behind-the-scenes looks at how we bring art to life.

Keep creating and celebrating the power of art!

WONDERLOVE: Crafting an Epic Multi-Wall Mural Design

Nestled in the heart of Portland’s inner eastside industrial district, Wonderlove is more than just a food-cart and bar hub; it’s a vibrant space that fuses art, entertainment, and community. This summer, Wonderlove’s exterior was transformed into an urban gallery, with massive, eye-catching murals adorning its walls. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we brought these murals to life, from the first sketches to the final brushstroke.

The Vision: Love Meets Wonder

The journey began with a simple question: How do you visually capture Wonderlove’s ethos—“The love of wonder is the wonder of love?

To answer this, we kicked off the process with an ideation phase. Inspired by our conversations with the client, we created initial sketches that explored story-driven concepts, each design reflecting a unique narrative of love, curiosity, and connection. To begin, we photographed each wall at the site and then used those images to create line art templates of the site to begin concepting out the images for each wall.

Since the space had the potential for seven different murals that would be experienced as a sequence, we proposed creating a loose narrative, with each wall progressing the story, like a huge comic or illustrated storybook.

We created five different story driven concepts.

Evolving the Concept

While the storytelling concepts resonated with the client, they had a fresh idea: to pivot toward an eclectic, gallery-style design. The goal was to make each wall stand out as its own statement piece while maintaining a harmonious overall flow.

We revisited our sketches, selecting standout elements from the original designs and reimagining them to create a visually dynamic experience. Each wall would tell its own story but remain part of a greater whole.

Refining the Designs

With the concepts in place, we moved to the next step: refining the designs and choosing a cohesive color palette.

We presented full-color compositions to the client, ensuring that every mural was vibrant and engaging. A “fractal sky” motif was introduced to tie the murals together, providing continuity while allowing each piece to shine on its own.

This phase was critical in balancing individuality and unity, ensuring the space felt like an urban gallery without overwhelming visitors with too much visual chaos.

Bringing the Murals to Life

With designs finalized, it was time to get to work on the walls. We were also working against the clock side by side with the Wonderlove construction crew who were all working to get the venue open for summer.

Preparation and Supersizing the Designs

Before painting could begin, all the walls were prepped with a white primer. We used a grid technique to accurately transfer the designs onto the massive surfaces. This approach dates back to the Renaissance, and was used by the great masters to scale up their works of art. It’s a tried-and-true technique that’s still popular today.

Paint and Color Palette 

Each color was coded to help organize the palette. Moonlight Melody became E14.

At this scale we decided not to custom mix the colors in the event that repairs or updates might be needed in the future. We opted to work with premixed latex colors available as exterior house paint.

Hand-Painting the Details

Over weeks of careful work, the murals began to take shape. Layer by layer, vibrant colors and intricate details brought the designs to life. The “fractal sky” served as a unifying background, while bold imagery on each wall added its own unique personality to the space.

Detail of the Fractal Sky motif.

Planning for Unexpected Weather

To ensure we could keep moving forward even on rainy days, part of the mural was envisioned as a large framed hanging painting. This piece of the project we decided to create indoors and then install later. This enabled us to jump back and forth between the exterior painting and interior painting, and avoid any downtime due to weather or other interruptions. 

One of four 5’x5’ panels created indoors.

The twenty foot long painting consists of four 5x5’ birch panels. The panels will be mounted side by side on the exterior “fractal wall” and surrounded by a custom frame. This final piece of the mural will be installed in the spring of 2025.

The Urban Gallery Realized

The urban art gallery taking shape at Wonderlove.

The result? Wonderlove is now an open-air urban gallery, where every wall is a work of art waiting to be discovered. From bold, abstract forms to intricate storytelling elements, each mural offers a different perspective, yet together, they create a cohesive and inspiring environment for visitors.

Visit Wonderlove

Whether you’re stopping by for delicious food, craft cocktails, or live entertainment, Wonderlove offers more than just a meal—it’s an experience. As you explore the space, let the murals guide you through a journey of love, wonder, and creativity.

If you’re in Portland, don’t miss the chance to see these murals up close. Come for the food and drinks, stay for the art, and leave with a heart full of inspiration.

Photo: @johnkeehn | Model: @lenamaekeehn | Location: @wonderlove_pdx

The love of wonder is the wonder of love.

See you at Wonderlove!