Lumberton Intermediate School is all new with a new building, new library, and now…new art on the walls. See below for a variety of photos and commentary of this project plus a short video montage.
The new school construction over this past year at Lumberton I.S.D. produced a state-of-the-art library and media center for the intermediate campus. The big corner walls made for a wide open canvas for something visually engaging and motivational for the young Raider readers. I was fortunate to work on the wall art project with my wife, the school’s librarian.
While students were off this summer, we drew up the ideas, designed the art, and teamed up with school administrators and the printer to make it happen. It proved to be a fun project that we’re all proud of, and we are excited to see the kids’ reactions as school begins.
The wall art is basically a mural, but rather than paint, this is an oversized commercial print that was pieced together in sections. I drew the design, digitized the artwork into a vector file, and worked with Image 360 (printer) to bring it to fruition.
The canvas-like material gives a vibrant effect and makes it appear as if it were painted. The design features “Raiders Read” as the main text with lots of details all around it in image and typography design. The wash of blues and reds give some depth and dimension while the sketch-style art gives some distinction and character unique to this project.
The artwork from left to right displays an open book where reading quotes are lifted off of the pages, flying throughout the design to symbolize how reading can take your imagination above and beyond the book itself. The words overlap and overflow into Lumberton landscape of layered woods and Village Creek. Adding to the motion and creative inspiration is a paper plane soaring through over the state of Texas among a mix of pages swirling and twirling in the sky. The backdrop details include birds, horses, branded logos, an oil derrick, and tons of literary references. There are also many hidden details of characters and references for kids to hunt for and discover.
The project began early in the summer. We made use of the plane ride on a family vacation in June to brainstorm together, and I sketched out the first draft about 35,000 feet in the air in a notebook. By the time we landed, we had about 80% of the plan ready to go.
A few weeks later, I started refining the drawings and digitizing the art in Illustrator. I put a good ten hours into it and thought it looked alright, but felt it was missing something special. I wrestled with it a bit before scrapping it all. The books and elements I’d designed at that point were fine, but not particularly unique or interesting beyond first glance, and I knew it had to pull viewers in more.
After a day of frustration, I looked back at my original drawing and found what I needed: the sketch of it all! The raw sketch lines and variation of strokes…similar to those Disney Animation Studios drawings that the artists do to develop ideas. That’s the style that spoke to us in the airplane and how I originally drew it. That’s the style that fit this campus and this stage of life for these children. Not the refined, precision lines and hard edges. Since these are developmental, formative years of students and their reading (3rd, 4th, and 5th graders), it made the right connection.
Once it hit me, I opened up my Mac and worked through the night. Literally. Sun down to sun up, I re-did the entire thing without realizing the time lapse. I saved my work and simmered on it for a few days. Then for another week, I tinkered and fine-tuned a few things, making some extras to add in. We presented the work and it was downhill from there.
Fortunately, the school administrators and project team members liked what they saw, and we went to print. That’s a real advantage of doing a design like this. A mural with paint on the walls is tough to go back and change and it’s dependent upon weather, day time, and other variables. Designing like this allows for back-and-forth for approvals, test prints, and adjustments. Our printer took it from there and now it’s up for all to see.
The artwork is layered and littered with little details and references like much of my poster art. If you look closely, you’ll you’ll find my wife’s name, my children’s names, and even the principal and superintendent’s name, and more. Characters from popular books and Raider elements hidden in trees, the sky, and book pages should make this an engaging, interactive game rather than only a mural.
See the video montage here ->
I am really grateful of the opportunity to make a mark here that is meaningful to the school, students, and future students that go through here. It’s particularly rewarding that I got to do this with my wife for HER library and HER daily workspace, and we got to be creative together. I am fortunate to have worked on other logo and branding design work throughout the district, but this one takes the cake. And now it’s up for the kids to start their new school year off!
The Library:
Lumberton third, fourth, and fifth grade students will enjoy a huge space with multiple reading areas, flexibility for hands-on technology learning, a lecture room, and more comfort than ever before. All designed to make reading fun, accessible, and inviting while offering the staff more options in lesson plans, testing, meetings, and more.
See my mural work for the Visitors Center here See more fun designs here
larue art + copy 