DDB Mural
Completion: 2006
Location: Miami, FL
This mural was commissioned to represent the DDB Worldwide brand in the Miami headquarters, using their very simple logo (the letters DDB next to a yellow circle with a black border) as a basis for the design. DDB is an advertising agency that emphasizes visionary trends both inside and outside the standard box, so the design of the mural centered around that message by using simple tools, such as circles and squares, to present ideas in varied original and engaging contexts. The company made a name for itself by employing wit and cleverness in its campaigns rather than big budgets or hard sells, and its incredible influence on the field of advertising is still seen internationally today. The mural uses images of historical circus-like boys, decorative stars, and cloudy skies to thematically encompass the merging of DDB’s storied traditions with its ever-present aspirations for future creative innovation.
The piece consists of eighty-five wood panels in varying shapes and sizes, adorned in oil paints, graphite pencils, and both silver and golden leave. The palette emphasizes the DDB colors of black, yellow, and white, using aged textures of blue for background and accents. The tile-style composition evokes the effect of a conceptual vision board, using cloud formations to represent constantly morphing ideas. The drawings are rendered as engravings to emulate antique printing presses in a further subtle callback to the company’s history.
The abstract nature of the piece gives the work its overall ludic tone, where history blends with new ideas and simple iconography acquires complex layers of potential. Advertising is a medium that requires the integration of creativity with the corporate world, and the mural similarly blends natural textures with the agency’s minimalist, businesslike logo, bringing expansive creative vision within the constant limitations of real-life business demands.