Typographic mural Olly Murs modern interior

Featuring over 200 musicians through a combination of iconography and typography, this wrap-around work of custom wallpaper manages to be dazzlingly complex and surprisingly cohesive at the same time. Commissioned by musician Olly Murs, graphic designer and illustrator Alex Fowkes documented the process of this typographic mural redesign with over 60,000 time-lapse photographs of his progress.

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Typographic mural Olly Murs detail

Artists featured range from James Brown and Michael Jackson to Kanye West and Justin Bieber, a visual tour de force timeline documenting the evolution of music over recent decades.

Typographic mural Olly Murs music room

A few pieces of furniture, fixtures and built-ins were selected to match the colors and fit into the composition of the surrounding lettering and logos, aesthetically subservient to the wall surfaces.

The layout had to be carefully planned to seem seamless against its white backdrop, even as it wraps between walls and flows up to the angled ceiling. This same designer previously created a timeline for a Sony office along similar lines, which brought him to the attention of this new client.

Typographic mural Olly Murs custom wall

About Alex Fowkes

“Born in the U.K and currently having completed projects across Europe, North America and Asia, Alex is no stranger to travel and working; Believing that experimentation and play are essential parts of the design process. He enjoys responding to physical environments with typography and graphic artwork with a belief that “on surface artwork commands attention like no other”.  

Typographic mural Olly Murs lettering

“Not only competent in murals and installations Alex works with logo branding, packaging, advertising, illustration, infographics and most other arms of graphic design. Being a “visual problem solver at the source allows you to tackle any design brief. Alex has been fortunate enough to author two books on typography with Rockport Publishing ‘Drawing Type’ and ‘Expressive Type’. He has created mammoth typographic installations and murals, crafted international advertising campaigns and collaborated with some of the best creative studios out there.”