walalaland, a short documentary about camille walala's mural in industry city, brooklyn

back in may 2018, artist camille walala signed one of her most ambitious projects to date, a 130 feet high mural commissioned by wanteddesign, on the face of a seven-story building in brooklyn’s post-industrial complex industry city. new york-based filmmaker, romain thomassin, followed her throughout the project, documenting — for the first time — her inspiration, references, methodology and ultimate goal: achieving the walalaland, a city where all the buildings would be bright and colorful.

camille and creative producer julia jomaa

thomassin’s short documentary dissects the process and inspiration of graphic artist camille walala as she paints her gigantic ‘pop city mural’ across industry city. inspired by the memphis-style of the 80s, the artist used multicolored geometric figures framed by thin black lines to create a three-dimensional effect. ‘sometimes simplicity is the hardest way to do it,’ says walala in the movie. ‘I am very specific about the thickness of my black lines.’

inspecting the finished work without the scaffolding

camille walala in front of her ‘pop city mural’

everyday walala sits down and does graphic research for an hour

drafting the pop city mural

the scaffolding covering the building

all the measurements need to be perfect

walala wanted to play with some 3D effects around the windows

the artist is obsessive with her black lines that will make the colors pop at the end

camille’s outfit is as colorful as her work

camille selected her color palette in harmony with the sunset

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom