Github Murals

After sending in initial sketches to the team they wrote back and asked if it would was interest in developing two murals. Below you will see the two finals. If process documentation is what you’re here for, it’s down there, keep scrolling.

Github’s Diverse Neighborhoods

As remote work continues to evolve many companies are looking to inspire and provide an environment to bring the team into the office. With each office opening in a new city, new challenges arise on how to get teams back into the office. GitHub is no different in wanting to provide and create an environment that embodies the values while breathing life into the work space.

The GitHub Art Team has taken it a step further by using them as shape language throughout our illustrations and animations. We use them as accents and tools, foliage, and levers. We even extrude them to create furniture and walls. This is all meant to provide a structure for our visual voice.

Looking for ways to inject fresh and vibrant visuals into their new offices in Raleigh, NC, GitHub searched to find several local NC artists and designers to visualize and design murals for specific spots with in the “neighborhoods” of the building. Each neighborhood was themed and the artists would develop their visions for the spaces. “Accelerating Human Progress” Is the theme guiding and upholding Github’s visuals and brand artwork .

A - Academia

B - Benchmark

C - Collaborator

D - Disruptor

The theme for these murals, and all of our brand artwork, is Accelerating Human Progress.

- Github

Sketches & Iterations

Very rarely does the first idea jotted down go on to be the final solution. As things with the build pivoted and the locations of these murals shifted slightly, themes and dimensions were also shifting. Being flexible and adapt to these changes is part of the job and the expertise being brought to the table.

Iterating is part of the process. Moving closer to the finish line where everything fits and feels right as a whole.

Beginning the project was difficult, but in the opposite of a normal project where you start at a blank artboard or canvas. There was a mountain of resources Github turned over to use. The desire to make these murals something that mirrors back familiar images was hard to keep in check.

We had the Octocat and Hubot to use and interpret into the murals. A plethora of Octicons and Githubs Art Team’s Shape Language elements were at the ready. The main thing was keeping the the Core Values at the heart of the visuals.

Githubs Core Values
Collaboration
Empathy
Quality
Positive impact
Shipping (finishing a project)

Getting Sneaky

When developing these murals there were lots of information being processed. Elements of the industry were being injected. Nods to the city itself being integrated, as well as being very intentional about using visuals from with in Githubs library of icons and characters.

Bringing life to the icons that are a part of Github’s visual system was exciting. My hope was employees could look at the mural over the course of years and continue to find new things.

Historic buildings are integrated. Being the City of Oaks, squirrels and acorns make an appearance. Addresses of office buildings and secondary locations are used as item numbers and tech identification.

One of the more complex easter easter eggs hidden in these murals are Git Identicons. If you want to create some of your own, head over to this site. Here are some examples of identicons.

These two Identicons were snuck into the Academic Mural.