What is Nike’s in-store Mural in Mumbai all about?
In an attempt to connect the sport enthusiasts to their very own city on an emotional level, Nike collaborated with Gautam Gajbar to create an in-store mural for their flagship store in Mumbai.
Brief
A Nike store is not just where the brand lives, it is where the brand comes to life. Nike is a runner's company, build by runners for runners. Then, Now, Always.
For its flagship store in Mumbai, Nike appointed Gautam Gajbar to create an in-store mural.
The project brief demanded certain pointers to be taken care of while designing this mural.
To top this list of challenges, the biggest of them all was to get this mural in place with the store being completely operational!
• Firstly, the mural must make Mumbai city, its heritage and Nike, its heritage and brand moment statements as a part of it.
• Secondly, the mural should tell stories that open conversation and connect with runners on an emotional level. They should feel inspired and rewarded for coming in.
• And lastly, the material and finishes of this mural should be inspired by the environment of running.
Solution
Considering himself lucky enough to have bagged a second opportunity from Nike to work at their creative front, Gautam Gajbar collaborated with Sachin Kondalkar, Ryan D'Costa, Rohit Bhanushali and Tushar Agawne to achieve the project brief of creating an in-store mural in a short span of time.
The process started with the objective of creating an inspiring experience for consumers as soon as they set foot into the store and go like – "This is ma hood and I belong here".
Going one step at a time, the first phase was about creating the design followed by the process of approval. The provision of a detailed on-point design brief facilitated the creation of a quick and apt illustration for the mural, which were closed in a few interactions with the brand.
The next phase, post the approval of the design, was its execution in terms of recreating the design on a one is to one scale. The approved design had to be hand painted with the desired effects and texture of a canvas in the same proportion as the store wall that spanned as wide as 22 feet and rose as high as 19 feet.
Once the art piece was completed to scale, then came in the last and final phase of the project: its installation on site. For this, the art piece was divided into 3 parts. Using a special water-based adhesive, these parts were pasted onto the wall. The pasting took about 8-9 hours followed by final touch-ups on the spot. Being in-tandem with the design brief, the installation was done post the operational hours of the store.
Conclusion
Using a new medium and ensuring that it has the desired final effect, and the onsite execution given the constraint of a fully operational store was quite a challenging task!
However, working within the brand guidelines of Nike and at the same time being as creative as one can be to do justice to Nike, the brand, Gautam did his job perfectly.
Client: Nike
Illustrator: Gautam Gajbar
