Talk About Water Color
Street Murals Appear Only When Wet
Read how a group of designers cheer up the streets of Seoul, Korea:
Murals have long been popular in cities. Generally appearing on walls, whether as a surface treatment or as part of the wall itself.
Painting on pavement isn’t new either. Most are temporary images created with chalk. Often talented artists create sophisticated trompe l’oeil imagery only to have it wash away in the rain or fade with time.
Enter the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). A group of designers joined forces with titans of color, Pantone, and created street murals that not only do NOT wash away in the rain, they ONLY appear when it is raining (or the streets are otherwise wet!)
Monsoon season in southeast Asia can be brutal. What is normally a colorful city becomes dark and dreary. That’s where the team created its magic.
The vibrant paintings transform the streets into rivers. The designers said they were inspired by the prominence of rivers in South Korean culture and wanted to “fill the streets with color and life.”
In the image above you see the street as it appears when dry on the left. On the right, the special hydrochromic paint reveals the design when the street is wet.
Thanks to Christine Erickson for her original article.
Photo (CGI of street in rain) courtesy of SAIC
