Collaging elements from past, future, and imagined courses, this mural was designed to activate Iridescent’s first K-12 science and engineering design studio in Historic South-Central Los Angeles.
The lower area, of this now demolished mural, depicted things rotating about an axis – a jet turbine, an arm, a bicyle chain & gear, legs, the blade of a wind turbine, an airplane propeller, and a truss – on top of the silhouettes of a gear and a saw blade, and with an electric motor in the center.
The images around belonged to other courses taught on the eye, the ear, balance, electricity, flight, sailing, and rollercoasters; and to possible future courses based on an array of physics, engineering, and biological principles.
The big idea was to suggest mechanical or behavioral relationships between things which might otherwise seem unrelated, such as an arm and a turbine – or a bird, an airplane, and a stingray – to inspire curiosity and a desire to learn more.
The mural was designed for this particular space and the client’s desire to maintain a calm interior, which is why it featured a lot of negative white space and lines-only drawings. Bolder colors were introduced as it unraveled away from the interior center, up toward the ceiling and out toward the storefront.
The colored areas were painted in a semi-gloss finish so that they would stand out from the flat white background in a subtle way.
While most of the images and symbols were new, a few came from graphic projects I had already developed for Iridescent, such as the eye, the ear, the slogan, the copper atom, and the children’s paper planes. To this degree, the mural also worked to reinforce Iridescent’s visual brand.
Not very long after completion, the organization was forced to move out of the space, and the mural was tragically cut up in an effort to save it in parts. (It couldn’t remain whole as the space was converted into condos half as tall.)
FOR / CLIENT
Iridescent (now Technovation) & ONR (Office for Naval Research)
SITES
Iridescent-ONR K-12 STEM Education Design Studio, Historic South Central Los Angeles, CA
MATERIALS + DIMENSIONS
- · Acrylic paint
- · 17′ tall x 20′ wide
WORK / CREDITS
Design & Painting: Ioana Urma. Photographs: Benny Chan (whole mural photo and crops from it) & Ioana Urma (process, close-ups, demo). Mural Animation Video: Ioana Urma (illustration, based on finished mural) & Cristiano Meira (animation).
Cristiano Meira animated Ioana’s illustration of the finished mural, to use as the intro to Iridescent’s educational videos.




















When the organization was suddenly required to move out – the space being converted to condos – a few parts of the mural were (somewhat brutally) saved.
